BATHUKAMMA (The unique festival of flowers in Telangana)
Bathukamma is unique to Telangana region and it is undoubtedly an icon of cultural identity for Telanganites. This festival is not celebrated else where, though there are some known instances of festivals celebrated in association with water and flowers, none of them resemble this one.
Bathukamma comes during the latter half of monsoon, much before the onset of winter. The monsoon rains would have brought plenty of water into the ‘cheruvulu’ (fresh water ponds that are a major source of irrigation throughout Telangana) and the wild flowers bloom in various vibrant colors all across the uncultivated and barren plains of the region. The most abundant of these are the ‘gunuka poolu’ and ‘tangedi poolu’. There are other flowers too like the banti, chemanti, nandi-vardhanam etc. The ’shilpakka pandlu’ (or ’sitpala pandlu’) are another great attraction of these barren lands during this season. This custard apple is a great tasting fruit that grows in the wild with little or no water and is often called the poor man’s apple. Then there is corn (jonna and mokka jonna) waiting to be harvested. Amidst these, Bathukamma is celebrated by the women folk of Telangana, heralding the beauty of nature in vibrant colors of multitudinous flowers.
The festival begins a week before the grand ’saddula Batukamma’ (the grand finale of the Batukamma festival) which is two days before Dassera. The women folk normally get back to their parents’ homes from their in-laws and breathe the fresh air of freedom to celebrate the colors of flowers. For one whole week they make small ‘Batukammas’, play around them every evening and immerse them in a near by water pond. Then the last day is the most fascinating. On that day the men folk of the house go into the wild plains and gather the flowers like gunuka and tangedi. They bring home bagfuls of these flowers and the entire house hold sits down to make the big ‘Batukamma’. The flowers are carefully arranged row after row in a brass plate (called tambalam) in circular rows and in alternate colors. The Batukamma grows in size and the bigger it is the better. The white gunuka flowers are colored using water paints and Batukamma gets colorful circular layers of them along with tangedi in between. Then it placed in front of the deity of the home and prayed.
As evening approaches the womenfolk dress colorfully with the best of their attire and put on lot of ornaments and place the Batukamma in their ‘vaakili’ (court yard). The women of neighborhood also join with their own “Batukammalu” and all of them gather in a large circle around it. They sing songs by going around it building a beautiful human circle of unity, love, sisterhood. They all sing in chorus after a lead singer starts off and the rhythms of the folklore songs reverberate in the neighborhood sounding the uniqueness of Telangana cultural identity.
After playing around the “Batukammalu”, before the onset of dusk, the women folk carry them on their heads and go as a procession towards a bigger water lake of the village or town. The procession is extremely colorful with the decorations of women and the “Batukammalu”. Songs of folklore are sung in chorus throughout the procession and the streets resonate with them. Finally when they reach the water pond the “Batukammalu” are slowly immersed into water after some more playing and singing. Then they share the ‘maleeda’ (a dessert made with sugar or raw sugar and corn bread) sweets amongst the family members and neighborhood folks. They return back to their homes with empty ‘taambaalam’ singing songs in praise of Batukamma. The songs of Batukamma echo in the streets until late night during the entire week.
On the hand, Batukamma is a great celebration of preservation of nature’s harmony. It is the season of blooming flowers and overflowing water ponds, that Batukamma comes in and it celebrates the inherent relationship between earth, water and the human beings. During the whole preceding week, women make ‘boddemma’ (a deity of Gowri – mother Durga – made with earthly mud) along with Batukamma and immerse it in the pond. This helps reinforce the ponds and helps it retain more water. The flowers used in Batukamma have a great quality of purifying water (and one of them is now being heralded as a medicine to cancer) and such flowers when immersed in abundance into the pond have the effect of cleansing the water and making the environment much better. In times where the fresh water ponds are gradually diminishing and dwindling away it is indeed a pride of Telangana that its womenfolk (with mostly agrarian background) inherently know how to make them better by celebrating the beauty of nature. It is something we need to be indeed proud of.
Even across the world such festivals that involve flowers and fresh water are a rarity. There are river-based festivals known, but this one is definitely unique to Telangana. It serves multiple purposes– it heralds the beauty of nature, collective spirit of Telangana people, the indomitable spirit of women folks and also the scientific approach of the agrarian people towards preserving the resources of nature in a celebrative way. That’s why Bathukamma is the icon of cultural identity of Telangana.
“KOTI- BATHUKAMMALA-JAATARA”
Although every year women of Telangana celebrate the bathukamma festival with great reverence, due to various influences there is a downtrend in celebrating the festival. In the eve of globalization and added to some unique conditions in Telangana region, our indigenous culture has been influenced to a great extent. In order to get back to our roots and celebrate our great and unique culture, “Telangana Jagruthi” believes that festivals like bathukamma should be revived and passed on to the future generations.
In order to preserve the bathukamma culture “Telangana Jagruthi” from the past two years has organized events and provided a platform to the people of Telangana not only in India but in various countries world over. This year yet again “Telangana Jagruthi” is in the forefront to promote the festival with a great grandeur.
Although Bathukamma is a majorly women oriented festival, In order to involve every single person in the festival “Telangana Jagruthi” has conceptualized “Bathukamma Prachara Rathams” (decorated floats) depicting the cultural, historical and social aspects of the ten districts of Telangana region, one for each district . These decorated floats would go to each district and participate in the bathukamma festival with the locals in selected villages and towns of each district. Added to this decorated floats, Telangana Jagruthi also is organizing events in all the Ten districts involving the native people. Koti-bathukammala–jaatara literally translates into “Ten million bathukamma’s carnival”. Overall with the floats and direct events Telangana-Jagruthi will directly involve Ten-million Bathukamma’s in 9 days of the festive season from all the ten Telangana districts.
Final day of the festival, “Saddula Bathukamma” will be at Hyderabad with a ceremonial parade. Along with the Ten Decorated floats, hundreds of cultural teams depicting the Telangana culture from all over the region will be participating in the parade along with thousands of women with “Bathukamma’s”. The concluding event will be a ceremonial parade, which is meant not only for celebration but also will aid for the glorification of Telangana culture. Each one of you is heart fully invited to take part in the event and make it a grand success.
Batukamma is a spring festival celebrated by the Hindu women of Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, India.
This festival falls in the months of September/October and concludes two days before Dussera.
Batukamma is a beautiful flower stack, arranged with seasonal flowers, in seven concentric layers like a cone.
As Bathukamma is festival of flowers they use only those flowers which does not harm any vegetation.
Batuku in Telugu means live/life, and Amma means mother, hence Batukamma, is celebrated for the glory of Gauri goddess – the patron Goddess of womanhood.
In the evening, women dress up in traditional sarees wear jewellery and gather in large numbers with their batukammas in nearby temple or lake,place them in the middle and dance around them,synchronizing steps and claps,Singing soul stirring batukamma folk songs.They play kolattam .(kolattam is played with two sticks in their hands and play along with the song to syncronize)
Batukammas are taken to a lake or a pond and spend some more time singing and dancing and are set afloat in the water .
As it is 9 days festival they prepare 9 different varieties on each day and last day of bathukamma.
Listed are few items which we prepare for Saddulu Bathukamma
Pulihora (Tamarind rice),Karapu annam (Red Chilly Rice),Perugu annam(Curd Rice),Nuvvu annam(Sesame seeds Rice),Kobbari annam(Coconut Rice)
Pindi Muddalu (Rice flour ladoo),Nuvvu undalu(Sesame seeds ladoo),Palli undalu (Peanuts ladoo),Suniundalu (Urad dal ladoo)
Minapa undalu(Moong dal ladoo),Sattu pindi (Corn with jaggery),Cucumber.
Bathukamma comes during the latter half of monsoon, much before the onset of winter. The monsoon rains would have brought plenty of water into the ‘cheruvulu’ (fresh water ponds that are a major source of irrigation throughout Telangana) and the wild flowers bloom in various vibrant colors all across the uncultivated and barren plains of the region. The most abundant of these are the ‘gunuka poolu’ and ‘tangedi poolu’. There are other flowers too like the banti, chemanti, nandi-vardhanam etc. The ’shilpakka pandlu’ (or ’sitpala pandlu’) are another great attraction of these barren lands during this season. This custard apple is a great tasting fruit that grows in the wild with little or no water and is often called the poor man’s apple. Then there is corn (jonna and mokka jonna) waiting to be harvested. Amidst these, Bathukamma is celebrated by the women folk of Telangana, heralding the beauty of nature in vibrant colors of multitudinous flowers.
The festival begins a week before the grand ’saddula Batukamma’ (the grand finale of the Batukamma festival) which is two days before Dassera. The women folk normally get back to their parents’ homes from their in-laws and breathe the fresh air of freedom to celebrate the colors of flowers. For one whole week they make small ‘Batukammas’, play around them every evening and immerse them in a near by water pond. Then the last day is the most fascinating. On that day the men folk of the house go into the wild plains and gather the flowers like gunuka and tangedi. They bring home bagfuls of these flowers and the entire house hold sits down to make the big ‘Batukamma’. The flowers are carefully arranged row after row in a brass plate (called tambalam) in circular rows and in alternate colors. The Batukamma grows in size and the bigger it is the better. The white gunuka flowers are colored using water paints and Batukamma gets colorful circular layers of them along with tangedi in between. Then it placed in front of the deity of the home and prayed.
As evening approaches the womenfolk dress colorfully with the best of their attire and put on lot of ornaments and place the Batukamma in their ‘vaakili’ (court yard). The women of neighborhood also join with their own “Batukammalu” and all of them gather in a large circle around it. They sing songs by going around it building a beautiful human circle of unity, love, sisterhood. They all sing in chorus after a lead singer starts off and the rhythms of the folklore songs reverberate in the neighborhood sounding the uniqueness of Telangana cultural identity.
After playing around the “Batukammalu”, before the onset of dusk, the women folk carry them on their heads and go as a procession towards a bigger water lake of the village or town. The procession is extremely colorful with the decorations of women and the “Batukammalu”. Songs of folklore are sung in chorus throughout the procession and the streets resonate with them. Finally when they reach the water pond the “Batukammalu” are slowly immersed into water after some more playing and singing. Then they share the ‘maleeda’ (a dessert made with sugar or raw sugar and corn bread) sweets amongst the family members and neighborhood folks. They return back to their homes with empty ‘taambaalam’ singing songs in praise of Batukamma. The songs of Batukamma echo in the streets until late night during the entire week.
On the hand, Batukamma is a great celebration of preservation of nature’s harmony. It is the season of blooming flowers and overflowing water ponds, that Batukamma comes in and it celebrates the inherent relationship between earth, water and the human beings. During the whole preceding week, women make ‘boddemma’ (a deity of Gowri – mother Durga – made with earthly mud) along with Batukamma and immerse it in the pond. This helps reinforce the ponds and helps it retain more water. The flowers used in Batukamma have a great quality of purifying water (and one of them is now being heralded as a medicine to cancer) and such flowers when immersed in abundance into the pond have the effect of cleansing the water and making the environment much better. In times where the fresh water ponds are gradually diminishing and dwindling away it is indeed a pride of Telangana that its womenfolk (with mostly agrarian background) inherently know how to make them better by celebrating the beauty of nature. It is something we need to be indeed proud of.
Even across the world such festivals that involve flowers and fresh water are a rarity. There are river-based festivals known, but this one is definitely unique to Telangana. It serves multiple purposes– it heralds the beauty of nature, collective spirit of Telangana people, the indomitable spirit of women folks and also the scientific approach of the agrarian people towards preserving the resources of nature in a celebrative way. That’s why Bathukamma is the icon of cultural identity of Telangana.
“KOTI- BATHUKAMMALA-JAATARA”
Although every year women of Telangana celebrate the bathukamma festival with great reverence, due to various influences there is a downtrend in celebrating the festival. In the eve of globalization and added to some unique conditions in Telangana region, our indigenous culture has been influenced to a great extent. In order to get back to our roots and celebrate our great and unique culture, “Telangana Jagruthi” believes that festivals like bathukamma should be revived and passed on to the future generations.
In order to preserve the bathukamma culture “Telangana Jagruthi” from the past two years has organized events and provided a platform to the people of Telangana not only in India but in various countries world over. This year yet again “Telangana Jagruthi” is in the forefront to promote the festival with a great grandeur.
Although Bathukamma is a majorly women oriented festival, In order to involve every single person in the festival “Telangana Jagruthi” has conceptualized “Bathukamma Prachara Rathams” (decorated floats) depicting the cultural, historical and social aspects of the ten districts of Telangana region, one for each district . These decorated floats would go to each district and participate in the bathukamma festival with the locals in selected villages and towns of each district. Added to this decorated floats, Telangana Jagruthi also is organizing events in all the Ten districts involving the native people. Koti-bathukammala–jaatara literally translates into “Ten million bathukamma’s carnival”. Overall with the floats and direct events Telangana-Jagruthi will directly involve Ten-million Bathukamma’s in 9 days of the festive season from all the ten Telangana districts.
Final day of the festival, “Saddula Bathukamma” will be at Hyderabad with a ceremonial parade. Along with the Ten Decorated floats, hundreds of cultural teams depicting the Telangana culture from all over the region will be participating in the parade along with thousands of women with “Bathukamma’s”. The concluding event will be a ceremonial parade, which is meant not only for celebration but also will aid for the glorification of Telangana culture. Each one of you is heart fully invited to take part in the event and make it a grand success.
Batukamma is a spring festival celebrated by the Hindu women of Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, India.
This festival falls in the months of September/October and concludes two days before Dussera.
Batukamma is a beautiful flower stack, arranged with seasonal flowers, in seven concentric layers like a cone.
As Bathukamma is festival of flowers they use only those flowers which does not harm any vegetation.
Batuku in Telugu means live/life, and Amma means mother, hence Batukamma, is celebrated for the glory of Gauri goddess – the patron Goddess of womanhood.
In the evening, women dress up in traditional sarees wear jewellery and gather in large numbers with their batukammas in nearby temple or lake,place them in the middle and dance around them,synchronizing steps and claps,Singing soul stirring batukamma folk songs.They play kolattam .(kolattam is played with two sticks in their hands and play along with the song to syncronize)
Batukammas are taken to a lake or a pond and spend some more time singing and dancing and are set afloat in the water .
As it is 9 days festival they prepare 9 different varieties on each day and last day of bathukamma.
Listed are few items which we prepare for Saddulu Bathukamma
Pulihora (Tamarind rice),Karapu annam (Red Chilly Rice),Perugu annam(Curd Rice),Nuvvu annam(Sesame seeds Rice),Kobbari annam(Coconut Rice)
Pindi Muddalu (Rice flour ladoo),Nuvvu undalu(Sesame seeds ladoo),Palli undalu (Peanuts ladoo),Suniundalu (Urad dal ladoo)
Minapa undalu(Moong dal ladoo),Sattu pindi (Corn with jaggery),Cucumber.
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