Telangana Jagruthi, a cultural organization based at Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, will organize ‘Koti Batukammala Jatara’ in all villages, towns, and cities in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh from September 27^th to October 15 in 2010. For the celebrations of biggest cultural festival (BathTelangana Jagruthi, a cultural organization based at Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, will organize ‘Koti Batukammala Jatara’ in all villages, towns, and cities in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh from September 27^th to October 15 in 2010. For the celebrations of biggest cultural festival (Bathukamma) of the state, Telangana Jagruthi has decided to mobilize more than ten millions of women (‘Koti’ means crore in Telugu).
Koti Bathukammala Jathara will be organized in two phases – Sept. 27 to Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 to 15. During the first phase, Bathukamma celebrations will be organized in all educations institutions in the region. The actual Bathukamma starts on October 7^th in villages. The closing ceremony of Koti Bathukamma Jathara will be spectacle during when (October 15^th – Durga Ashtami) Bathukammas will be immersed (Bathukamma nimajjanam) in Tank Bund at Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad.
Telangana Jagruthi will also organize Bathukamma 2010 in United States of America (Austin, New Jersey, New York, Dallas, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago) Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), UK, United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Sharjah), Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, so on..
ukamma) of the state, Telangana Jagruthi has decided to mobilize more than ten millions of women (‘Koti’ means crore in Telugu).
Koti Bathukammala Jathara will be organized in two phases – Sept. 27 to Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 to 15. During the first phase, Bathukamma celebrations will be organized in all educations institutions in the region. The actual Bathukamma starts on October 7^th in villages. The closing ceremony of Koti Bathukamma Jathara will be spectacle during when (October 15^th – Durga Ashtami) Bathukammas will be immersed (Bathukamma nimajjanam) in Tank Bund at Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad.
Telangana Jagruthi will also organize Bathukamma 2010 in United States of America (Austin, New Jersey, New York, Dallas, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago) Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), UK, United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Sharjah), Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, so on..

Lessons from the Telangana Movement

The Telangana movement, that is going on for the last few months, is an expression of the people’s democratic yearnings. It is a silent but people’s revolution for a separate Telangana State. The people’s protests are taking place in the forms of dhoom-dhams (songs and dances), garjanas (hullabaloos), and padayatras (marches). Sometimes it is celebrating vijayayatras (victory marches) in anticipation of the Telangana state, and at times it is taking out shava yatras (processions carrying the dead) too. These protest campaigns gathered momentum in the course of the Telangana discourse in the region. They protested in typical Telangana bonalu-style (offering to deities), drawing rangoli, and vanta-varpu (cooking and eating in public places) and of course in the tears of (about) 250 mothers whose sons and daughters had died in the last two months. The Telangana service castes expressed their solidarity with the Telangana movement through remonstative forms of shaving, washing clothes, and in vanta-varpu, in public places. Not in the form of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s agenda, nor by staging theatrics and resorting to political manoeuvres.

LATEST PARTY ‘Praja Front’

Gummadi Vittala Rao, famous known as People’s Artist Gaddar, will launch a new party with the name ‘Praja Front’. He announced that his party will be lead by scholars and artists of Telangana region to fight for a separate Telangana for a United Leadership and United Planning.
Reportedly, he made an interesting statement too which goes as: “I will not compete in any General Elections, but will not stop any of my team to refrain from competing for them.”
Gaddar’s this move should come across as a shock to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party. So far TRS, lead by K.Chandrasekhara Rao, has been enjoying as the one and only party from the Telangana region. Though there were doubts about KCR’s leadership, it seems the doubts have now found a new shape – Praja Front!
Praja Front will have it first public meeting at Nizam College Grounds on October 9th. The state politics have found a new twist! adi Vittala Rao, famous known as People’s Artist Gaddar, will launch a new party with the name ‘Praja Front’. He announced that his party will be lead by scholars and artists of Telangana region to fight for a separate Telangana for a United Leadership and United Planning.
Reportedly, he made an interesting statement too which goes as: “I will not compete in any General Elections, but will not stop any of my team to refrain from competing for them.”
Gaddar’s this move should come across as a shock to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Party. So far TRS, lead by K.Chandrasekhara Rao, has been enjoying as the one and only party from the Telangana region. Though there were doubts about KCR’s leadership, it seems the doubts have now found a new shape – Praja Front!
Praja Front will have it first public meeting at Nizam College Grounds on October 9th. The state politics have found a new twist!

LANGUAGE:

Telugu is the main language of the state, which was formed on the principle of one language-one state. Telugu, the second largest spoken language in India and it has a long history. While Tamil is the oldest among the Dravidian languages, Telugu has enjoyed a unique status because of “its melody and grace.” It has justly been called the “Italian of the East.” Dr.William Carey, who set up printing press in vernacular languages, published his Telugu grammar in 1812.A.D. Campbell prepared a Telugu-English dictionary. C.P.Brown's contribution to the growth and development of Telugu is well known. He felt sad that Telugu classics were “in a deplorable state like those of Greek and Latin authors before the invention of printing.” He heralded the renaissance in Telugu literature through his monumental works. Carey, describing Telugu as the most polished among the five South Indian languages, namely Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Sinhalese, observed that “its variety of inflection is such as to give it a capacity of expressing ideas, with a high degree of felicity, justness and elegance.” Campbell too lavished high praise on Telugu when he wrote in 1816: “Few languages will be found more copious, more nervous or more regular in constructions, and it may boast, in a peculiar manner, of great elegance of expression and melody of sound.” Caldwell, the “father of Dravidian languages”, gave it first place in point of “euphonic sweetness” and this view was supported by Henry Morris, who called Telugu the most musical of all Dravidian languages.

Quite recently the noted scientist J.B.S. Haldane expressed the view that Telugu could be a rival to Hindi in teaching science, medicine and engineering. Around the same tinie G.H. McLeod wrote that “Telugu is the northern-most memuer of the northern languages: and it has the advantages of both groups with few, if any, of the defects.... It has never suffered from narrow provincialism.”

Telugu is said to have grown out of a synthesis of the language of the native Dravidians and Sanskrit, the language of the colonizers, the Aryans. The influence of Sanskrit began in the 3rd century B.C. and since then the growth of the language is traced. The evolution of Telugu as it is understood now however took place in the 9th Century A.D. Enrichment of the language took place at regular intervals in the history. The names of Nannayya, Tikkana and Pothana are cherished in every home like those of Vemana and Thyagaraja of later periods. Veeresalingam, Gurazada, Viswanatha Satyanarayana and Sri Sri were prominent writers and poets of the last hundred years. The development of Telugu language and literature owes a great deal to the efforts of the Englishmen. Historians noted the “Asia-wide influence of Andhra art” and as a scholar summed up: “The people of this region especially Kakathiyas made a glorious contribution to the development of art and architecture .”

It must be remembered that Telugu varies from region to region in its expression. Here too the Telugu-speaking people proudly claim that the language spoken in their region is superior to that of the other regions. All the same, one unique aspect of Telugu is that it has never harboured, as McLeod pointed out, narrow provincialism. It interacted much with other languages and in Hyderabad city-and neighboring areas, Marathi, Urdu and Kannada have had much influence on the people. It is said that the Telugus' spirit of tolerance is due largely to the mingling of different languages for several centuries. Urdu is the second most widely spoken language in the state. The majority of the Urdu-speaking people are confined to the twin cities and neighboring districts. Of the total population of Andhra Pradesh 87 percent have Telugu and 7.20 per cent Urdu as their mother tongue.

RELIGION:

The major religions of the people are Hinduism and Islam, though Buddhism was the dominant religion up to the 6th century. It is the home of Mahayana Buddhism as revealed by the monuments of Nagarjunakonda. Acharaya Nagarjuna presided over the World University at Sri Parvata. Hinduism was revived in the time of the Chalukyas and the Kakatiyas in the 12th century. The Vijayanagar rule saw the glorious days of Hinduism when the famed emperors, Krishnadeva Raya in particular, built new temples and beautified the old ones. Siva, Vishnu, Hanuman and Ganapati have been the popular Hindu Gods. The Vugra Narasimha swami Temple at Yadagirigutta and Thousand Pillar Temple at Warangal are among the oldest shrines in the state attracting people from different parts of the country for hundreds of years.

In terms of influence, Islam occupies the second place. It started spreading from the 14th century onwards. Mosques began to come up in many parts of the region during the Muslim rule. Christianity began to spread from 1701, Especially among the socially disabled people. Educational institutions and churches grew in number in the Circars in the 18th and 19 centuries when the East India Company and later the British government encouraged them. Other European countries were also active in building churches and taking care of the weaker sections of the people.

Hindus 88.75 % Muslims 8.47 % Christians 3.62 %

Festivals:

Festivals are celebrated with much fervor and people used to go to temples on these days to offer special prayers.Festivals are listed below.

Ugadi, Guru Purnima , Sri Rama Navami, Hanumajjayanti , Raakhi Pournami, Vinayaka Chaviti , Dusserah , Nagula Chaviti , Krishnashtami,Deepavali,Mukkoti Ekadasi ,Karthika Purnima , Subrahmanya Shashti ,Makara Sankranti and Ratha Saptami

Regional Festivals:

Telanganites not only celebrate the main festivals, but also celebrate certain regional festivals like Bonalu in Hyderabad, Batakamma all over Telangana districts, Yedupayala Jatara in Medak , Sammakka Saralamma in Warangal district.

Other festivals are Nomulu Vrathalu Kedareswara Vratam , Madana Dwadasi Vratam, Vinayaka Vratam, Saraswati Vratam, Varalakshmi Vratam, Krishanshtami Vratam,Ananta Padmanabha Vratam, Margasira Lakshmi Varapu Nomu Katha,Polala Amavasya Vratam , Kumkuma Gowri Nomu,Sraavana Mangalavara Nomu Katha, and Karthika Deepala Nomu

GALLERY

 

However, Batukamma 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.
Batukamma 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 through out 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 (‘seeta phalamu’ in text book language) 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, Batukamma 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 taambalam) 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 thie entire week.
Why is Batukamma celebrated? There are several legends around it. One of the prominent is that of a girl who committed suicide due to atrocities of a feudal land lord and then she was blessed by the people of the village to live longer a happier life (Batukamma means live). The other one is also about a girl who ends her life but due to family disturbances. However it is a festival associated with womenfolk and them remembering the girl who ended her life. They pray to mother goddess Gowri that they should not face any difficulties and that their husbands live longer and their families be prosperous.
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 Batukamma is the icon of cultural identity of Telangana!                                                                               http://www.telanganaculture.org/about_bathukamma.php