Central government is likely to declare Medaram’s Sammakka-Sarakka/Saralamma Jatara a national festival this year.
Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs released Rs. 2 crore as Centre’s contribution towards conducting the massive event which is held bi-annually in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district to honour the twin goddesses Sammakka and her daughter Sarakka.
Union government had in 2015 declared Vanaj, a tribal dance and music festival, as national festival.
Biggest festival
Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara held by forest dwelling Koya tribe of Telangana and surrounding States, is the biggest Tribal festival in Asia which is attended by one crore people on an average.
This year, the four-day Jatara, scheduled to begin on January 31, is expected to have a footfall of 1.20 crore persons.
The State government has already released Rs. 80.5 crore for the Jatara this year.
Once declared a national festival, Jatara can be considered for ‘intangible cultural heritage of humanity’ tag of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). UNESCO had given the tag to Kumbh Mela, which is world’s biggest festival which sees participation by up to 10 crore persons.
Out of the huge congregation which comes to Medaram, 50 % are non-adivasi making the Jatara the most popular Tribal festival in India.
People from Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh come for the festival.
Mythical narrative
Several communities in Telangana society support Jatara as it is also a mythical narrative of two tribal women leaders who fought against the Kakatiya rulers who tried to annex their land and forests.
According to the myth it was Sammakka’s curse which caused gradual decline and death of Kakatiya rule.
The Jatara gets 12 % Non-Resident Indian footfall.
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