State to sway to Bathukamma tunes from today

Warangal: Bathukamma, the floral festival of Telangana, is all set to commence on a vibrant note on Saturday. The nine-day festival begins on Mahalaya Amavasya, also known as Pethra Amavasya, with Engili Poola Bathukamma.

The first day of Bathukamma is celebrated with the naivedyam prepared of sesame seeds with rice flour. The second day is known as Atkula Bathukamma which is celebrated with bland boiled lentils, jaggery and flattened parboiled rice. Third Day: Muddapappu Bathukamma - softened boiled lentils (Muddapappu), milk and jiggery.

Fourth Day: Nanabiyyam Bathukamma - wet rice, milk, and jiggery. Fifth Day: Atla Bathukamma - pan cakes made from wheat (uppidi pindi atlu). Sixth day: Aligina Bathukamma – There will be no offerings. Seventh Day: Vepakayala Bathukamma – Rice flour shaped into the fruits. Eighth Day: Venna muddala Bathukamma - sesame, butter or ghee and jiggery mixed food.

The festival ends with the Saddula Bathukamma also known as Durgashtami with the women dressed in traditional attire forming a circle and playing around the Bathukamma, a stack of seven concentric layers in a conical mound made of different flowers, and dance before immersing it in a water body. The day offers a fiesta to food lovers with five varieties - curd rice, tamarind rice, lemon rice, coconut rice and sesame rice.

According to the legend, king Daksha performed a yagna and invited all but his youngest daughter Gauri, who married Lord Shiva against his will. Even though there was no invite, Gauri and Lord Shiva attend the yagna but only to face humiliation.

Dejected by this, Gauri ends her life by jumping into the fire lit for the yagna. Following which, women who were present at the yagna make an image of Gauri with turmeric paste and worship her, urging her to come back to life.

It is also said that Bathukamma is a ritual used to offer prayers to Goddess Kali, urging her to bless their children to have long life who were prone to dying in infancy.