ADILABAD: The annual Nagoba Jatara began on a grand note at the Keslapur Nagoba temple in Indervelli mandal on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. Considered the second largest tribal festival, after the biennial Medaram Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, the Jatara is an important annual religious affair for the Adivasis.
The members of the Mesram clan are the custodians of the temple and are the ones who perform holy rituals to the sacred deity of Nagoba during the Jatara. As per the traditions, the members of the clan will offer prayers in the temple on the new moon day of Pushya month, which will mark the commencement of the celebrations.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Jatara, members of the clan who fetched holy water in earthen pots from the Godavari river arrived at the temple and performed traditional prayers to the shrine.
Speaking to Express, Mesram Manohar, a clan elder, said: “15 days prior to the Jatara, about 70 members of the clan reached the temple, offered prayers and set out, on foot, to fetch Godavari water from Hasanmadugu in Jannaram mandal. They returned two days ago and tied the pots to the branch of a banyan tree.” All members of the clan, living in various parts of the country, gather in the temple, one day prior to the Jatara, and camp under the banyan tree.
Meanwhile, the clan members will also conduct Bheting, the most endearing of ceremonies during the Jatara, wherein they introduce their new daughters-in-law to the serpent god and the village elders, only after which the women would be declared Mesrams.