Pongal and Jallikattu

Subject: Arts and Culture

Context: Tamil Nadu elections in 2021 has seen parties trying to make inroads by celebrating and being part of Tamil’s culture and heritage.

Concept:

Pongal is the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu. It is a 4-day festival during the solar equinox after harvesting of crops like rice, sugarcane, turmeric, etc.
The word ‘Pongal’ in Tamil literature means “boiling over”.
The festival is a way of thanking nature god for the crops and everything else. It rejects old things and welcomes new things.
People make traditional designs known as kolams in their homes with rice powder.

Jallikatu:

It is a traditional bull-taming sport or ‘bio cultural sport’ seeking to promote native breed of organised in Tamil Nadu during Pongal.
It is also known as Eruthazhuvuthal or Manjuvirattu.
It is a sport in which bull (natively reared) is let loose among a crowd of people. The participants are supposed to take control of the bull by holding its hump for as long as they can.
It is celebrated on the third day of Pongal also called “Mattu Pongal”. It is possibly a 2000-year-old tradition in Tamil society.

Controversy around Jallikatu

In 2011 bull was added to the notification banning the training and exhibition of bears, monkeys, tigers, panthers and dogs and hence a ban on events like Jallikatu. Challenge to it was upheld by the Supreme Court.
andJallikattu was banned by the Supreme Court in 2014, but the Tamil Nadu and central governments stepped in to reverse the bar amid widespread protests in the state.