Warangal: Bathukamma off to a grandeur

Warangal: Bathukamma, Telangana's State festival, got off to a colourful start in the erstwhile Warangal district on Sunday with women clad in traditional clothes making a beeline to the temples. The people in Telangana see it as a special festival. The floral festival in Warangal is said to be the best in the State. Traditionally, the nine-day fiesta begins on Mahalaya Amavasya, also known as Pethra Amavasya, with Engili Poola Bathukamma. Women celebrate it by offering naivedyam prepared with sesame seeds with rice flour.

The Thousand Pillars Temple in Hanumakonda was abuzz with women dancing around Bathukamma and playing songs. It may be mentioned here that the nine-day fiesta ends with the Saddula Bathukamma also known as Durgashtami with the women immersing Bathukamma in water bodies.