The age-old tradition of keeping ‘gobbemmas’ (small balls of cow dung decorated with flowers and colours) is missing in many parts of Chittoor district, with only a few days left for the Sankranti season to close.
Chittoor district, which shares borders with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for long stretches, used to be alive with the presence of ‘Gobbemmas’ at almost all the households in rural households and many houses even in the urban areas, a decade ago. Over years, the practice has completely vanished in urban centres. Now, even in rural areas, the tradition is slowly disappearing. Most children do not know anything about this centuries’ old tradition.
On Sunday, not a single ‘gobbemma’ was present all over Chittoor town, including at the traditional families. In a radius of 10 kilometres, only one ‘gobbemma’ was present in front of a house at Chavatapalle near Chittoor.
Women in rural areas said that due to their busy schedules at fields and at domestic front, they could not continue the practice, while the children were mostly averse to make balls of ‘gobbemmas’ with cow dung. “Gone are the days when we had hundreds of cattle everywhere, but now their numbers are dwindling fast. For milk, we are depending on private dairies. The young generation has lost affinity with the cattle,” Guneswari, an educated woman farmer in rural Chittoor said.
Coming to heart of Chittoor town, procuring cow dung is a big problem, with no cattle seen anywhere in the vicinity. Though, enthusiastic and devotional women want to get the material, they complain that the cow dung collected in urban areas would smell bad as the cattle consume decomposed food and rotting vegetables at the markets. Instead of giving solid dung, the cattle produce liquid dung, with which it is impossible to make ‘gobbemmas.’
Meanwhile, some public and cultural groups keep continuing the tradition on a single day, on Sankranti festival, by arranging ‘gobbemmas’ at some public place, as against the tradition of keeping ‘gobbemmas’ in front of the households during all days of Danur month, from mid December to mid January.
