CM Revanth wants to reflect Adivasi culture and rituals in Telangana state's new emblem
Adilabad: Adivasi activists are enthused by the decision of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to include images of Medaram Sammakka Saralamma and Nagoba goddesses in the new Telangana state emblem.
Sammakka (mother) and Saralamma (daughter) were considered Adivasi warriors who fought against the Kakatiya rulers' oppressive actions as also suppression of their rights. The Medaram Jatara that takes place in Mulugu district is considered the biggest Adivasi congregation and festival in the Asian continent.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Medaram Sammakka Saralamma temple priests’ association president Siddaboyina Jaggarao said, “We have been offering pujas and Jaggery (bangaram) to the Narapa tree by considering it sacred and auspicious.”
He said it would be good if an image of a Narapa tree wrapped in saris is incorporated in the Telangana emblem as a symbol of Adivasi culture.
“The Narapa tree that was in the premise of the Medaram temple for many years was uprooted in rains and heavy winds a few years ago,” said Jaggarao. He said they had planted a new tree in the same place and raising it by erecting a fence around it.
Jaggarao said right now they have a trunk of the fallen Narapa tree and sarees wrapped around it. They also keep a few bamboo tree branches beside it and are worshipping and offering jaggery to these by symbolically considering them as their traditional Sammakka and Saralamma goddesses.
“There is special significance to bamboo, turmeric and ‘Kunkuma’ in our rituals,” he averred.
Nagoba Alaya Peetham’s head Mesram Venkat Rao noted that chief minister Revanth Reddy was sentimentally attached to the Nagoba temple at Keslapur in Indravelli and goddess Nagoba (serpentine god) and added that Revanth Reddy visited Nagoba temple and took the god’s blessings after he took charge as CM.
He said it would be good if an image of the Nagoba idol is incorporated into the Telangana state emblem.
Venkat Rao recalled that Revanth Reddy even made a personal donation for a ‘Muradi’ building construction there, after becoming the PCC president. This was for the safe upkeep of adivasis’ traditional Nagoba idols. ‘Muradi’ in Gondi language means a sacred place for keeping idols of their gods.
Notably, the former BRS government had announced the Nagoba Jatara as a state festival. Mesram clan adivasis from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh attend the Nagoba Jatara every year.
The Mesram Adivasis walk to River Godavari from the Nagoba temple to collect the sacred water in Kalasham and purify the Nagoba idol with it on the day of Maha Puja after returning to the temple.