Fighting, Spirits

Full of mystique and frenzy, the Medaram Jathara celebrates the valour of two goddesses.

- Rahul Devulapalli

SHE LISTENED TO THE extreme devotion in her heart, and ignored the signals of her body. Eight months pregnant, the tribal woman travelled 200km from her home in north Telangana to Medaram in Warangal district—by bus, rickshaw and on foot. As she made her way amid the jostling crowd in the scorching heat, she fainted. Her family rejoiced, and rushed her to a temporary government hospital. A few hours later, her wish came true as she gave birth to a baby.

This is not an unusual story at the Sammakka-Sarakka Jathara, a biennial tribal festival that attracts lakhs of people from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand. For many tribal women, giving birth during the four-day jathara—said to be the largest in the country after the Kumbh Mela—is the ultimate blessing from goddess Sammakka and her daughter, Sarakka.

In 2016, seven deliveries were recorded at the hospital mentioned above—one of the 41 run by the state government during the festival. This year, there were two deliveries on the first day of the festival. “It is their sentiment. How can we discourage them?” asked Dr K. Dayananda Swamy, who is in charge of the hospital. “The mothers and the newborns are healthy. We are there to take care of them.”