Spiritual piety marks the beginning of Bonalu

As a harsh June sun beat down on the stone steps of Golconda fort, hundreds of women, some men dressed as women, bent down to apply vermillion and turmeric to the steps leading to the ancient Jagadambika Temple on crest of the hillock. As men whipped up teen-maar beat on drums and on tin sheets, some women carried pots filled with cooked rice capped with a flaming torch.

A devotee applying kumkuma to the temple steps during traditional annual Bonalu festival in Golconda fort in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
G RAMAKRISHNA

“Bonalu marks the beginning of Aashadam. It marks a change of season and this offering is to ensure that the Goddess takes care of us in terms of health. Today, what we are doing in the broom of the puja (worship the steps),” said one of the devotees marking the steps with turmeric and vermilion. Outside the main fort complex, police officials barricaded the normal routes. Most of the devotees had to walk distances ranging from 2 to 3 km to reach the entrance of the fort.

A painting of Goddess Durga adores a boulder of the Golconda Fort temple during the Bonalu festival in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
G RAMAKRISHNA

“I had to park my vehicle outside the Banjari Darwaza. It is nearly a two kilometre walk and then there are these 350 steps,” said Ramesh, who came with his friends from Chintal Basti near Khairatabad to pray to the Goddess. Hundreds of policemen lined the route managing traffic even as politicians turned up with convoy of SUVs in the narrow streets of Jinsi Bazaar, Moti Darwaza, Rethi Gali, and Bada Bazaar road. “I have been here from 8 a.m. I will have to be there till it gets over at 8 p.m.,” said a police official managing the crowd near Jagdambika Temple as the devotees scrambled and searched for their footwear.

There are nine puja days for Bonalu spread over the month on Thursdays and Sundays, with the first being at the Golconda Fort.

“This kind of rush is a modern phenomenon. Till 1986, we used to get only 10 to 15 families offering bonams (pots of offering) to the Goddess. The entry ticket was 50 paise then. It changed in 2016 when the number of devotees surged into lakhs. Another big jump happened in 2021,” said O. Durgappa, who worked as monument attender of the Golconda Fort retiring in 2020.