Bonalu festival

Bonalu is a Hindu festival celebrated in parts of Telangana and Rayalaseema in Andrapradesh, India. It is Very famous in Hyderabad, secunderabad and in Telangana region. The Word Bonalu came from "Bhojanalu" meaning food, which is offered to the goddess during festival time. It is celebrated during ashada masam.
                It is believed that during Ashada Maasam, the Goddess comes back to her maternal home. So people come to see her and bring offerings of food (Bonalu) to show their love and affection, just as they would prepare a special meal when their own daughters visit them. To ward off evil spirits, in olden days, people used to sacrifice a male buffalo in front of the temple, but now, roosters are sometimes sacrificed.

 

                              Goddess at Secunderabad Mahakali temple

                                              Woman with Bonam
Bonalu means Bojanaalu (meal) in Telugu, is an offering to the Goddess of power. Women prepare Bonam with cooked rice, milk, sugar, onions in a pot, decorated  with small neem breanches and turmeric, kunkum and a Lamp on the top it. Women put the pots on their heads and take it to Goddess temple, led by drummers and dancing men.

                       Women carrying Bonalu for offering to Goddess


                                      

 

Woman under trance

 

                                                        Potharaju

Potharaju, the brother of Mother Goddess, is represented in the procession by a well-built, bare-bodied man, wearing a small tightly draped red dhoti and bells on his ankles, and anointed with turmeric on his body and vermilion on his forehead. He dances to resounding drums.
He always dances before the Palaharam Bandi, the procession. He is considered the initiator of the festivities and the protector of the community. He leads the tranced female dancers who are under spell of the Mother Goddess (known as shigam) to the temple, with lashing whips and emerald neem leaves (margosa) tied around their waists, accompanied by trumpets and drums.

                                                                         Ghatam

`Ghatams' or decorated pots filled with flowers, which are carried on the heads by the women folk in a procession. Cooked rice is also taken in brass vessels or in clay pots decorated with neem leaves.

This information is taken from below link

http://www.aryabhatt.com/fast_fair_festival/Festivals/Bonalu.htm 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonalu

Bathukamma Festival

Bathukamma is a festival celebrated in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is especially celebrated by Hindu women. It is celebrated before Durgashtami festival.

Women prepare Bathukamma with all beautiful flowers in their home and they put Goddess Gouri on top of it. In the evening every one will gather at one place and they will put their Bathukamma in one place then by singing folk songs with claps they move around Bathukamma. After that they leave Bathukamma in water and share the special food which brought from home.

By following below link you can listen Bathukamma song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7m-YcGKXUw

For more information about the importance of this festival you can follow the below link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathukamma

Separate Telangana issue

Why people want telagana as separate state

• There are 10 districts in Telangana, 9 in Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema. Out of these 7 districts in Telangana, 3 in Andhra and 1 in Rayalaseema are considered severely backward districts which means 70% of districts in Telangana are backward while in Andhra it is 35% and in Rayalaseema it is 25%. Apart from these there are some areas in all parts of the state which are also backward.

•  45% of the state income comes from Telangana region. When it comes to utilization of funds, the share of Telangana is only 28%Government issue G.O.'s for implicating its decisions.

• G.O number 610 is the longest non implicated G.O in the history of AP. The G.O was issued in 1986 by late NTR who was then the CM of AP, which is not yet implicated. The G.O speaks about the share of Telangana employees in Government jobs in Telangana region..

• In Telangana regions, only few areas cultivate one crop a year and very rarely two crops a year while most of the land doesn't even cultivate single crop. In both the Godavari districts, Krishna and Guntur district, two crops a year is common and there are times where even 3 crops a year are cultivated. The only reason is WATER.

TELANGANA

Telangana region is part of Andhra Pradesh state in southern India. It constitutes Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, RangaReddy and Warangal districts.

History

Telangana is situated on the central stretch of the Indian Peninsula, most of it on the high Deccan Plateau between the Aryan North and Dravidian South. The earliest mention of this region is to be found in the Aitareyabrahmana. It figured subsequently in the Ramayana and Mahabharatha and in the Puranas. It became ”the region eminently suited for the fusion of the two cultures

             Telanganites not only celebrate the main festivals, but also celebrate certain regional festivals like Bonalu in Hyderabad, Batakamma all over Telangana districts, Yedupayala Jatara in Medak , Sammakka Saralamma in Warangal district

             The major religions of the people are Hinduism and Islam, though Buddhism was the dominant religion up to the 6th century. It is the home of Mahayana Buddhism as revealed by the monuments of Nagarjunakonda.

             In terms of influence, Islam occupies the second place. It started spreading from the 14th century onwards. Mosques began to come up in many parts of the region during the Muslim rule. Christianity began to spread from 1701, Especially among the socially disabled people. Educational institutions and churches grew in number in the Circars in the 18th and 19 centuries when the East India Company and later the British government encouraged them. Other European countries were also active in building churches and taking care of the weaker sections of the people.

Hindus 88.75 % Muslims 8.47 % Christians 3.62 %

            Telugu is the main language of the state, which was formed on the principle of one language-one state. Telugu, the second largest spoken language in India and it has a long history.

             It must be remembered that Telugu varies from region to region in its expression. Here too the Telugu-speaking people proudly claim that the language spoken in their region is superior to that of the other regions. All the same, one unique aspect of Telugu is that it has never harboured, as McLeod pointed out, narrow provincialism