Cheered by hundreds of onlookers, including a good number of foreign tourists, the unique aanavaal pidi (catching the elephant’s tail) ritual was held on the precincts of the Umayanallur Sree Bala Subramanya Swamy temple in Kerala on Wednesday.
The ritual, during which devotees chase an elephant in an area of about 100 square metres to catch its tail, is held in the Malayalam month of Meenam at the temple.
Temple authorities pointed out that the ritual had been in place for the past 1,500 years, and it is symbolic of the beliefs about the childhood pranks of the god-siblings Ganesha and Balasubramanyan. Many of the pursuers in fact manage to get hold of the jumbo’s tail. As to why they take part in the event, participants claim they attain some kind of “spiritual bliss.” The ritual usually gets over in less than a minute. This year, tusker Kadavur Sivaraju was selected for the event.
