The growing popularity of the biennial Sammakka-Saralamma fair at Medar-am village in Tadwai mandal has now led to over a dozen ‘mini-Medarams’ being organised at various places across Warangal much to the displeasure of Adivasi leaders.
As both mother daughter Sammakka-Saralamma are historically connected to the Medaram village (Pagididda Raju, husband of Sammakka, ruled it during the Kakatiyan era), the celebration of the biennial festival other than in Medaram has become a serious issue of debate among tribals.
Such is the popularity assumed by these unrecognised ‘mini-Medaram’ jataras that a few are known to attract even lakhs of devotees during every season. They are organised closely on the lines of the original in most aspects especially in terms of the traditional ritual practices followed at the original Medaram temple.
Interestingly, these mini-Medarams blurs the significance of key places like Jampannavagu, Chilakala-gutta hillock and Kannepally village, which are an intrinsic part of the original Medaram festival.
Therefore, for these unrecognised mini-Medarams, there are no substitutes for Kannepalli village and Chilakalgutta hillock, the two places from where the symbolic figures of Saralamma and Sammakka are brought in a long procession before installing them at the altar of Medaram temple every two years.
As of now, after the original one at Medaram village, the one celebrated at Agrampahad village in Atmakur mandal, 20 km from city, attracted an estimated five lakh devotees on Thursday.
Just like the original Medaram, the one at Agrampahad too had its usual share of pre-jatara review meetings by revenue and endowment department officials besides receiving patronage from politicians.
The TRS district convenor, Mr Peddi Suders-han Reddy and BJP state chief Mr G. Kishan Reddy was among the high profile visitors to Agrampahad Medaram jatara on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Other popular mini-Me-daram jataras in Warangal are based at Jogampalli (Shyampet mandal), Ammavari peta (Kazipet rural), Lingampally (Station Ghanpur mandal), Kantatmakur (Parkal mandal), Nagarajapally (Nallavelli mandal) and Kutigal (Maddur mandal).
However, Adivasi leaders from the Koya sect, which originally started the tradition of Sammakka-Saralamma jatara at Medaram several centuries ago, have raised objections to these mini-Medaram jataras despite the fact that Koya priests are roped in to conduct the rituals.
“There is a threat of loss of grandeur and the sanctity of the original Medaram festival in course of time as people may not bother to understand the reason why this particular place was chosen to conduct the biennial fair,” said Mr Siddab-oyana Lakshminarayana, the state vice-president of Tudem Debba (a group of forest tribals), while demanding a ban on them.
In the past, the Tudem Debba leaders have published and distributed pa-mphlets and ‘white-papers’ against these mini-Med-aram jataras and blamed the district administration for patronising them.
