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Photo: R. Eswarraj

Party time Man and beast engage in a battle as old as time

Kadri Kambala, which has a history of 300 years, was first held by the royal family of Alupas at Kulashekar on the outskirts of Mangalore.

The scenes that played out on Sunday have been playing over and over again for centuries, but this is the kind of stuff that refuses to die out – people keep coming back to the slurried pit for one more dip.

It was not just a display of masculine power. Except for the main draw where the buffaloes are raced, the ladies took part in every other event.

Akshata Yuvati Mandala, the women’s team from Sullya that won the ‘Tug of War’ competition managed to destroy quite a few stereotypes about women at the event. As soon as the whistle announced that it was their turn in the slush pit, a huge roar rent the air – it wasn’t the crowd – it was the women themselves.

Geetha Umesh Jake explained: “We let out a collective scream every time we enter the slush pit for a competition. It puts fear into the hearts of our opponents.” It was also heartening to see that the crowd that gathered to cheer for the women’s event was massive.

But as man and beast took centre-stage, all else melted into the fringes – the gorging at the food stalls stopped, the disinterested chatter stopped, noisy babies too got the hint and some of them actually stopped crying. By late afternoon, the racing had begun.

After being psyched up for the races, the animals were in a murderous mood and often threatened to run into the crowd. But what defied logic was that the crowd actually seemed to want one of the beasts to gore them.

Following some unsanctioned tradition that has been handed down to them over the centuries, the crowd constantly taunted and angered the beasts — a little boy would try to pluck a strand of hair from a buffalo’s tail; a drunken spare would suddenly break away from the crowd and scream like a banshee in front of the buffaloes. It was as if some people were possessed by an uncontrollable death wish — Harakiri!

Thank heavens for small mercies and the alertness of the handlers that nothing of that sort actually happened.

But on many an occasion the beast managed to outwit its master, much to the amusement of the crowds gathered. As the riders cracked the whip mercilessly the buffaloes too gave back as good as they got. Dozens of buffaloes managed to cut lose from the clutches of their riders — some managed to even inflict a scar or two on their master’s hides — revenge?

But after the orgy of screaming and shouting, impromptu victory dances and merciless lashings, spectacular crashes, cuts, bruises and sprains – the abnormalities of the adrenaline-charged atmosphere made way for sanity once again during the prize distribution ceremony.

The same women, who had emerged from the pits, screaming and soaked in muck, reappeared in spotless saris. Men, whose mannerisms in the pits barely distinguished them from the beasts, suddenly turned into benign creatures. Even the buffalo bulls, that had been snorting and tugging at their harnesses, just minutes ago, turned into gentle cows. An hour later it seemed like nothing had ever happened here.

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