Colourful start to Bathukamma

Warangal: The temples were abuzz with women as Telangana’s pride festival Bathukamma got underway on a grand note in the erstwhile Warangal district on Wednesday.

The nine-day festival starts on Mahalaya Amavasya, also known as Pethra Amavasya. The first day was celebrated as Engili Poola Bathukamma. The women shared the naivedyam prepared of sesame seeds with rice flour.

Meanwhile, women clad in traditional clothes made a beeline to the temples across Warangal. Saddula Bathukamma, the finale, which happens at the footsteps of Padmakshi Temple in Hanumakonda and Ursu Rangaleela Maidan in Warangal presents a vibrant view of the floral festival.

At the Thousand Pillars Temple in Hanumakonda, the atmosphere was electric with scores of women playing and dancing around Bathukamma. According to the tradition, the nine-day fiesta culminates with the Saddula Bathukamma also known as Durgashtami with the women immersing Bathukamma in water bodies.