Avoid violence during Banni Fight, officials tell villagers around temple

ANANTAPUR: Peace is advised as the villages are bracing for the annual Banni Fight during the Vijayadasami festival at the Devaragattu Mala Malleswara Swamy temple in Holagunda mandal of Kurnool district.

The district administration held meetings with the villagers, urging them to stay away from acts of violence act. A tradition is for people of the villages surrounding the Mala Malleswara Swamy Temple to have fight with sticks to take hold of the idol. This results in serious injuries to many participants.

Kurnool collector Koteswar Rao and SP Siddarth Kowsel participated in the meeting with the connecting villages and urged the inhabitants to avoid any act of violence. The tradition of using sticks was likely have evolved from the efforts to bring the Utsava Idols from the hilltop area to the village and the idea was not to attack each other with hard sticks, they said.

“The actual tradition was sidelined and the people began engaging in violence on holy day,” the collector said and recalled that Scanda, Padma and Brahmanda Purana tells devotees that Guruvaiah has to offer three drops of blood and not every villager through violence.

The collector also urged the women to encourage their husbands to avoid acts of violence while taking part in the holy festival.

SP Siddarth Kowsel said the police have received directions from the human rights commission to take action against those who indulge in violence. CC cameras will be installed in sensitive locations to keep track of the situation, he added.