BATHUKAMMA – THE FESTIVAL OF FLOWERS
- Kirti Karmarkar Anand
- Aug 20
- 2 min read
Festivals are meant to bring friends, family and community together to celebrate with colour, fervour, new clothes and feasts. While often there are religious connotations attached, it is interesting to observe that in fact all our Indian festivals mark the changing seasons. The flowers offered to the deities are the seasonal blooms and the prashaad and food made is usually again with the seasonal fruits and vegetables available.
Unfortunately, not only are climate change and global warming affecting these age-old traditions, genetically modified produce is available year-round, thus sadly taking away the joy of the wait and uniqueness of each individual celebration.
Thankfully rural India remains untouched by these modern phenomena and you can still enjoy and participate in the traditional festivities in our villages
Bathukamma is the state festival of Telangana – it is a nine-day vibrant festival of flowers that coincides with Navaratri and Durga Puja that celebrate goddess Durga's victory over the demon Mahishasura.
This year it will be celebrated from September 22-30 in village Sherpalli, near Wargal, Telangana.
Bathukamma celebrates womanhood, harvest, and prosperity and honours goddess Gauri (Parvati). It is also known as the "festival of life". Women create beautiful, cone-shaped stacks of flowers called Bathukammas, cook special delicacies and offer them as prashaad.
On the ninth day, one day before Dussehra, the village women gather around dressed in their best and dance around the Buthukammas — the "Gaddikamma" is when the nine day festival ends with women carrying the flower installations in a procession and then immersing in lakes or ponds.
Everybody is up at the crack of dawn to gather the best of the marigolds, chameli, roses, tacoma, ashoka and mango leaves and the silver cockscomb (Celosia argentea) which is also called Bathukamma.
Assembling the arrangements layer by layer requires patience and deft fingers; men and women alike spend hours making the stacked cones, to compete for the biggest/tallest/ prettiest installation.
Two cones are made depicting mother & daughter; the smaller one called Gowramma has small balls of turmeric paste inside, which are then distributed to other women along with palm leaf and kumkum and the bigger one is Bathukamma which is immersed in water.
There is a unique name for each day and a different food/ prashad offering:
1. Engili pula bathukamma (betel leaf)
2. Atkula bathukamma (poha prasad)
3. Muddhapappu bathukamma (dal)
4. Nanabiyam bathukamma (soaked rice dosa)
5. Atla bathukamma (dosa)
6. Aligena (sad) – the festival is getting over, so they all feel sad
7. Vepakaya bathukamma (neem)
8. Vennamuddhagala bathukamma (ghee+atta)
9. Saddulu bathukamma, the grand finale – a big ball made of cooked rice, sugar, curd and pickle is carried along to the water’s edge and everyone partakes of it after the immersion
On Dussehra day, the sighting of the Palapitta — Indian roller Bird is said to be auspicious. This is the state bird of Telangana and becoming increasingly difficult to spot
