Telangana: Devotees throng Medaram tribal shrine in large numbers

Though the jatara is organised biennially, mini-jatara is being held for once in every year by the Koya priests.

Mulugu: Devotees in large numbers have thronged the Medaram Sammakka-Sarakka shrine for the third consecutive day of the ongoing ‘Mini-Medaram’ jatara at Medaram village of SS Tadvai mandal in the district on Friday. Though the jatara is organised biennially, mini-jatara is being held for once in every year by the Koya priests. While the mini-jatara commenced on Wednesday with the cleansing of the shrine, the worshipping of the altars (Gaddelu)  and ‘village confinement’ was also held on the same day.

The traditional archana with turmeric and vermillion for Sammakka and Sarakka was conducted on Thursday. Though the devotees started visiting the shrine a week ago, they have paid obeisance to the tribal deities on Friday.

U Chandrashekhar, a devotee from Karimnagar, said that they prefer visiting the Medaram shrine during the biennial jatara, but this time they had come this year too. He, however, expressed satisfaction over the arrangements made at the shrine by the State government.

Meanwhile, former MP from Mahabubabad Azmeera Seetaram Naik, who visited the shrine on Friday, reiterated the long-pending demand for declaring the Medaram jatara, which is Asia’s biggest tribal congregation, as the ‘national festival’ by the Central government. “I raised my voice on the floor of Lok Sabha demanding the ‘national festival status’ to the Medaram jatara several times. Even the Telangana State government also urged the Centre to declare the jatara as the ‘national festival’, but it has fallen to the deaf ears at the Centre,” he said, adding that a  tribal national festival called ‘Vanaz’ is being organised in North India. He, however, said that the State government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was organising the festival as a ‘State festival’ and Rs 100 crore were spent on the jatara held in the last year.

 

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