World’s largest Tribal Festival (sammakka Saralamma Jatara )

#sammakkasarakkamedarumjatara
Significance of Sammakka Saralamma Jatara:

Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is a tribal festival.
It is a State Festival of Telangana.
Devotees offer jiggery (called by devotees as Bangaram, meaning GOLD) of a quantity equal to their weight to the Goddess.
It is the World’s largest Tribal Festival and the largest religious tribal congregation in the World.
The Jatara is being celebrated once in two years (Bi-annual) in the month of Magha (January/February) for a period of 4 days.Symbolic representation of the Goddesses is represented with turmeric (Goddess Sarakka) and Vermillion (Goddess Sammakka).
The devotees (exclusively various tribal races) come from states of Chattisgarh, Orissa, AP, MP, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Each day importance of Jathra :

Day 1
The First Day of Medaram Jatra is celebrated as the arrival of Goddess Saralamma. Saralamma will be brought from Kanneboyinapalli (a neighboring village in the forest) in the evening and placed on Gadde, the Sanctorum of this Jatara.

Day 2
The Second Day of Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is being celebrated as the arrival of Goddess SAMMAKKA, the presiding deity of Medaram Jatara. The Goddess will be brought from Chilukala Gutta in the evening and will be placed on Holy Gadde. Normally, the Goddess is in the form of Vermillion (Kumkuma barine in Telugu). There are two Gaddes (an earthen platform raised under the tree) separately one for Goddess SAMMAKKA and other for Goddess SARALAMMA. The Tribal priest beings Bamboo sticks and placed on Gadde. The Goddess are represented by Bamboo sticks smeared with turmeric (Goddess Saralamma) and vermillion (Goddess Samakka).

Day 3
The Third Day is the most important day of the Jatara. On this hody day, Magha Suddha Pournima, the Goddess SAMMAKKA SARALAMMA Darshan is available to devotees. Devotees perform holy bath in Jampanna Gaggu (It is a tributary to river Godavari) and visit the Goddess to seek blessings of Goddess Sammakka and Saralamma.

Day 4
The final day of the Jatara. On this last day, the deities are taken back into the forest to the Goddess original places. This ceremony is called as Vanapravesham (Entering the forest)


Transport

The jatara venue is situated at about 100 km from @Warangal, 170 km from @Karimnagar, 115 km from @Godavarikhani and 250 km from @Hyderabad.

Until 1978, the only way to reach Medaram was by a bullock cart. In 1978 then the Andhra Pradesh State Government declared the 1000-yr old festival as official and laid down a motorable road. TSRTC runs multiple buses to the venue during the jatara period. Also, many private vehicles render their services for plying the visitors. People suffering with poisonous and dangerous evil powers can be taken to this Sacred Jatara and get rid of them immediately.

Jatara is very well facilitated with roads, drinking water, sanitation, health and hygiene by the Government of Telangana

@Ritual

Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is a Hindu festival, held at about 100km from Warangal city. It is the time for the largest tribal congregation in the world, held every two years (biennial), with approximately ten million people converging on the place, over a period of four days. Many tribal devotees from different states of India (Andra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and parts of Jharkhand) reach to the festive place to celebrate the Jatara.

People offer bellam (jaggery) to their weight to the goddesses and take holy bath in Jampanna Vagu (stream).

In 2008, nearly 8 million people were estimated to have attended the festival. And in 2012, the gatherings in the jatara are roughly estimated to be 10 million. This fair is said to be the largest repeating congregation of tribal communities in the world.

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