Jamshedpur: Festivities marked date with tradition as huge crowd gathered at Jaipal Singh Stadium in Karandih to celebrate the Santhali community’s popular Sohrai. A bullshow that witnessed participation from ten villages grabbed maximum attention.
“The show is a desi version of bull fight of Spain in which teams bring their best bulls for the prestigious title,” said Eswar Soren, senior functionary of Adivasi Youth Club.
He informed that the bulls are tied to poles and the team from the respective village tries to make the animals “dance”. The animals get infuriated by the loud notes of a host of musical instruments including tumdak, tamak, chorchori, tirio, kartal and banam. Besides that, the skin of a dead animal is shoved to its face, in an attempt to force it to move about in fits of fury.
The performance of the bull Soren said that the festival is being celebrated at Karandih from more than five decades and every year thousands of people participate to witness the show.
After the dance, the bulls were showered with flowers. Next followed tribal songs. The participating teams were from Nagadih, Kalya- dih, Kinudih, Gantaidih, Purihasa, Kudada, Baya- ngbil, Kadma, Govindpur and Sarjamda participated in the show.
It may be mentioned that the festival dates back to the medieval period. According to the folklore, cows and bulls got together to protest against the ill treatment meted out to them by their masters. They went straight to lord Maraburu and lodged a complaint against their masters who made them work overtime but refused basic food. The lord called the humans and told them that the animals are to be worshipped as gods and that he would personally pay a visit to see how the animals are being treated.
The bull dance at the Jaipal Stadium in Karandih organised by the Adivasi Youth Club attracted thousands of spectators from across the city and nearby villages.
About 18 villages had gathered here to mark one of the most important festival of the Santhals- the Sohrai festival which is took place on Diwali and the another one on Guru Purnima on a full moon day.
For the past 38 years, the Adivasi Youth Club has been organising the bull dance. Each village brings a bull for the contest. This year the entry was 27 and the first prize was Rs 3001.