Bonalu
A festival of offerings and Sacrifice to a Goddess
To punish the evil and protect the good, the 'mother almighty' has manifested herself in different forms with different names such as Durga, Kali, Bhavani, Saraswathi, Parvathi, Maisamma, Peddamma and Chamundi. These are only some of forms the 'holy mother' adopted to suppress the wicked and maintain social justice. Names may be many but the spirit, that of the mother, is one.
Adi Shakthi, as she is also known, is considered to be the supreme and origin of all gods and goddesses, is worshipped in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in many forms like Maisamma, Pochamma, Nalla Pochamma, Bhavani Ellama and Mahankali.
Each year in the Telugu calendar month of Aashaada, the goddess is worshipped with pomp and piety. These celebrations are locally known as Bonalu in twin Cities.
Popular belief goes that a day for a human being is 24 hours, but for the goddess, an entire year of 365 days is a day! Hence the annual worship, which is deemed a daily worship for her.
The Bonalu celebrations are spread over three Sundays and Decorated Devi statue in the Bonalu Festival over multiple venues. The first occasion falls on the first Sunday of Aashaada at the temple at Golconda fort. The second Sunday, at Ujjain Mahankali in Secunderabad, and the third Sunday, at the Matheswari temple of Laldarwaja in old city of Hyderabad. Apart from this, there are around forty plus Matheswari temples all over the twin Cities – big and small, where Bonalu celebrations are performed with much piety.
The worship of Bonalu – also known as Aashaada Koluvu or Jaathara – in the Telangana area is believed to protect society form various contagious diseases usually prevalent during monsoon, and bestow mankind with bountiful health and longevity.
The southern state of Andhra Pradesh has temples devoted to other powerful forms of the goddess such as Jagadamba (Alampur), Saraswathi (Basara) and Kanaka Durga (Vijayawada). We look at the history behind some of the temples within the vicinity of the twin cities.
