Warangal: The rewas no sign of water in Jampannavagu (stream), however, it didn’t dampen the spirit of the devotees who turned to Medaram on the first day of the four-day Sammakka and Saralamma jatara on Wednesday.

Devotees taking a holy dip in Jampannavagu before offering their obeisance to the Adivasi deities - Sammakka and Saralamma - is an age-old tradition at Medaram, a tiny village in Tadvai mandal of Mulugu district. The rituals followed at the mini jatara are much like the main carnival. The only change is that the tribal deities will not be brought to the altars like in the main jatara.

As a tradition, the Siddaboina clan headed the rituals by, known as manda melige, cleaning the Sammakka temple in Medaram. A couple of kilometers away, the Kaka clan priests spruced up the Saralamma temple at Kannepalli, thus signaling the commencement of the jatara on ‘Magha Suddha Pournami’.

Both the temples were decorated with mango-leave festoons besides installing a dhwaja stambam. The priests offered a country rooster to the deities and hung it at the main entrance of the village and also at the entrance of the main temple.

Predicting around 20 lakh devotees in four days, the district administration made arrangements with an estimated cost of Rs 5.30 crore. In addition to this, the Endowment Ministry had allocated Rs 60 lakh. As many as 320 showers have been installed along the dried-up Jampannavagu (stream) bathing ghat for the devotees to have holy baths.

The government deputed 1,950 employees, including 1,000 police, for the smooth conduct of the jatara. In the past, a large number of devotees, especially tribal communities, used to make a beeline to Medaram only during the main jatara. However, the scenario changed in the last couple of decades as the jatara started to attract the non-tribals as well. Currently, the non-tribal devotees outnumbered the tribals.