Lambada women playing as part of Teej like in Bathukamma |
The nine-day Teej festival celebrated by Lambada
tribal women was similar in many respects to Bathukamma celebrated by women
folk of other communities in the Telangana.
Both Teej and Bathukamma festivals have many
similarities in celebration and purpose and their link with nature. Both the
festivals were women centric and nine-day festivals.
The Teej festival starts on Rakhi pournamy in the
month of Sravan and starts with sowing of wheat in woven bowls and which will
come up as sprouts later.
Bathukamma is popularly known as celebration of
flowers which was linked to nature especially water bodies and flowers and
trees in the village.
Water in the tanks and ponds will get purified with
the petals of flowers as petals absorb polluted elements when the Bathukammas
are immersed in the tanks and ponds on the last day.
In both the festivals, women pray the Goddess
Gouramma (parvathi) in Bathukamma and Jagadamba in Teej for her blessing
seeking good husband and married women for the well being of their husbands. In
both the festivals, women prepare a special item with the roti mixed with
jaggery.
In both the festivals, women folk dress in colorful
costumes and encircle the bowl of sprouts and Bathukammas keeping them in the
centre. They clap in rhythm to the folk songs and dance gracefully to the music.
On the ninth day, in both the festivals women take out
a procession with their Bathukamma and sprout bowls to local lakes or ponds and
immerse them in the water.
Elderly women sing songs while younger women
actively participate in the event and married older women guide the younger
women in performing customs and rituals attached to Teej in nine days like in
Bathukamma festival.
The state government for the first time released Rs
25 lakhs to each district to celebrate the Teej festival officially
recognizing it as state celebration like Bathukamma in the newly formed
Telangana state.
Rathod Meenakshi of Utnoor said ‘there are many
similarities between Teej and Bathukamma festivals and it seems there was
connection between the two festivals and purposes and added that both the
festivals will be played for nine –day and ‘Sprout bowls’ and ‘Bathukammas’ will be immersed
in the water bodies on the last day’.
Parents invite all their married daughters to
maternal home for Teej festival like for Bathukamma.
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