Home | Warangal |Sammakka Saralamma jathara:
The undeterred resolve, honesty, uprightness and courage of two Girijan women, Sammakka and Saralamma, pitted against the might of cruel kind, symbolizing in short the spirit of the girijans in the face of odds, forms the sprit of the bi-annual Sammakka Saralamma jathara held in forests of Medaram in Eturnagaram mandal in Warangal district. This is the biggest Girijan festival held here. Medaram is a small village in the forest. Here Sammakka Jathara is celebrated once in two years on a very large - scale for three days before Magha Purnima Sammakka is a tribal goddess and the patrons and the priests are Koyas (A caste in tribals). All the tribals of Mulugu area and the thousands of other Hindus congregate there during the celebrations. There is no permanent idol of the deity.
A 50-acre forest expanse would be used for the purpose, which is situated 110 km from the Warangal district headquarters on the banks of river. The jathara begins on Magha shuddha Purnima and continues for four days.
Offerings are made to the goddesses with jaggery. About four lakh devotees worshipped the deities in the 1996 jathara. Though the State government realized the importance in 1952, it did not take any concrete measures to popularize it till 1982.
A Koya tribal boy, who gets a vision before the festival, roams about in the forest for a week without food and sleep and finally brings the goddess in the farm of vermilion caskets. One representing the main duty Sammakka and the other her daughter Sarakka both tied to a piece of bamboo.This is installed on an earthen platform raised under a tree. Animals are sacrificed and vows are redeemed, intoxicants are widely used. Hundreds of people who are often possessed by the goddess come there dancing ecstatically throughout their journey. The special offering to the deity is jaggery, which collects, in huge piles. Those who fulfill vows offer jaggery equal to their weight and jaggery is distributed as prasadam. More than 2lakh of people congregate every day. They came in motorized vehicles, bullock carts, on foot in thousands causing an unprecedented traffic jam from Medaram whose tail could be traced 26 km away towards Warangal.
Transport:
The APSRTC will be operating 3,159 special buses in view of seven-day Samakka-Saralamma jatara to be held from February 5 in Medaram village of Warangal. These buses will operate from 45 traffic generating points located for the first time.
APSRTC will also be operating the jatara special buses in the twin cities. It has proposed to operate super luxury and express buses from MGBS, Jagadgirigutta, Borabonda and Uppal X roads at every 30 minutes directly to Medaram village.