HYDERABAD: The nine-day colourful Bathukamma festival culminated on Sunday. Saddula Bathukamma, which falls two days before the Dasara festival, ended on a grand note in the city, with Tank Bund and other water bodies being the main attraction of the celebrations.
Over 20,000 women dressed in their best traditional attire performed Bathukamma to traditional songs of the state festival and tonnes of flowers were immersed in the Bathukamma Ghat on the Tank Bund road and other water tanks. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s wife K Shoba and daughter, K Kavitha, Cabinet ministers, political leaders and others took part in the Saddula Bathukamma celebrations.
The festival is the cultural signature of Telangana and its pride. Bathukammas are beautiful flower stacks, arranged with different unique seasonal flowers most of them with medicinal values in concentric layers in the shape of temple Gopuram.
The brilliantly lit Tank Bund saw fireworks lasting for about 10-15 minutes marking the finale of the festival. Colourful laser lighting along with other extensive arrangements marked a tribute to the State festival.
Also, a series of cultural programmes by the tourism department was organised at the ghat which received accolades from all. The entire Hussainsagar area was decorated with lights and flowers. Apart from Tank Bund, Saddula Bathukamma was organised in a befitting manner in many colonies in the city. A colourful rally with women carrying Bathukammas was taken out from LB Stadium towards Tank Bund Road.