Bathukamma is Telangana's festival of flowers, kept by women for nine days in the autumn month of Āśvina. Each evening seasonal flowers such as tangēḍu and gunuga are stacked in circular tiers into a tall floral cone, crowned with a small turmeric Gauramma, and the women sing and clap around it before immersing it in a tank. The name means "come alive, Mother", and the festival honours Gaurī as the giver of life, of good harvests and of lasting marriage. How the days are fixed: The festival runs for nine days from Mahālaya Amāvāsyā to Durgāṣṭamī of the Āśvina lunar month. The first evening is Engili Pūla Bathukamma and the last is Saddula Bathukamma. Keep in mind: Each of the nine days has its own name and naivedya, and one of them, the Aligina day, is kept without any offering. When a tithi is lost or repeated, villages follow the local pañcāṅga to set the Saddula day. This year: The 2027 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Stacking the flowers: Women gather tangēḍu, gunuga, marigold and other seasonal flowers and arrange them in rising circular tiers on a brass plate or winnow. A small cone of turmeric paste set on top stands for Gauramma. Songs and immersion: In the evening the women place their bathukammas in a circle and sing the traditional songs while clapping and moving around them. At dusk they carry them to a tank or lake, set them afloat and share the saddi foods, such as malīda, curd rice and pulihora. Worth remembering: Bathukamma runs alongside Navarātri but is its own festival, distinct from the doll display of Bommala Koluvu, the Garba circles of Gujarat and the Bhondla songs of Maharashtra. Its closing evening, Saddula Bathukamma, falls on Durgāṣṭamī, the day before Mahā Navamī. Folk tradition tells of women singing to wake Gaurī after her battle with Mahiṣa, and of a Chola princess named Bathukamma, and each village keeps its own songs, flowers and foods for the nine days. The festival is now celebrated across Telangana as a state festival, yet at heart it remains a gathering of mothers, daughters and neighbours. The surest way to keep it is the way the women elders of one's own house have always done.
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