MEDARAM (WARANGAL): As the intensity of drums increased outside the Saralamma temple at Kannepalli village, the tribal priests who had been performing prayers for hours to invite Saralamma into Medaram stepped out.
Amid cries from the scores of devotees waiting outside the temple, the tribal deity Saralamma was brought out in the form of a vermilion casket as tribal women danced in a trance.
As the priests, believed to have been possessed by the goddess herself, made their way to Medaram, devotees competed to touch them and laid down on the ground asking to be stepped on.
Cops pushed away the frenzied crowd and formed a circle around the priests.
Tribals attired traditionally danced in gay abandon to the beats of the drums while some flung chickens, slitting them midair as an offering to the goddess.
While the procession neared the altar at Medaram, devotees who queued up outside the temple tried to force their way near the altar. The procession entered the temple and installed goddess Saralamma on the altar. With this, the biggest tribal fair of Asia officially began.
Endowments minister A. Indrakaran Reddy and Mahabubabad MP Seetharam Naik took part in the procession along with joint collector Prashanth J. Patil.
Earlier in the day home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy visited the temple. The jatara will conclude on February 20.
