Sale of goatskin water bags for Kallazhagar event begins

Madurai: Amid hectic preparations for Chithirai festival celebrations in Madurai, the sale of goatskin water bags has begun in a small street in Madurai. These bags are used by devotees who dress up as Lord Kallazhagar and sprinkle water on the crowd once the lord enters the city. The bag is attached to a nozzle through which water is sprinkled. The bags are specially made of goatskin by around 50 villagers from Begambur in Dindigul district. They are found selling the bags on Swami Sannadhi Lane near East Masi Street."We start working in February to acquire goat skin, clear the hair and cure the skin. It costs around Rs250 to remove the goat skin for each bag," said Kannan, one of the vendors from Dindigul. They spend three months every year working to prepare the goat skin. The rest of the year, the villagers work as unskilled and daily wage labourers, as masons and some as drivers. "This is a tradition we have been following since many generations," Kannan added. "There is a chemical process to remove the hair and treat the fur, which can eat into our profits," he said."The goatskin is sold at a range of Rs500 for the smaller sizes and up to Rs700 for the larger ones," said Gauri, a fourth-generation goatskin water bag maker. "Customers usually bargain and bring the price down by around Rs100. We make around Rs100 as profit for each bag," she added.Although the sale of goatskin bags has only begun, the villagers are expecting to make a good profit this year. "After the pandemic, more and more people have attended the festival every year. Tourists also take an interest in the bags, so we are optimistic regarding the sales this year," another vendor said.