Bathukamma - Floral Festival

Bathukamma, literally a celebration of life is an important part of the cultural renaissance movement of Telangana the youngest state of Indian Republic. Accorded as the state festival Bathukamma is celebrated primarily by women which starts with colorful flowers that grow exclusively in each region and culminates in a water body. This festival is truly a symbol of Telanganas cultural identity and is a unique tribute to nature which is vibrant and colorful.

Celebrated during Navarathris for 9 days, Bathukamma comes every year during the latter half of the monsoon, and begins on the day of Bhadrapada / Mahalaya Amavasya and concludes on Ashwayuja Asthami, based on the lunar calendar just before the onset of Winter. This festival honors Goddess Gouri on the name of Bathukamma where the women seek her blessings for prosperity and good health. Started centuries ago Bathukamma is celebrated as a grand cultural event even today in the region.

Colors, Flowers and water are all intrinsic to the festival which celebrates the inherent relationship between earth, water and the human beings. During the entire preceding week, women make boddemma (a deity of Gowri - mother Durga - made with earthly mud) along with Bathukamma and placed on top of conical flower arrangements that signify both life and eternity in their colours. The goddess is created each year and immersed dyring the 10th day of the festival in local water bodies.

The monsoon rains usually brings plenty of water into the fresh water ponds and it is also the time when wild flowers bloom in various vibrant colours all across the uncultivated and narrein plains of the region. The most abundant of these are gunuka poolu and tangedi poolu. There are other flowers too like the banti, chemanti, nandivardhanam, katla, beera, etc. which add up to the beauty of this colorful festival.