Four Day Medaram Jatara Concluded on Grand Note
WARANGAL: The four-day Medaram jatara, the Telangana Kumbh Mela, concluded here on Saturday the Goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma returning into the forests.
Right from the afternoon, temple priests performed prayers in the Adivasi tradition. Following this, at the head of a huge procession, they took Goddess Sammakka, (in the form of Kumkuma Bharani) back Chilakalagutta at the fall of dusk, and Goddess Saralamma to Kannepalli.
Officials estimated that around 80 lakh people had darshan of the presiding deities from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening after taking a bath in the pushkarini at Jampanna vagu, They offered their weight in bangaram (jaggery), bangles, hens, coins, bells, rice (Vodi Biyyam), hair, money, gold and silver.
Many families stayed back at Medaram for the duration of the festival, having camped in the ‘tent city’ that had sprung up at the village. Pilgrims formed long queues at the RTC stand to take buses back home.
Around 4,000 members of sanitation workers intensified the sanitation works of removing wastes, garbage, covers, used up materials, spraying of bleaching powder and cleaning the surroundings of the Medaram temple to prevent spread of contagious diseases.