MADURAI: With just a few days left for the jallikattu season to start, bull owners and tamers are involved in intensive training for Avaniyapuram, Palamedu and Alanganallur jallikattu events to be held in Madurai district on January 15, 16 and 17, respectively. Among the bull owners, who submitted their application for the events on Tuesday, were five transwomen from Madurai.
G Keerthana, T Akshaya, N Priyamani, S Rajee, and S Anjali have been involved in rearing jallikattu bulls for the past four years. Speaking to TNIE, Keerthana said, “Since I come from a family of cattle herders, I had a natural love for jallikattu bulls since my childhood. But because of the prejudice I faced as a transwoman, I was able to buy my first jallikattu bull only in 2019.
By dipping into our savings, our transgender group bought seven more bulls, two calves and 12 cows (mostly pulikulam breed) over the next few years.” Keerthana has set up a three-cent barn for rearing her cattle at Varichiyur located 10km away. Varichiyur is well-known for rearing jallikattu bulls. We have opted for Pulikulam breeds that are native to Madurai and Sivaganga districts.
We spend Rs 3,500 per week for maintaining the cattle. We get the money mostly by selling milk from our cows. There is a huge demand for Pulikulam breed cow milk, Keerthana said. Reminiscing about her first jallikattu when ‘chinna muthaiah’ darted through the ‘vaadi vaasal’, Keerthana said tears flooded her eyes when she heard the name of her bull being announced at the meet.
‘Participation easier with digital tokens’
In the past four years, we have participated in several events and one of my bulls had won motorbike at the jallikattu held in Chinna Kattalai village in 2022, she said.
Her team used to train the bulls in swimming, walking and attacking with the help of local villagers in Varichiyur. Keerthana said the latest addition to her collection is one-and-half-year-old ‘Mayandi’ which was rescued from being butchered at an abattoir and bought by the team. In the next few years, ‘Mayandi’ will hit the ground running, Keerthana said.
T Akshaya, another transwoman, said getting tokens for participating in jallikattu has always been tough but after digital tokens were introduced this year, we hope we would get tokens for the three main events to be held in Madurai. “We are happy and proud to be part of jallikattu which is part of our Tamil culture. Our bulls will bring us laurels. I am just waiting to see them emerge out of the vaadi vaasal,” Akshaya said with a smile.