Hyderabad: Pomp and joy on Sunday marked Mahankali Jatra, the annual festival of Secunderabad, popularly known as Lashkar Bonalu. Thousands of people, including the chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao Telangana ministers and central minister packed the temple Ujjaini Mahankali in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad.
KCR and their families performed puja and offered ‘vastralu Pattu’ (silk clothes) to the goddess. Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya also visited the temple and perform puja.
Telangana ministers also made many offerings to celebrate the occasion. A large number of devotees, most of them women, visited the temple and offered ‘Bonalu’ the goddess.
The festival will conclude on Monday with ‘Rangam’ (the anticipation of a future for the next year), followed by a colorful procession of the goddess on an elephant.
It is expected that over five lakh people to participate in the festival this year Bonalu. Bonalu – dedicated to the goddess of power, Mahankali or Kali – is celebrated in some parts of Hyderabad and Secunderabad during Ashada Masam (July-August). Also known as Ashada Utsavalu Jatra is held on three different Sundays in different places in the Twin Cities.
Golconda Mahankali festival is held in the historical fortress of Golconda Sunday. The most popular celebrations will be held next Sunday in Akanna Madanna Lal Darwaza temple in the old city of Hyderabad, followed by a huge procession. This is the second Bonalu after forming the state of Telangana.
It is officially celebrated as the Telangana state government declared the winner. The festival is celebrated to ward off evil and usher in peace. It is believed that the festival was held for the first time more than 150 years after a major outbreak of cholera.
People believed that the epidemic was caused by the wrath of Mahankali and began offering ‘Bonalu’ to placate. Women offer ‘Bonalu’ – comprising cooked rice, jaggery, curd and water turmeric – is put in steel and clay pots to temples.
People think Ujjaini Mahankali Temple was built in 1813 by Suriti Appaiah, who was a carrier in the Indian Army. He was on a mission to the city of Ujjain where thousands of people died from a cholera outbreak.
It is said to have visited the Maha Kali temple in Ujjain and took an oath to install an idol of the goddess in Secunderabad if all his platoon survived the epidemic.
