ARRIVING IN DUSTY, sun-scorched Medaram in Telangana at the end of a six- hour ride on a special state bus service from Hyderabad, you are acutely aware of entering a vast non-dimensional space. As you walk the raucous grounds hosting the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, woodsmoke, dirt and warbled music swirling all around you, the broad strokes of the festival seem familiar enough: millions of devotees come to take a holy dip in the Jampanna Vagu, a muddy stream of the Godavari now equipped with showers, and to offer coconuts and mounds of jaggery at an open-air shrine to local tribal goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma. But there’s more to it. […]
The story goes that nearly a thousand years ago, Pagididaraju, a Koya Tribal chief, his wife Sammakka, their daughter Saralamma and son Jampanna, rose up in revolt against the taxes imposed by the Kakatiya rulers on forest-dwelling communities, and died honourable deaths. To celebrate their rebellion, the village of Medaram, nestled in the Dandakaranya forests and two-and-a-half hours from Warangal since the road was asphalted in the 1970s, explodes in a festival touted as south Asia’s largest biennial gathering of Tribals.
The festival is symbolic of the culturally, if not historically, inflicted oppression on the tribes of central south India. The context may be somewhat lost in what has become a state-run event with tents and dinner buffets for visiting VIPs—among them the chief ministers of Telangana and Chhattisgarh, MPs, MLAs and minor actors—but in an India marching under the banner of religion, the jatara remains a rare refuge for communities who constantly invert accepted cultural, moral, social and sexual mores and confer sacredness upon their ancestors. […]
The Sammakka Saralamma shrine area in Warangal is reported to have been built during the 12th century. The temple has no mythological background relating to the construction of the temple; instead, it is believed to be built in the memory of two tribal women.
The main deity(s) of the Sammakka Saralamma temple are two brave women who stood up for their community and its betterment. They became Martyrs in the battle. According to the legend, once a troop from the Koya tribal community was returning from a trip, when they saw a little girl playing with the tigress. The head of the troop saw the girl and inspired by her bravery, he adopted her and named her as Samakka. Later she married a headman of a neighboring tribal group and had a daughter, Sarakka. Both the mother and daughter protested the Kakatiya kings who forced the tribes to pay taxes. Both the women fought bravely and reportedly lost their lives. The Koya community constructed this temple as a token of gratitude. Annually an event called Sammakka Saralamma jatara is held which is considered as one of the largest tribal festivals of the world. […]
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