A journey through change
The exhibition documents changes in the rituals of a popular Telangana festival
THE BATHUKAMMA Panduga is one of the most unique festivals of Telangana and one celebrated mainly by the women of this region. Celebrated during Navarathri it honours the `life-giver’ Bathukamma, with women seeking her blessings for prosperity and a good year. Colours, flowers and water are all intrinsic to the festival; and the goddess herself is not one rooted in a shrine but made of flowers that signify both life and eternity in their colours as well as impermanence. For, the goddess is `created’ each year, and immersed duly on the 10th day of the festival in local water bodies.
Documenting a festival
The vibrancy of this festival now fills space at the ICRISAT campus as photographer G. Bharath Bhushan premieres some of his collections of the Bathukamma documented over a period of four years. The exhibition, `Bathukamma: a Photographic Journey Into Telangana’s Water Festival’ is being organised by the W.W.F. International ICRISAT Dialogue project as a part of the Global Freshwaters Team meeting.
The significance of the exhibition, lies in the fact that the Bathukamma Panduga has a deep association with water and changes in these have meant change in the basic nature of the festival. (ఇంకా…)
