Ashada Bonalu season has begun in the state, with devotees offering bonam to the Goddess Jagadamba at the Sri Jagadamba Mahankali temple at the Golconda Fort on Thursday
Hyderabad: The Ashada Bonalu season has begun in the state, with devotees offering bonam to the Goddess Jagadamba at the Sri Jagadamba Mahankali temple at the Golconda Fort on Thursday.
Thousands of people thronged to the temple located inside the fort, while artisans performed age-old rituals at the historical place.
A procession to the Golconda Fort started from the Langer Houz crossroads amidst the drum beats, dances, chariots, Pothurajus and ‘Thotelu’. On the way, they picked up the processional idol of the deity from a temple priest’s house at Chotta Bazar. Several women carrying ‘bonam’ joined the procession at Banjara Darwaza.
Unlike the practice of celebrating Bonalu on one Sunday, it is celebrated on Thursdays and Sundays in the first nine days of Ashada month.
The state government offered silk clothes, Bonam and a cheque of `11 lakh through its representatives, who include endowment minister Konda Surekha, and transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar. Legislative Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad also visited the temple on Thursday.
Prabhakar, who was spotted holding the whip of Pothuraju and dancing, caught everyone’s attention. Surekha joined the procession carrying the bonam.
Following an age-old custom, the women belonging to the Kumara Sangham (pot makers) offered the first bonam — 108 bonams — to the goddess. “We have been offering the first bonam to the Goddess for ages. For this festival, we used to make the pots and we used to perform the puja.”
Symbolising the ‘Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb’ of Hyderabad, Muslims arranged water for the people participating in the procession and maintained the traffic.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand oversaw the security arrangements, extended from the Langar Houz intersection to the Golkonda Fort. He had the darshan of Jagadamba and performed special pujas. The police established robust surveillance to prevent incidents like pickpocketing and chain snatching. SHE teams have been strategically deployed to curb eve-teasing.
