Amaravati: Anthill soil from 16,000 villages to be collected for AP capital foundation

GUNTUR: Putta matti (mud from anthills) from 16,000 villages and 3,000 wards of Andhra Pradesh will be collected in copper kalasams for laying the foundation of the capital city of Amaravati under the Mana Neeru-Mana Matti programme.

Nearly 20,000 kalasams will be used for the foundation laying programme on October 22.

According to Hindu belief, putta matti is holy soil and hence the government is raising the sentiment for the Amaravati foundation programme.

Putta matti will be collected from the Eesanyam (northeast) of every village in an ochre cloth bag and kept in kalasams in places of worship for benediction. Water from local water bodies will also be collected.

The collected matti and neeru, after performing pujas, would be shifted to mandal centers/municipal offices on October 16, then taken to assembly constituency centers and on October 19, shifted to district headquarters with banners displaying, “Mana rajadhani Amaravati, mana neeru-mana matti”.

The kalasams will reach Acharya Nagarjuna University on October 19 and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will flag off the rally on October 20 to Amaravati where the collected water will be mixed with waters of holy rivers of the state and country and used in the Sankhusthapana programme.

Telugus have been using putta matti for centuries in religious rituals, household uses and for the treatment of skin-related diseases.

For Maha Sivarathri, anthill soil is used to make Shiva idols. It is also used for plastering of clay walls and floors in villages. Interestingly, farmers would also use anthill soil for the improvement of soil of their farmlands. They would use 10 kg anthill soil for an acre of farmland for the improvement of soil texture and clay content. The practice has all but disappeared in local villages but is still in practice in South African countries.