Bathukamma: Telangana’s flower festival

Hyderabad: Bathukamma is a festival that is celebrated in the State of Telangana. It represents the cultural spirit of the State. Bathukamma means the ‘festival of life’ and is celebrated to thank goddess Parvati for her blessings. This festival originates from a story where the king and queen were finally blessed by a daughter. She was named Bathukamma.

Once she was insulted by a Rakshas (demon) and couldn’t handle it, so she died by jumping into a fire. The people of the kingdom reminisced her loss by making a stack of flowers and singing and dancing around it for nine days during the Navratri every year.

Bathukamma is a flower stack made with unique seasonal flowers like marigold, chrysanthemum, katla, teku, etc. Most of the flowers have medicinal value. When dispersed in water, it is believed that it helps in cleaning the water bodies. Bathukamma symbolises the patron goddess of womanhood, it is a festival for female felicitation. Women and girls dress up traditionally and gather together and form a circle around Bathukamma and celebrate by singing folk songs and dancing around the floral arrangement. Then the women carry the Bathukamma on their heads and move as a procession towards a water body. The procession is extremely glittering. When they reach the water body, the Bathukamma is slowly immersed into the water. Then they share sweets.

Bathukamma in today’s time signifies the importance of preserving a cultural legacy and it’s all about meeting loved ones and celebrating it together.

Nishka Reddy
class: IX-A,
DPS Nacharam

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