BHUPALPALLY: The Medaram jatara came to an end on Saturday with both deities— Sammakka, Saralamma— getting back to the forest. The priests performed traditional rituals and conducted ‘Vana Pravesham’ of the goddesses amid drum beats and colourful dances by devotees.Sammakka was taken back to Chilukalagutta, whereas Saralamma was taken to Kannepalli village, Pagiddaraju to Poonugondlu village in Kothaguda and Govindaraju returned to Kondayi village in Eturnagaram. The ‘Vana Pravesham’ ritual began around 5 pm and was completed at 9 pm. The goddesses were put back to their respective pedestals. With this the four-day jatara came to an end.
The Koya priests and lakhs of devotees offered Eduku Kollu as their offering of chicken and later consumed them as prasadam.Devotees consume liquor (Ippa Sara) and also meat as prasadam.
On the last day, several prominent personalities including chief secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, former union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, special chief secretary of energy department Ajay Mishra, tourism secretary B Venkatesham and others offered prayer to goddesses.
wrap-up
1.2 CRORE
devotees thronged Medaram for the tribal festival and offered prayers to Sammakka and Saralammma
Rs 16 CRORE
was collected last year through hundis kept at the temple, of which 50 pc was distributed among priests and Koya tribal and rest was spent on infrastructure. However, the collection is likely to go up this year.
The cleaning of the venue will be taken up on Sunday. It will take over two days to clear the entire garbage from the venue
Medaram village wore a deserted look on Saturday evening as pilgrims left the place. A large number of people were seen carrying their luggage on bullock carts, trolleys, tractors, auto rickshaws, cars, mini buses and getting back to their homes.