Hyderabad: Bathukamma, Telangana’s famed festival, goes to Solapur, the land of textiles in Maharashtra for the first time.
Bharat Jagruthi headed by TRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha is organising the “Bathukamma Sambaralu” at Punjal Maidan in Solapur on Sunday and a team from Hyderabad are camping to oversee the arrangements.
After Telangana Rashtra Samithi supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao turned TRS into Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to test political waters at national level, its cultural wing Bharat Jagruthi too is following suit.
Solapur has a huge Telugu population, mostly weavers (Padmashali) community settled since ages; the town was once Textile hub of India. Padmashalis are into textiles business and known for Solapur chaddars (bedsheets), which are famous all over the country and world.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had recently visited Solapur, Kolhapur, Nanded and other places in Maharashtra to organise BRS party and has got a favourable response.
Though full-fledged BRS units are yet to be formed in Maharashtra where the party sees a bright future, BRS is entering Solapur in a big way through Bathukamma festival to involve the local women and others.
“We have decided to organise Bathukamma festivities in Solapur since there is a huge Telugu population of weavers’ community settled a long time ago. The response is very good. Bathukamma is a very popular festival in Telangana State and we plan to take it to other parts of the country,” Naveen Achari, Bharat Jagruthi General Secretary said.
According to Arunraj Sherikar, Sangareddy District Youth President, the response is good for the first major Bathukamma festival in Solapur, especially from the Telugu community.
Bharat Jagruthi founder president and MLC, Kalvakuntla Kavitha will be the chief guest at the festivities. Gold coins are being presented to best performers.
BRS has appointed Dasarath Narayan Gop, hailing from Padmashali community as Solapur City BRS in-charge and he is coordinating along with Nagesh Valyal and others in making Bathukamma festival a big success.
Bathukamma means “Mother Goddess comes alive.” It’s a spring festival of Goddess Gauri, one of the names of Goddess Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva and mother of Lord Ganesh. It also symbolizes the patron of Goddess womanhood. Bathukamma is a nine-day festival beginning Mahalaya Amavasya.
During the festival, women seek prosperity, happiness, good health for themselves and their families besides unmarried women hope of a good spouse. They invoke the blessings of Goddesses.
Bathukamma festival, a symbol of Telangana culture and identity like Bonalu, got a big push after the formation of Telangana State on June 2, 2014 and is backed by the State.
