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Pongali and Jallikattu - Tamil myth

The next myth to bust is the claim of tamils as Tamil's festival and exclusiveness for a very common harvest festival celebrated allover the Indian sub- continent.

From Pakistan to Bangladesh, Nepal to Tamilnadu in every culture Gujarati, Bengali, Odiya, Telugu,Kannada, UP, Bihar this harvest festival is celebrated for thousands of years

Makara Sankranti, Maghi, Suggihabba,Lohri,Uttarayan
Bhogali bihu,Shishir senkrant,Poush sankrant, Khichidi,Thirmoori, Thila and Pedda pandaga Pongali/pongal are the various names of same festival in different cultures ( refer wiki for more details)

What is this festival? The sun moves into makara raasi, and the winter solstice is over and longer days starts, that's uttarayana kaala start.

This surya festival has the highest significance in Hindu calendar not just for climatic reasons but economic reasons too

Yes this is the time of harvest and income to the farmers and thereby to all communities in those days, so naturally its time to celebrate, share the harvest with upa- kulas ( from kamsali to mendicants) and also thank the nature, animals and God(Surya)

Since all cultures celebrate this festival and no culture other than Tamils claim exclusivity (Tamilar Tirunaal), we have to study this phenomena and the program behind this, which gained momentum only after seperate Tamil movement in 20th century.

Etymology:
Please ask any Tamil, what is the meaning of Pongal, they will say rice boiled in a pot and it is called pongal and we all shout pongalo pongal, during the pongal day celebration, so its called as pongal

There is no reference for pongal festival in tamil literature, being the most important and Tamilar festival, pongal ignored in Sangam literature is intriguing! Any reference about Pongal in old tamil literature will be appreciated

In Telugu,this festival is called as Pongali pandaga in general and has 4 days, Bhogi, Peddapandaga, Kanuma, Mukkanuma.In few areas like Nellore there is 5th day called as Yetipandaga, all goes to rivers to enjoy the day.

The peddapandaga is the pongali day, the day sun goes and joins with Makara, that is 'pondhadam', Join is Pon, so it is called Pongali.

Telugus biggest festival is Pongali and due to Sanskrit influence, that too after education came via board education, started by British and most of the curriculum was designed by Bramins and they completely Sanskritised Telugu in Andhra ( we escaped because we had no telugu education and our telugu retains all Dravidian words, like pongali, peddapandaga etc)

The pongali is now sankranti in Andhra, but TN telugus still call it as Pongali, hope in villages and elders in Andhra too maybe calling it as pongali or peddapandaga

Likewise all cultures will have its own celebrations like kite festival in Gujarat, Telagana and Ganga bath during kichadi in UP etc

Monsoon and Harvest:

The south west monsoon starts by June and ends by August ( plus or minus 20 days)

The whole India goes to planting after monsoon in the month of June/August and the crop cycle was six months in those days, no hybrids and 3 month crops like today.

Rainfed crops are cultivated in more area even today and even for irrigated crops, only after monsoon, they can prepare lands and sow, so the harvest comes in the month of January after six months crop cycle.

Northeast monsoon is a winter monsoon, it rains during October/November ( plus or minus 20 days). This monsoon is peculiar and it rains only in tamilnadu, yes TN gets major rainfall only during NE monsoon.

So if you plant after that, your harvest willnot be in January in those days with minimum 120 days crop cycle.

So NE monsoon based climate zone cannot have a harvest festival in January!

Historically Pongal festival might have come to TN during the Pallavas, who are from Palnadu(today's western Guntur region) and after Telugu Chodas stablized here as Cholas and Cauvery delta became cultivable under them, pongal festival might have picked up, before that period there is no evidence of Pongal festival, if any authentic reference is given it will be appreciated

Festival Rituals:
The people involved in the festival activities, folkarts, games performed with cattle ( Salaga eddu( Salaga means king among bulls), Gangeddu, Bhoomeddu to Jallikattu), mendicants who sang (Budubudukadu, kudukuduvaalu,Jangamadevara, Satani and many telugu nomads) Dhoddi pongali with all those telugu folk songs gives more historical time sense, than the tamil's celebration at their farms. I know only Tamil community living here is Kongu Vellala gounders and their pongal is same as our Dhoddi pongal, including all rituals,which i witnessed during my school days, only tamil is replaced instead of Telugu ritual sounds ( now it is reverse, we too use tamil !!). The festivals must have people involved and all the communites I have shown are telugus, which Tamil community sing and participate as a ritual?

Bhogi, is kaapukattu, the day neem leaves, thangedi, pindipuvu, poolapu etc are tied in every corner to sue away the evil spirits and all unused old items are fired as bhogi. Oorukaapu is tied by kudukudupavaalu

The next day is Peddapandaga and gounders call it Periyanombu, this day is more for Chettiars and other smaller communities, they invite all to celebrate Manaipongal at their home.

We celebrate by praying for our Peddalu, elders in our family, who passed away with presenting new cloths before their photos

The next day is Dhoddi pongali/ Dhoddi pandaga for us and Mattu pongol for Tamils, almost all rituals are same, Gummadikaaya (pumpkin), Chikkadu (beans) in every home and every meal!

A small dhoddi with cowdung and sugarcane, Banana Plantain and many herbals is constructed and with four segments, pongali pots in odd numbers (mostly 3,5,7,9)by women of the farm family and cattle which is bathed decorated gets the puja. All labours including farm owner circumbulates the dhoddi and this day the labour gets a stick even to beat the farm head. Ritualistic songs are sung and everybody pray. A small cow or Dhuda is let inside to dismantle the dhoddi.

The next day is Kanuma pandaga for us and mukkarasi for tamils, the day we all visit many places. Malagudi is the best place to visit to see the festive mood in full swing, this is called as Alakondaperumalu gudi.

This day Tamil govt declared it as Tiruvalluvar day!

The Salagaeddu merapu and Devaraata performed by Ekilidoralu, almost all folk arts, handicrafts, Terracotta dolls whatever we see related to village life and pongal festival is performed and celebrated by Telugu community here!

Jallikattu:

Jallikattu is a Telugu game, more particularly Rayalaseema Telugus game
What is the meaning of jallikattu?

Jalli means uncastrated bull in Telugu,
kattu means taming/ tieing a uncastrated bull symbolically.

The Golla community lives and dies with cattle, every boy must perform this during the festival, many forms like salaga eddu to jallikattu.

In tamil there is no meaning for jalli, as per Tamil grammer, Ja cannot come as first letter, Jalli is pure telugu word and there are many telugu villages in the name of Jallipatty. Kongu region villages have cattle names with patti as suffix, Jallipatti, Avulapatty, etc

Some claim jallikattu as sallikattu, giving a twisted meaning for salli

Salli kasu tied to the bull is removed! So it is Sallikattu. No its not correct and just later added story trying to give some tamil meaning. Even here it is jallikasu only and jallikasu was introduced during Naik times

Even today chittor to kurnool in rayalaseema you can witness this game during pongali, Andhra CM Nara Chandrababu naidu village Naravaripalli is famous (please watch in youtube), Hosuru has even bigger celebration with beautifully decorated bulls in the game( refer youtube video, hosuru jallikattu)

Madurai Thirumala Nayakar when reorganizing many festivals, he created the Jallikattu game from already available rural game into a state sponsored event with temple grant and set of rules

Can tamils show jallikattu in other areas of TN, other than madurai naik ruled area?

Eru thaluvuthal shown in Tamil literature is different from today's Jallikattu. Only reference for even Eru thaluvuthal is in Kalithogai mullai thinai, after study of usage of words and style,many experts now say its not sangam age and maybe 14th century literature added with sangam proper. Eru means plough not bull, Eru Thaluvuthal, means Eru Vakka, even today In Andhra Eru vaaka punnami is celebrated, the first plough after monsoon. MadaKa becomes Eru, when tied with bullocks. Eru neèla means size of oneday ploughed land. There are even such Eru related words in Telugu.

Only evidence shown is the rock paintings of Karikkiyur near Kotagiri a tribal art dated 2500 years old and wrongly shown as eru thaluvuthal, First of all that rock painting is a hunting scene and more likely a sambhar deer, not a jallikattu bull and moreover Kotagiri was never a ' Tamil' zone,Kotas, Badugas and other tribes with their own language are the original inhabitants. There are hunderds of such tribal hunting scenes allover the world.

Jallikattu is a telugu rayalaseema game localised and institutionalised by Thirumala Naicker in 16th century and the palayakars and later zamindari system helped in developing a more organised sport in and around madurai. There is no sculpture or inscription evidence before 15th century, with so many temples no bull fighting scene is found, only after naicker time we find such sculptures.

So tamils claiming exclusive rights over jallikattu is again a historical appropriation!

Bull fighting is depicted in Indus valley seals too, so it is a pan India sport from time immemorial

Tamils do celebrate Pongal as any agrarian community allover India, but the claim of 'Tamilar Tirunaal' and without any scientific basis declaring thiruvalluvar day during pongal, as if valluvar was born on that particular day and that too in mylapore! Is nothing but planned appropriation for false pride and a 20th century systematic propaganda of Dravidian / Tamil movement.

This systematic work of separate and exclusiveness created and propagated by Tamils in the last 70 years( maybe from pure tamil movement, tactically supported by British for their game), have made even normal tamil guy to think they are different from Indian culture, which is not!

Beyond exclusivity , unnecessary bloating up gives false pride and superiority complex leading to hegemony over others.

That is why we have to bust the bloated up pride based on half truths and appropriations, its like sitting on my shoulders and shooting my foot!

So pongali and jallikattu are not just Tamil festivals alone ! Its a festival for all Indians to celebrate!

Happy Advance PONGALI wishes to all from a humble farmer!