Sammakka Saralamma Medaram Jatara – 2019.

Sammakka Saralamma Jatara also known as Sammakka Sarakka Jatara and also as Medaram Jatara is a festival of honouring the Hindu goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma at Medaram village in Tadvai Mandal in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district of Telangana State. Sammakka and Saralamma are two brave tribal women with divine and miraculous powers, who are worshipped here as Goddesses.  

Medaram is a remote place in the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, a part of Dandakaranya forest, the largest surviving forest belt in South India. Medaram is located at a distance of 250 km from our house in Secunderabad.

A Mini Sammakka Saralamma Jatara has started yesterday, on 20th February and would go on up to 23rd February 2019.  Several lakhs of devotees are expected to attend this Mini Jatara. The Main Jatara which is also of four days is held once in two years since several centuries. It was last held in 2018 and the next one would be in 2020. The Main Jatara of four days attracts over a crore of devotees. The celebration of Mini Jatara in the intervening years is of recent origin, ever since the road connectivity to Medaram and facilities at Medaram have improved.

Countless devotees believe that Goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma have divine and miraculous powers and would certainly fulfil their wishes. Devotees seek blessings for prosperity, happiness, peace, good health, success and so on and even issueless couples visit to pray for children. Once their wishes are fulfilled they visit again to fulfil their vows. Its influence on the devotees and as a result its popularity has been growing over the years. What started as the festival of the local tribal people (Girijans) and later of other tribals from various areas is now popular among many from even neighbouring States and a very large number of them are mainstream Hindus.

I have been hearing of Medaram Jatara since my childhood and of its growing popularity but it has not been possible for me to visit Medaram until now. Our journey to Medaram was thrilling and the visit to the holy places where Sammakka and Saralamma are prayed and known as Gaddhelu was very pleasing. We felt most richly blessed.

Seven centuries ago Sammakka was found as a baby in the forest adjoining Medaram. The villagers brought her to the village and started taking care of her. Ever since the baby was brought to the village the villagers prospered and were happy. As Sammakka grew up she started curing illnesses with her blessings and granting wishes to one and all. Suffering people and issueless couples approached her for blessings and their wishes came true. Sammakka became very popular. 

Sammakka then got married to Pagididda Raju, the ruler of Medaram area. They were blessed with one son – Jampanna and two daughters – Saralamma and Nagulamma. Pagididda Raju was a subordinate king to the Emperor Prathaparudra of the Kakatiya dynasty whose capital city was Orugallu that is Warangal of today. As a famine ravished the Medaram area Pagididda Raju refused to collect and pay taxes to the Emperor. This angered the Emperor and he declared war. Pagididda Raju and his tribal warriors fought bravely but could not withstand the mighty forces of the Emperor. It is said that blood flowed as streams in this war and got mixed with the nearby Sampenga Vagu (riverlet), a tributary of River Godavari. Pagididda Raju and his son-in-law Govinda Raju fought bravely and perished in the war. Son, Jampanna could not digest this tragedy and jumped into Sampenga Vagu and killed himself. Since then the riverlet took the name of Jampanna Vagu. On hearing about the death of her loved ones and the battle situation, Sammakka courageously took to the battlefield. With her strength and divine power she fought valiantly and astonished the Kakatiya warriors but at one stage she was attacked from the back and stabbed. She turned back, killed the soldier and left the battlefield. She left the battlefield as it was considered that the ground on which her blood fell would not bear any crop or fruit. She went into the forest east of Medaram.

After the battle, the tribals searched for her in the forest but did not find her. Instead, they strangely found a small container called Kumkuma barinay meaning a container of vermillion near a snake pit. Since then, once in every two years, the tribals celebrate this festival of Sammakka and Saralamma at Medaram on Magha Shuddha Purnima.  A tribal (Koya) priest religiously fasts by eating only once a day for a fortnight and on the festival day brings the deities of the Goddesses from the forest in the form of Vermillion Caskets tied to two bamboo posts, one representing Sammakka and the other of her daughter Sarakka / Saralamma. During the duration of these rituals at the Jatara devotees offer Jaggery normally referred to as Bangaram (Gold) and coconuts to the Goddesses for fulfilling their wishes. And on the last and fourth day of the Jatara, the deities are taken back into the forest calling it as Vanapravesham.