Bathukamma Festival

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Bathukamma festival will be celebrated at the India Gate with the Telugu people living in the nation’s capital, prominent personalities and even lady officers under the aegis of the Culture Ministry.

Bathukamma Festival

• Bathukamma festival is celebrated for nine days during Durga Navratri.
• It comes during the latter half of monsoon, before the onset of winter. It falls two days before Dassera.
• The most abundant of these flowers are – ‘gunuka’ and ‘tangedu’.
• The ‘shilpakka pandlu’ (or ‘sitaphalalu’), custard apples or  ‘poor man’s apple’, are great attraction during this season.
• The word Bathukamma means- ‘Mother Goddess come to life’. 
• The festival represents cultural spirit of Telangana.It is the state festival of Telangana.
• The festival is celebrated to pray to the Goddess for health and achievements of each family. 
• During the festival, flowers arranged and decorated on a big plat in conical shape in seven layers and this arrangement is called as Bathukamma.
• The flowers are carefully arranged row after row in a brass plate (called ‘taambalam’) in circular rows and in alternate colours.
• All the women are dressed colorfully and form a circle around ‘Bathukamma’ and dance before immersing it to the nearest water body.