Overview
- The nine-day Bathukamma festival began on Saturday, Oct. 10 with Engili Pula marking the first day of rituals and communal gatherings.
- Women and girls across Hyderabad, Hanumakonda, Warangal and smaller towns assembled layered floral arrangements using seasonal flowers such as tangedu, gunugu, marigold and chrysanthemum and danced while singing traditional folk songs.
- Devotees performed day-specific offerings on the first day, including a mixture of sesame seeds, rice flour and broken rice, and plan to continue the sequence of food rituals through Oct. 18.
- State agencies and ministers are staging public events, releasing official Bathukamma songs and organising venues while urging protection of lakes and other waterbodies used for the traditional immersion rites.
- The festival reinforces women’s social networks and Telangana’s cultural identity by linking post-monsoon floral abundance to shared community rites that will culminate in Saddula Bathukamma ahead of Dasara on Oct. 20.