An annual ritual in Telangana—Batukamma pandaga—is entirely devoted to wild flowers, which the villagers pick in the forest and then use to build a high, circular mound, the "Life Goddess," Batukamma, an embodiment of life-force, batuku, itself. Each household builds its own Batukamma and brings it into the open village space. Women take the leading role in this festival, although men may help in building up the mound. Dozens of songs and stories accompany the ritual, which also includes a dance, by women, known as boddemma aaDaDam. At the festival's end—after a week—the Batukamma flower-mounds are cast into the river. Warangal city is especially known for its magnificent Batukamma celebrations. Interestingly, this ritual lacks any deity—apart from the wild flowers themselves, which pass from the forest into the village and thence into the flowing water. It is as if human, social life takes place in a space between these two domains of forest and stream, a space that has to be ritually and repeatedly opened up to the life that naturally flows in the wilderness.
The flowers embody the Telangana life-force and serve as a key to the future.
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