Watch | This cattle fair in Tamil Nadu goes back over 1,000 years
The Hindu
A video on the 1,000-year-old Kannapuram Cattle Festival at Kangeyam near Coimbatore
What you’re seeing here is a tradition that has gone on for over 1,000 years. The Kannapuram Mariamman Temple Cattle Festival is an annual festival that takes place at Olapalayam in Tiruppur district.
But it is not the usual village fair in which you stroll through carefree.
Rearers and breeders of Kangayam cattle bring their animals to be sold at this festival. People from across Tamil Nadu, especially Madurai, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai, and Tiruchi visit the festival.
They buy cattle for jallikattu, agriculture and farm work, as well as for dairy. Kangayam is the first of the five recognised breeds in Tamil Nadu. They come in three colours – brown, white, black and a combination of the three.
What is special about this fair?
The cattle fair is part of Kannapuram Mariamman Temple’s car festival that is 15 days long. Farmers spend several days at the festival, looking for the perfect bull.
Dhoti-clad men walk in groups from one seller to another, where they pause to size-up potential buys, studying their features. Sellers are mostly from the Kongu region, and transport their cattle in trucks, sleeping and cooking in the enclosures.
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