On Sunday, Telangana will celebrate the ‘Asha Bonalu’ festival, one of the state’s largest traditional folk festivals. Last year, the state government cancelled the event due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. After the state was formed in 2014, the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led government declared the Bonalu festival a’state festival.’
Thousands of devotees offer the traditional ‘bonam’ (derived from Bhojanam, meaning meals) to the goddess Mahankali at 25 temples across Hyderabad and Secunderabad during the Bonalu festival. The ‘golden bonam,’ the first of these offerings, will be made to the goddess Jagdamba at the tavern.
Because many women were prevented from properly making their offerings last year due to the Covid-19 curbs, the Bonalu festival, which lasts a month, is expected to see a large influx of female devotees this year. Thousands of devotees are expected to throng the temple grounds on weekdays, according to reports.
After Telangana conducted a mass Covid-19 vaccination drive, Bonalu is the first festival allowed this year. Officials familiar with the situation told news organisations that both the state police and temple authorities will be supervising the crowd and ensuring proper adherence to coronavirus-related protocols to reduce the risk of virus spread.
Every year in the Telugu month of Ashadham (June/July), the Bonalu festival is commemorated. Devotees worship Goddess Mahankali (a form of Durga) in order to obtain her divine blessings and be cured of diseases.
To commemorate ‘Bonalu,’ devotees prepare ‘bonam’ (cooked rice, milk, and jaggery) in new earthen pots (ghatams), which women carry to the temple on their heads and offer to the deity. Neem leaves, turmeric, and vermilion are used to decorate the pots.
The Bonalu celebrations start on the first Friday of Ashadham month and last until the end of the month. The main festivities begin in the first week at the Goddess Mahankali temple in Golconda fort, then move on to the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad, the Akkanna Madanna temple in Shalibanda, and finally the Mahankali temple at Laldarwaza in Hyderabad’s old city.
