Festival frenzy grips city; Bonalu begins at Golconda Fort

Hyderabad: Festival fervour gripped the State capital as the annual Bonalu festival kick-started at the historic Golconda fort in the old city on Sunday with the State government offering traditional silk clothes to Goddess Mahankali there.

Endowment Minister A Indrakaran Reddy, Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Excise Minister T Padma Rao Goud participated in the ritual and paid obeisance at Matha Jagadamba Mahankali temple. The Ministers attended special pujas conducted on the occasion and sought blessings of the Goddess to shower more rains and help people of the State develop and prosper. The State festival of Bonalu festival is a reflection to its age-old culture and tradition.

A grand procession from Lal Darwaja in the old city was taken out with a large number of devotees with traditional Thottellu, artistes in multiple attires and Potharajus dancing to the tunes of drum beats and women clad in colourful attire to mark the festive occasion were cynosure of all eyes on the occasion. Indrakaran Reddy said Bonalu festival was being celebrated in the city and the State for many decades. It was the first-of-its-kind in the world and a large number of people thronged the temples to offer pujas and sought blessings for progress, he said.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao offered Rs 15 crore for Bonalu festival celebrations this year as against Rs 10 crore spent last year, Indrakaran Reddy said. Ever since the government offered State festival status, the Bonalu was being celebrated in a grand manner earlier, he said. The government has made elaborate arrangements for the Bonalu festival to be conducted in a smooth manner. Srinivas Yadav said they had deployed adequate police personnel for peaceful conduct of the event.