Have you heard the Earth singing with joy? There is a fable about a singer who threw away his flute and ploughed the field to satisfy the earth and then the Earth responded with her music. Poets sing that the Earth is like a beautiful maiden who blushes at the first rain and sometimes she is like a Goddess who gives you the bounty of harvest when satisfied with your toil. A farmer is more attached to the Earth than others, he knows her varying moods. Agriculture is not simply sowing and reaping, to keep the relation with Earth intact farmers derived Agri games. Maramadi or bull race is one of them.
In Maramadi Rain, rhythm and race blend with the strength of man and oxen. The race course is a muddy paddy field clear after harvest and soothed by monsoon rains. The athletes are powerful raging bulls controlled by their jockeys. Maramadi is not a confrontation between man and animal as in the jellikettu in Tamilnadu. It proclaims that man is deeply bonded with nature.
A Village festival
I set out to Kaarathala, a village near Varkala which is around 50 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram hearing that a Maramadi fest will be held there. Elders say that this rural festival was an annual affair at Kaarathala but the agriculture crisis hampered it and the villagers were not able to conduct it for the past seven years. Now they have revived it and the upbeat mood of the villagers was evident of this when I reached there. Hoping for brisk business mobile vendors who sell ice candies and tea roamed around the area. A makeshift restaurant offered mouth watering steamed tapioca or kappa and beef curry and one guy was selling fresh beef under a big tree, red meat was hung on the branches of the tree. As it was the ‘Thrikkarthika’ day of the Malayalam month of Vrischikam (November) an old lady was selling different tuber crops, an essential item for celebrating Karthika. The festival mood was complete with the cheering crowd that consisted of toddlers to octogenarians!
Farmers call the bull which participates in the race ‘uru’. They are brought in mini Lorries and slowly led to the field. They run in pairs or ‘jodi’ and a trial run was allowed for all pairs. The jockey who controls the uru is called an ‘ottakaran’. After the rehearsal one ottakaran complains that the track is too muddy. “An ideal track is one mixed with sand and mud and of 100 metres of length. Here there is no sand and I struggled for grip”, says Nandakumar a jockey with more than ten years of experience. “Take care of gutters there”, Nandakumar warns his companion while setting out for the real run.
The race is in three categories. In the Sub-junior section bulls with two teeth or one year old will participate, in the Junior section bulls with four teeth or two year old will compete. Bulls with six teeth or more than three years old are put in the senior section. The bulls were ready at the starting point with ‘nukam’ or a pole on their shoulders. The ‘maram’ is a plank made of teakwood or Jack wood is tied to the nukam and placed flatly on the muddy field. At the starting point an old farmer waves a red flag. The first pair in the sub-junior section rushes towards the red flag at the finishing point holding the crowd on the tenter hooks of excitement, kids boos with raised hands. “Bulls can’t be trusted” comments a cameraman and he moves to a safer place too shoot. I found bull race a spectacular extravaganza; sometimes the bulls crossed the limits of tracks to nearby fields, and jockeys fell along with them. Some jockeys literally flew above the muddy field and fell flat on the mud, as the bulls tried to shrug away the nukams on their shoulders. My humble camera struggled to capture the pace of the race in its full spirit. The race and excitement continues till afternoon. The excited supporters ran to the field, hugged and kissed their mud-laden jockeys as the owners of winning pairs gleamed with joy.
An enthusiast speaks
“I have seven bulls including the two I bought from here”, says 58-year-old Thankachan, a veteran in this field. Thankachan is into bull race since 1973 and he travelled around 100 kilometres with his bulls to reach here to participate.
Many bull enthusiasts buy either Kadamala bulls or Pulinkudi bulls, the native breeds from Tamil Nadu. They are long, strong and have a body with more aerobic characteristics than ordinary bulls which makes them good athletes. Thankchan says the price of a good pair will cross Rupees one lakh. The race bull’s diet include rice porridge, horse-gram, milk, egg, Dasamoolarishtam, Chicken soup, Mutton soup besides normal cattle feed.
“They will be given intense training in my two acre paddy field. In the month of Medam (April-May) bulls will be ready for the race. Again I check their strength by rehearsal and I select the best one for competition”, says Thankachan. His son Jose assists his father in rearing up the race bulls. Thankachan is very careful in selecting his jockeys too. A good jockey must have strong muscles; he should not pant while running with the bulls. “Besides physical qualities, jockeys must be able to understand the language of the bulls” says Badarudeen the oldest jockey among the participants.
This rustic game is on the wane as the paddy cultivation is no more profitable and fields in Kerala are facing the threat from real estate developers. “We are into paddy cultivation not because of profit but with sheer interest and to forget the pains behind it farmers conduct festivals like this”, says an old farmer. As I clean off the mud from my denim with water from the nearby stream and hastily return to the town, one of the farmers requests me to come again next time also. But he is not sure whether this will take place next year and reminds me to send him photographs.
In Maramadi Rain, rhythm and race blend with the strength of man and oxen. The race course is a muddy paddy field clear after harvest and soothed by monsoon rains. The athletes are powerful raging bulls controlled by their jockeys. Maramadi is not a confrontation between man and animal as in the jellikettu in Tamilnadu. It proclaims that man is deeply bonded with nature.
A Village festival
I set out to Kaarathala, a village near Varkala which is around 50 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram hearing that a Maramadi fest will be held there. Elders say that this rural festival was an annual affair at Kaarathala but the agriculture crisis hampered it and the villagers were not able to conduct it for the past seven years. Now they have revived it and the upbeat mood of the villagers was evident of this when I reached there. Hoping for brisk business mobile vendors who sell ice candies and tea roamed around the area. A makeshift restaurant offered mouth watering steamed tapioca or kappa and beef curry and one guy was selling fresh beef under a big tree, red meat was hung on the branches of the tree. As it was the ‘Thrikkarthika’ day of the Malayalam month of Vrischikam (November) an old lady was selling different tuber crops, an essential item for celebrating Karthika. The festival mood was complete with the cheering crowd that consisted of toddlers to octogenarians!
Farmers call the bull which participates in the race ‘uru’. They are brought in mini Lorries and slowly led to the field. They run in pairs or ‘jodi’ and a trial run was allowed for all pairs. The jockey who controls the uru is called an ‘ottakaran’. After the rehearsal one ottakaran complains that the track is too muddy. “An ideal track is one mixed with sand and mud and of 100 metres of length. Here there is no sand and I struggled for grip”, says Nandakumar a jockey with more than ten years of experience. “Take care of gutters there”, Nandakumar warns his companion while setting out for the real run.
The race is in three categories. In the Sub-junior section bulls with two teeth or one year old will participate, in the Junior section bulls with four teeth or two year old will compete. Bulls with six teeth or more than three years old are put in the senior section. The bulls were ready at the starting point with ‘nukam’ or a pole on their shoulders. The ‘maram’ is a plank made of teakwood or Jack wood is tied to the nukam and placed flatly on the muddy field. At the starting point an old farmer waves a red flag. The first pair in the sub-junior section rushes towards the red flag at the finishing point holding the crowd on the tenter hooks of excitement, kids boos with raised hands. “Bulls can’t be trusted” comments a cameraman and he moves to a safer place too shoot. I found bull race a spectacular extravaganza; sometimes the bulls crossed the limits of tracks to nearby fields, and jockeys fell along with them. Some jockeys literally flew above the muddy field and fell flat on the mud, as the bulls tried to shrug away the nukams on their shoulders. My humble camera struggled to capture the pace of the race in its full spirit. The race and excitement continues till afternoon. The excited supporters ran to the field, hugged and kissed their mud-laden jockeys as the owners of winning pairs gleamed with joy.
An enthusiast speaks
“I have seven bulls including the two I bought from here”, says 58-year-old Thankachan, a veteran in this field. Thankachan is into bull race since 1973 and he travelled around 100 kilometres with his bulls to reach here to participate.
Many bull enthusiasts buy either Kadamala bulls or Pulinkudi bulls, the native breeds from Tamil Nadu. They are long, strong and have a body with more aerobic characteristics than ordinary bulls which makes them good athletes. Thankchan says the price of a good pair will cross Rupees one lakh. The race bull’s diet include rice porridge, horse-gram, milk, egg, Dasamoolarishtam, Chicken soup, Mutton soup besides normal cattle feed.
“They will be given intense training in my two acre paddy field. In the month of Medam (April-May) bulls will be ready for the race. Again I check their strength by rehearsal and I select the best one for competition”, says Thankachan. His son Jose assists his father in rearing up the race bulls. Thankachan is very careful in selecting his jockeys too. A good jockey must have strong muscles; he should not pant while running with the bulls. “Besides physical qualities, jockeys must be able to understand the language of the bulls” says Badarudeen the oldest jockey among the participants.
This rustic game is on the wane as the paddy cultivation is no more profitable and fields in Kerala are facing the threat from real estate developers. “We are into paddy cultivation not because of profit but with sheer interest and to forget the pains behind it farmers conduct festivals like this”, says an old farmer. As I clean off the mud from my denim with water from the nearby stream and hastily return to the town, one of the farmers requests me to come again next time also. But he is not sure whether this will take place next year and reminds me to send him photographs.
