As the sun sets, the lanes and bylanes of Hanamkonda, Kazipet and Warangal brighten up.
Women, young and old, dressed in their best, head to the nearby temples or street corners to celebrate Bathukamma, the festival of flowers, from Wednesday here.
They carry plates on which flowers of different colours and species are arranged in a cone shape.
Though the evening rituals last for an hour or two, the women wake up early and prompt their children to collect as many flowers as possible from the neighbourhood.
All the flowers available during the season – Cassia (Thangedu), luffa (Bera), celosia (Gunugu), nelumbo (Thamara) cucurbita (Gummadi), marigold (Banthi), crossandra (Kanakambaram), ixora (Ramabanam) and hibiscus (Mandhara) – are collected and splendidly arranged.
Women mostly gather at the Thosuand Pillar temple, Bhadrakali and Padmakshi temples in Hanamkonda and some of them gather at street corners in their respective localities. They form a circle and place their ‘Bathukammas’ in the middle and go around them clapping and dancing rhythmically. All songs are about urging the goddess to take birth again. These rituals last for nine days during Durga Navaratri celebrations proceeding Dasara.
The legend has it that king Daksha performed a yagna and invited all but his youngest daughter Gauri, who married Lord Siva against his will.
However, Gauri turns up at the place and is insulted along with her husband. She then kills herself jumping into the fire lit for the yagna . Women who were present there make an image of her with turmeric paste and worship her, urging her to come back to life.
According to local lore, this was also a spiritual celebration where women used to offer prayers to goddess Kali, asking her to bless their children to have long life who were prone to dying in infancy.
KARIMNAGAR Special Correspondent adds: With the start of nine-day Bathukamma festivities from Wednesday, the students of various educational institutions celebrated the festival at their respective schools with great enthusiasm on Tuesday.
The girl students made Bathukammas arranging different flowers in a conical shape and participated in the festivities by singing and dancing around them.
The celebrations were conducted at Alphores Educational Institutions, Paramita High School, Bhagavathi High School, Vivekananda Vidyanikethan High School, and other private schools. Also, the girl students of Government High School at Sapthagiri Colony in the town and GHS Odyaram in Gangadhara mandal celebrated the festival.
