Festivals

Bathukamma, the state festival of Telangana, is a nine-day women's flower festival. Each evening women arrange seasonal flowers into towering Bathukammas, sing and dance in circles around them, and on Saddula Bathukamma lay them gently into the water.

Sirimanotsavam is the great festival of Sri Paidithalli Ammavaru, the guardian goddess of Vizianagaram. On the first Tuesday after Vijayadashami, the temple priest, borne at the tip of a tall wooden pole – the Sirimanu – is carried three times between the fort and the temple, as lakhs of devotees offer their prayers.

Atla Taddi is a beloved festival of Telugu women and girls, kept for the well-being of their husbands and for a good marriage. They eat before dawn, fast through the day, play on swings and sing, and after moonrise worship Goddess Gauri with an offering of attlu.

Nagula Chavithi is the Telugu festival of serpent worship. Families go to a putta (anthill) early in the morning, pour milk and offer turmeric, kumkum, flowers and chalimidi to the Naga devatas, praying above all for the well-being of their children. It is kept in Karthika and as Naga Panchami in Shravana.

Subrahmanya Shashti – Subbarayudu Shashti in the Telugu lands – is the great festival of Lord Subrahmanya Swamy on Margashira Shukla Shashti. Devotees fast, worship the Lord in his serpent form, pour milk at anthills and pray for the well-being of their children, and the Subrahmanya temples hold their grandest celebrations.

On Kanuma, the villages of Konaseema carry their tall, colourful prabhas – representing the eleven Rudras – across paddy fields and canals to Jaggannathathota near Mosalapalli, where, by tradition, the Ekadasa Rudras meet. The centuries-old Prabhala Theertham has been declared a State festival of Andhra Pradesh.

The Sammakka Saralamma Jatara at Medaram in Mulugu district is the great biennial festival of the Koya tribal community, honouring the mother and daughter goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma. Over four days in Magha, millions of devotees come to the forest village to offer bangaram – jaggery – and seek the goddesses' blessings.

Ugadi is the Telugu New Year, celebrated on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. Families begin the year with Ugadi pachadi of six tastes and gather to hear the new year's Panchanga Shravanam.

Godavari Pushkaralu is the great river festival held once in twelve years, when Jupiter enters Simha rasi. For twelve days, crores of pilgrims bathe in the Godavari at Basara, Dharmapuri, Kaleshwaram, Bhadrachalam, Rajahmundry and countless ghats down to the sea, honour their ancestors and worship at the riverside temples.

Varalakshmi Vratam is the sacred Shravana Friday vratam in which women worship Goddess Lakshmi as Varalakshmi, the giver of boons, with a decorated kalasham, the nine-thread thoram and the Varalakshmi Vratha Katha, praying for the well-being of their families.

The Komuravelli Mallanna Jatara is the long festive season of Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy – Mallanna – at Komuravelli in Siddipet district. After his kalyanam with Golla Kethamma and Medalamma in December, devotees throng the hill every Sunday from Sankranti to Ugadi, while Oggu pujaris draw the sacred patnam and sing the Lord's story.

The Nagoba Jatara at Keslapur in Adilabad is the sacred festival of the Mesram clan of the Gond and Pardhan communities, honouring Nagoba, the divine serpent and their supreme deity. It begins with a midnight Mahapuja using holy Godavari water brought on foot by the elders, and includes the Bheting ceremony that welcomes new brides into the clan.