In News: Bathukamma festival will be celebrated at the India Gate with the Telugu people living in the nation’s capital under the aegis of the Culture Ministry for the first time.
About:
Bathukamma is a colourful floral festival of Telangana and is celebrated by womenfolk with exotic flowers of the region.
It comes during the latter half of monsoon, before the onset of winter. It falls two days before Dassera.
The most abundant of these flowers are – ‘gunuka’ and ‘tangedu’.
The ‘shilpakka pandlu’ (or ‘sitaphalalu’), custard apples or ‘poor man’s apple’, are great attraction during this season.
The flowers are carefully arranged row after row in a brass plate (called ‘taambalam’) in circular rows and in alternate colours. The womenfolk carry them on their heads and move as a procession towards a bigger water body near the village or town. Then, ‘Bathukammalu’ are slowly immersed into the water.
Then they share the ‘maleeda’ (a dessert made with sugar or raw sugar and corn bread) sweets.
Women make ‘boddemma’ (a deity of Gowri ‘mother Durga’ made with earthly mud) along with Bathukamma and immerse it in the pond. This helps reinforce the ponds and helps it retain more water.
The flowers used in the festival have a great quality of purifying water in ponds and tanks and are environment-friendly.
