Telangana: Polala Festival Celebrates Bond Between Farmers And Cattle
The festival is also associated with ‘Baruvu Dimpudu’: Reports
INDRAVELLI: The Polala festival, also known as the ‘Bail Pola’ festival, reflects the relationship between farmers and domestic animals – particularly bullocks and cows - and is celebrated with religious fervour in the bordering districts of Maharashtra and the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Farmers celebrate Polala Amavasya as a mark of gratitude to cattle for their role in agricultural operations. Though cows have a limited role in farm work, farmers decorate them along with bullocks.
The festival is also associated with ‘Baruvu Dimpudu’, which means not engaging bullocks in agricultural work on the day and giving them a holiday. Family members perform Harati to the cattle, while farmers apply turmeric to the roughened skin around the animals’ necks and perform the ‘Baruvu Dimpudu’ ritual.
Farmers purchase decorative items such as ‘Gungurlu’, ‘Patteelu’, ‘Gajjelu’, ‘Kotha Mukuthadu’, ‘small mirror’, ‘bgygada’, ‘Kuchulu’, ‘Paggam’ and ‘Mogudallu’ from weekly shandies and shops. Shops have been seeing a rush as farmers buy the items ahead of the festival.
Bullock owners offer sweets (Naivedyam) to the animals and decorate them with balloons, colourful clothes, coloured paper on their horns, bells around their necks and legs, and a small mirror on the forehead.
The animals are given a bath in local streams in the morning before the decorations.
Farmers also buy specially designed clothes to decorate their cattle and prepare Puranpoli as an offering. Some tie caps made of peacock feathers and colourful balloons to the animals’ horns before taking them to Lord Hanuman or to Mahadev temples for a procession.
Villagers, including women and children, gather at the temples to watch the cattle paraded around them to the beat of drums. Farmers perform special rituals in the evening and raise ‘Har Har Mahadev … Har Har Mahadev’ slogans. Some villages also conduct competitions for the best-decorated bullocks.
Farmers also offer new clothes to agricultural workers on Polala.
The following day, celebrated as ‘Bodaga’, they provide liquor and mutton or chicken to the workers. Polala will be observed on September 10 and Bodaga, a day of feast, on Friday in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Marsakola Sarangarao of Mamidiguda village in Adilabad Rural mandal said they would offer specially prepared Naivedyam to the bullocks (Edlu) and apply turmeric and oil to them. He said Polala was an expression of gratitude and nothing but ‘Baruvu Dimpudu’.
Sarangarao said he had bought a new Angi (shirt) and ‘White Thuvval’ (towel) for his worker Kodapa Ramu, a Kolam Adivasi from Chelpalaguda village, and would also provide liquor and meat on Bodaga on Friday.
Thudum Vinod of Chanda (T) village in Adilabad mandal said the festive mood had gripped the village, with families preparing to celebrate the event in the traditional manner followed by their forefathers. He said the entire village would participate in the event, which reflected the harmonious relationship between domestic animals and farmers.
Kodapa Telangrao of Lohera village in Adilabad Rural mandal, Thodasam Isru of Heerapur village and Purka Madhavrao of Tatiguda in Indravelli mandal were seen buying decorative items from shops over the past two days for their bulls and cows ahead of the festival.
