Tamil chants to grace festivities
Bonalu, one of the most important festivals in Telangana, is not just celebrated by Telugus.
Hundreds of Tamil families who settled in Secunderabad several decades ago observe the festival with equal piety and fervour, albeit they chant mantras and do pujas during the celebrations in their mother tongue Tamil.
They throng Sri Mahankali Temple at Karkhana in Secunderabad, set up and maintained by Tamilians who migrated to and settled in Hyderabad, way back in 1938. Bonalu is celebrated here on the second Saturday of August annually. Pujas are done as per the Telangana tradition but the language used for chanting mantras is Tamil.
During the Bonalu festival, people from surrounding areas visit the temple and offer pujas. Most of the residents in surrounding areas belong to army families.
“The festival is celebrated for three days here, where thousands of devotees attend. During ‘Ghatam’ which is the highlight at this temple, people, irrespective of their religions take part in the procession. Christian and Muslims also take part in the procession, there is no religious feeling here, we all live like brothers,” said N. Akash, who belongs to the founder’s family and is the organising secretary of the festival.
The temple, established in 1938, was founded by families of those used to work for the British. This place used to be a small village, and the temple was established as an abode of the village deity. Later, the temple management also built a Shiva temple, Ganesh temple, Hanuman temple and Chamundeshwari temple on the same premises.
During the Bonalu festival, the whole area sported a village ‘jatara’ ambiance and devotees also got the feeling of village jatara here, said Chairman Rama Rao and President Jagath Singh, under whose leadership and guidance, all the developments take place here.
The temple is gearing up for this year’s Bonalu celebrations. Painting works are going on and we are getting ready to distribute invitations to the public representatives,” they added.