The sprawling ground in this nondescript village, famous for hosting ‘manjuvirattu’ for centuries, wore a deserted look on Saturday as the police posted pickets and prevented villagers from organising the sport of valour following the Supreme Court ban.
This village in Tirupattur block is famous for hosting ‘manjuvirattu,’ conducted on ‘Kaanum Pongal’, the third day of the harvest festival for at least four centuries. Thousands from nearby villages and districts flocked the village every year to witness the village sport. This year, thanks to the ban order, the villagers confined themselves to bringing a lone temple bull for the purpose of conducting the traditional puja after offering worship at the Muthunayagi Amman Temple.
Led by former Minister and Tirupattur MLA P.R. Periyakaruppan, Sivaganga MLA S. Gunasekaran and Siravayal panchayat president Velusamy Ambalam, about 400 villagers came in a procession and conducted the puja after bringing the temple bull through the ‘vaadi vaasal,’ a narrow path through which the bulls are released to the taming arena.
“This year we have to confine ourselves to conducting the traditional puja with just one temple bull as the police denied permission,” Mr. Velusamy, who is also the festival co-ordinator, said.
His family has been coordinating the sport for generations and he is from the seventh generation to organise the more than 400-year-old traditional sport in the village, he said. “We are deeply disappointed that we could not organise the traditional sport for the first time this year,” he regretted.
People took pride in taking part in Siravayal ‘jallikattu’ and every year about 400 bulls from villages in the district and outside districts would be brought for the event, he said.
It was unfortunate that police did not even allow people to come to the village to visit their relatives and have feast, he said.
Superintendent of Police Ashwin M Kotnis said the villagers cooperated well with the police and the puja event went off peacefully.
The villagers wanted to organise a black flag demonstration, but gave up the move after they were explained about the Supreme court order and efforts being taken by the State government to lift the ban, the SP said.
The police had posted about 300 policemen for picketing and ensured that no untoward incident took place, the Superintendent of Police said adding police also erected check-posts to ensure no bull was brought from other districts.
