Lava-Kusha Jodukare Kambala at Miyar

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on’t miss the Lava-Kusha Jodukare Kambala at Miyar held in early January every year.  A perfect adrenalin fill as you enter the new year.

Kambala is a traditional sport held for centuries in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka and the adjoining Kasaragod district of Kerala. It’s buffalo race on slushy tracks. The Kambala season heralds in the month of November and draws to a close in March every year.  Many Kambalas are held at various places in this period, however, a few of them are just ritualistic.

Traditional Kambalas were held by temples, landlords and some influential families as a ritual to propitiate the deities. Besides it was an entertainment in the agrarian community. However, the Kambalas have undergone a sea change  in recent years.

The folk ritualistic event has transformed today into a professionally organized sport.  The single track non-competitive event has turned out to be a competition among hundreds of pairs of buffaloes. Coconuts, bananas, lemons and beetle leaves with arecanut given away as prizes have given way to gold and silver medals besides cash prizes.  Kambalas have no more remained the prerogative of influential landlords as they are being organized through committees in many places.  Meantime the robust game had to cross many legal hurdles too.

Interestingly, the Kambalas held at different places are given names based on closely associated personalities or entities like Lava-Kusha, Soorya-Chandra, Kanthabaare-Boodabaare, Koti –Chennaya etc.

Lava Kusha Kambala

The seeds for the present day Kambala were sown at Lava Kusha Kambala way back in 1969-70, though it was held at Bajagoli about six kilometers away from the present venue Miyar. True to its name Lava-Kusha, the Kambala infused fresh air into the traditional sport.  The Kambala buffaloes were brought to artificially laid slushy tracks from the traditional paddy fields.  Two parallel tracks were laid, setting the stage for competition between two pairs of buffaloes.  Henceforth the events came to be known as Jodukare Kambalas denoting twin track buffalo race.  Kambalas continued well into the late night under flood lights. Winning buffaloes were awarded medals. However, the entry was not free.

It was a great disappointment when the Kambala of this scale discontinued for some reason. People never expected such a fate to the gala event.  A committee was formed with the local MLA as the ex-officio chairperson.  Five acres of land was identified at Miyar, the village adjoining Bajagoli for the annual event. Kambala was revived and is being conducted in a grand scale from the last fifteen years. Mangalore-based Navodaya Grama Vikas Charitable Trust too is involved in the successful conduct of the game.  Thus Lava-Kusha Kambala became people’s Kambala.

The area is developed using various funds from the State government. No other Kambala field perhaps has a gallery for an easy glimpse of the event.  Yajamanara Chavadi is constructed for the benefit of the owners of the buffaloes, for whom, rearing buffaloes is a matter of pride and prestige.  The Kambala buffaloes are expensive and their upkeep too is a costly affair.

The action front

It is pairs of well-fed decked up buffaloes everywhere at the venue along with the attendants. Utmost care is taken to see to it that their buffaloes do not suffer even slightest discomfort. The men accompanying the buffaloes wait with their laid back buffaloes until their turn. They are fed at frequent intervals.

Witnessing Kambala is an experience beyond words. The beasts are brought to the track upon their turn. Getting them ready for the race, they are caressed and cajoled once they are on the track.  They are let loose as the cues go, along with the jockey to the cheers and whistles of the equally enthusiastic audience. The loud cheers literally drown the commentary in the background.  The race is over just in seconds covering 145-metre distance on the slushy track ! The accompanying jockeys are no less.

The competitions are held in categories like negilu- where plough is tied to the yoke; hagga – a rope is tied;  adda halage- a wooden plank is attached to the yoke on which the jockey stands; kane halage- a wooden block attached to the yoke on which the jockey keeps his one leg. In adda halage and kane halage, the winner is decided by the level of water splashed above.  More than 150 pairs of buffaloes are brought to the Kambala. Thousands of Kambala enthusiasts descend on Miyar, a hamlet a little away from Karkala, on the occasion of Kambala.

Laser beam network system is used at the finishing point to avoid any error in judgement. Videos and electronic timer too are in vogue to decide the winner in many other Kambalas.

The Kambala Protection Committee

The petition by the People for Ethical Treatment Animals (PETA) and the subsequent court rulings, once threatened the very conduct of Kambala. But an ordinance from the President of India has enabled the conduct of  Kambala albeit with a rider that buffaloes should not be hurt in the process. In this backdrop came up the Kambala Protection, Maintenance and Training Academy operating out of Miyar. It conducts annual camps for jockeys wherein they are trained on various aspects such as physical fitness of themselves and the buffaloes as well, upkeep of buffaloes and making equipments for the Kambala. Though buffalo jockeys used to be uneducated youth earlier, today it attracts educated youth also for the thrill it offers and the money as well.

A survey based on the opinions from select respondents concluded that the Lava-Kusha Kambala is the second best such event in the region. And that says all.