The much-awaited biennial tribal festival in Medaram in Mulugu district kickstarted on Thursday. Popularly known as Telangana Kumbha Mela, Medaram Jatara began on a grand scale as Tribal deity Sammakka arrives at Altar of the site.
As thousands of people waited with bated breath, the Superintendent of Police SSG Patil fired several rounds in the air heralding the arrival of Sammakka from Chilukalgutta.
People burst into frenzy murmuring strange chants – some cut the chicken and hurled it into the air as an offering while others slept across the path.
This was the high tide of piety and belief with the devotees surging ahead to reach out to the precincts of altar of Sammakka and Sarakka.
This was the most awaited moment for which they all endured the back-breaking journey into the forests, cooked and slept in open, and patiently waited in serpentine queues. In seconds, the lumps of turmeric, jaggery, and countless coconuts rained on the altar with devotees throwing even the money and gold ornaments at the altar to appease their gods.
Earlier in the day, around evening, a group of tribal priests went up the hillocks and offered prayers for hours. Invoking goddess unto them, they came down with the deity to be installed on the altar at Medaram village.
Thousands of people who lined on either side of the road from Chilkalgutta forest to Medaram village sacrificed animals as is the local custom and scores of women went into trance and danced endlessly. The procession was delayed abnormally with the devotees trying to offer prayers enroute and it was only after dark, the deity reached the venue.
The crowds thronging this tiny village reached a peak with every possible inch of land in sight occupied. The queues moved at a very slow pace despite the efforts from various agencies.
For the tribals even the primitives who came all the way from neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Odisha and from Eturunagaram, Bhadrachalam, Venkatapuram, Manuguru, and other places in Andhra Pradesh, the festival had spiritual relevance.
They all look up to Sammakka and Sarakka as their family deities. They all invoke the goddess onto them and dance in gay abandon. They offer jaggery considered as gold equal to the weight of their children.
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