HYDERABAD: Festivities were the order of the day in Secunderabad as thousands of devotees thronged the famous Ujjaini Mahankali temple on the occasion of Bonalu. The same festival will be celebrated in Hyderabad next week.
Lashkar Bonalu started early on Sunday morning, with devotees, especially women and young girls dressed in their traditional best, carrying ‘bonams’ (pots filled with rice, turmeric powder, jaggery, curd and covered with neem leaves and a lamp placed on top) on their heads to be offered to goddess Mahankali at various temples in Secunderabad. ‘Pothrajus’ and ‘Ghatams’ accompanied by triple drumbeats and Telugu folk songs accompanied the procession.
Bonalu is a Hindu festival dedicated to the Mother Goddess and held in the month of Ashadam. It is celebrated to ward off evil and usher in peace and harmony. The festival will conclude on Monday with Rangam (forecasting of future) and a procession of the goddess Mahankali on an elephant. Rangam predictions will be revealed by Swarnalatha, a young unmarried woman at 8.30 a.m on Monday.
Chief minister K.Rosaiah and his wife, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhara Rao, Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi, ministers Gade Venkat Reddy, M.Mukesh Goud, J.Geeta Reddy, senior BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, G.Kishen Reddy and others offered prayers to the goddess. Chiranjeevi was greeted with boos of local leaders chanting slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’.
Separate queues had been formed for the convenience of women, physically challenged and the old. Water sachets and lemon rice were supplied free to devotees. The devotees also thronged different Mahankali temples located in the Kalasiguda, Pan Bazar, Mettuguda, Bhoiguda, RP road, Paradise and Ranigunj. They wore a festive look with specially lighted buntings and festoons and decorated with neem and mango leaves.
The deity at Sri Ujjaini Mahankali Temple was installed in the beginning of 19th century by devotees from Ujjaini, who were soldiers arriving as part of an Army contingent. However, many died due to a cholera outbreak in the region. Some of them returned to Mahankali Devasthanam at Ujjaini and prayed to the goddess to save Telangana from the grip of cholera. Miraculously, cholera disappeared and the grateful soldiers installed an idol of goddess Ujjaini here.
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