A farmer in his 40s, Sailu, has travelled nearly 150 km from Khammam to Medaram, a forest village in Mulugu district. The ancient heart of the Jatara is being reshaped by the modern State of Telangana, and nothing about the gathering looks quite the same anymore. At the heart of the Medaram Jatara lies the invocation of a family rather than a distant cosmic pantheon: Samakka, the mother, her husband, Pagididda Raju, their daughter, Saralamma, and her son-in-law, Govinda Raju. The spiritual core of the Jatara contains four platforms dedicated to Sammakka, Saralamma, Pagididda Raju and Govinda Raju. The Medaram Jatara, also known as the Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara, traces its origins to a historical-mythical past that begins with the discovery of a girl child in a forest said to be filled with tigers.

Source: The Hindu January 17, 2026 04:50 UTC