Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Arena
by Si. Su. Chellappa
Vaadivaasal, a masterful account of powerrelations, describes the traditional rituals of bull-taming and captures the life-and-death struggle between animal and man.A celebrated work of short fiction by Chellappa, Vaadivaasal is perhaps the firstfictional account in Tamil on Jallikattu, the indigenous bull-fighting sport of TamilNadu with a history of two thousand years. Jallikattu is both a heroic drama and a sport. The taming of a bull trained to gore its human adversary in the ring is the crux of this still popular sport. Chellappa, who grew up in a region of southern Tamil Nadu where bull-fighting is a hallowed tradition, depicts the dangerous and absorbing struggle between man and animal. Rich in ethnographic detail, this is a work marked by brevity and conciseness.Vaadivaasal is the narrow gate through which bulls are released during Jallikkattu, a rural sport held annually in certain parts of Tamil Nadu. Young men pounce upon the bulls and try to overpowerthem. Besides the bravado attached to it, the material attraction is the prize money and gold tied to the horns of the animals. The translation has been done by the internationally renowned translator.
