Kambala or the buffalo race has been show-cased as authentic folk sports of
Tulunadu like rodeo in America or bull- fighting in Spain. But Kambala is not
just an entertainment sports. It represents a tradition in which agrarian
practices, folk cults and social hierarchy and power mingle into a ritual and a
competition. Kambala is arranged during the interval between the harvesting of
the monsoon crops and readying the field for the next, in the months of
december or january.
Traditionally it is organized by the big landlords of the village; none
could do that since the buffalo-race needed a single, extensive field as the mud-soup
stadium in which the competition could be held. The guthu houses not only
sponsored the Kambalas but looked upon them as one of the visible symbols of
their honor and power. Invitation to take part in such competition was
considered an honor conferred to other households, which over years got solidified
into a custom woven into their celebrations. Sometimes the kambala was held in
the name of a royal household, and it symbolically celebrated the political and
social hierarchies that made or held together such miniature royalties in the
rural world.
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