Bathukamma: Bathukamma, a floral festival of Telangana is being celebrated in Telangana from September 25 to October 3 this year.

This festival is being observed as the state festival of Telangana since the state’s inception in 2014.

Key Points:

• The state’s nine-day official celebration got underway on the 25th of September 2022.
• The primary festivities will take place on the third of the next month, which is Saddula Bathukamma.
• The Union Ministry of Culture has announced that this festival, for the first time, will be celebrated at the India Gate.
• The celebrations will be in line with the Telangana/Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations.
• Telangana/Hyderabad Liberation Day was organized earlier this month, when the national flag was hoisted in Hyderabad by Home Minister Amit Shah.
• Meanwhile, the Telangana government has started the distribution of 1 crore Bathukamma sarees for this festive occasion.
• The initiative was started by the Telangana government in 2017 to support weavers in the state.

About Bathukamma:

• Bathukamma is a flower festival celebrated mainly in Telangana and several parts of Andhra Pradesh.

• Bathukamma means ‘Goddess of Life’.

• It is a collection of flowers stacked one layer at a time and rising in a series of concentric circles like the gopuram in South Indian temples.
• It is made using locally grown flowers like Thangedu puvvulu (Cassia auriculata), Gummadi puvvulu (Cucurbita), Gunugu puvvu (Celosia), Vaama puvvulu (Ajwain), Banthi puvvu (Marigold), Chamanthi puvvulu (Chrysanthemum) etc.
• It is a 9-day festival and is celebrated based on Sathavahana calendar.
• It usually falls on September or October, during the latter half of monsoon, before the onset of winter.
• Women create symbolic representations of Bodemma (Goddess Gauri) during the first seven days of this festival using clay and tiny Bathukammas.
• The final day of this festival is called Saddula Bathukamma.

• It involves the preparation of huge Bathukammas on special plate and womenfolk singing and dancing around it.

• Bathukammas are then taken out in a procession to be immersed a river or any nearby waterbody.
• The flowers used in Bathukamma are capable of purifying water in ponds and tanks.
• The festival concludes a day before the Dasara Festival.