Durgamma Festival
This festival is celebrated for four days in the month of Bhadrapada.
On the first day, the water for worship is brought from a near by river
Majira. On the second day, a buffalo intended for sacrifice is
taken to the river. After worshipping the water-goddess, the buffalo
is washed there. It is then decorated and brought to the
temple in a procession to the accompaniment of music.
The
next day the buffalo is sacrificed and after that devotees sacrifice
innumerable jowls, goats, rams and buffaloes. In the evening,
the ground in-front of the temple is cleaned and a heap of cooked rice
and mutton is kept as offering to the deity. An unbaked earthen
pot is buried up to its neck and a winnow is placed over it. A
woman sits on the winnow and apparently possessed predicts future events.
A man representing poturaju, the brother of Durgamma, is smeared with
turmeric and vermilion and decorated round his head, neck and waist
with margosa leaves. He goes round the temple and kills a sacrificial
lamb by biting its throat. On the last day, devotees go round
the temple with bomalu (puppets). Carts and bullocks decorated with
flowers and coloured sarees are taken round the temple. Prasadam is
distributed. A fair is held here during the festival.
