1.4 Crore Visit Medaram Jathara By Last Day

The biennial tribal festival of Medaram (in the Warangal district), the Sammakka-Saralamma Jathara, was a huge success, and the four-day fair went off peacefully, according to Telangana Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy.

Speaking to mediapersons on the last day of the jathara, the minister said that over 1.40 crore people from various districts of Telangana and from the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh had thronged the forest temple of Sammakka and Saralamma during the four days of the event.

The State government could conduct the event successfully with the foresight of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and coordinated efforts by the civic, revenue, endowment, police and other departments, he said.

The premises of the temple echoed with the chanting of the goddesses' names, and the devout were soaked in religious fervor. The devotees first took a dip in Jampanna Vagu, a water body on the premises, and witnessed pujas and offered jaggery called "Bangaram" in local parlance to the deities, which is a ritual of the jathara. Ministers, MLAs and VIPs could have a glimpse of the altar of the deities, too.

Elaborate arrangements were made to avoid inconvenience to the visitors at the event, and the TSRTC transported about 10 lakh devotees through its 4,000 fleet of buses.