The dancing of youth in symmetry to the beating of ‘Palakalu’ in rustic rhythm, the smearing of charcoal, kumkum and chalk powder all over the body and the dressing of men in glittering female attire used to be the flavour of the season, which are now grossly missing.
But for the lockdown, the Thathayagunta Gangamma temple, located in the heart of Tirupati, would have witnessed its annual folk festival ‘Ganga jatara’, which usually draws devotees from across Rayalaseema and the bordering districts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The devotional fervour and the festivities are nowhere to be seen, with the temple management announcing to postpone the folk festival and also keeping the temple under lock and key as a precautionary measure. Devotees walk up to the locked main entrance, make a symbolic gesture of paying obeisance at the main threshold and leave after offering a few rupees into the makeshift ‘hundi’ arranged at the gate.
Only a privileged few are allowed into the shrine close to the sanctum sanctorum, while the general crowd is retained at the gate. Native residents of Tirupati settled elsewhere make it a point to visit their home town during the festival and visit the temple by smearing charcoal over their body. The festival ends in the early hours of Wednesday.
