The biennial Sammakka-Saralakka Jatara at Medaram is a celebration of valour of tribal women Sammakka and her daughter Saralamma.
This year, it is celebrated from January 31 to February 3.
According to the legends, eight centuries ago, a group of Koyas travelling through the Dandakaranya found a little girl playing with tigers. The head of the tribe adopted and named her Sammakka. She married the headman of a neighbouring village Pagididda Raju and had three children—Jampanna, Nagulamma and Saralamma.
Kakatiya rule
The Koya chieftains were under the tutelage of the Kakatiya kings. There was a severe drought that lasted for years and as a result, the mighty Godavari river dried up and Koyas didn’t have enough to eat. However, the Kakatiyas insisted on payment of taxes and the Kakatiya emperor, Pratapa Rudra, sent his forces to teach the Koyas a lesson and collect taxes. The Koyas resisted and in the ensuing war, most of the Koya chiefs were killed.
Sammakka resolved to continue the fight to avenge the dead, in which she was badly wounded. Sammakka told her people that as long as they remembered her, she would protect them.
Then, she cursed the Kakatiya dynasty to perish and disappeared into the deep forest.
Local lore
The local lore says the tribals searched for their queen and found only a red ochre box, her bangles and the pug marks of a huge tigress at Indian Elm tree on Chilkalgutta hillocks. Since then, the Koyas, Wadderas and other tribes and non-tribals have been holding the festival in memory of Sammakka and Saralamma regularly once in two years. Besides Medaram, the Sammakka–Saralamma jatara is held in over 100 tribal locations of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and also Andhra Pradesh in Dandakaranya forests.
