Sammakka–Saralamma Jatara | 21 Jan 2026

Source: TH

Telangana will host the Sammakka–Saralamma Jatara (Medaram Jatara) from 28 January 2026 at Medaram village in Mulugu district. 

Sammakka–Saralamma Jatara 

• About: The Medaram Jatara is a three-day, biennial tribal festival of the Koya community, held in the month of Magha (February), recognised as one of the world’s largest indigenous spiritual congregations, and was declared a State Festival in 1996. 
• Location: The festival is held in the forests of Dandakaranya within the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, on the banks of Jampanna Vagu, a tributary of the Godavari River.  
  • Jampanna Vagu is named after the warrior Jampanna, who died fighting the Kakatiya army. 
• Historical and Folklore origins: Sammakka, found as an infant among tigers, became a tribal leader and married Pagididda Raju, bearing Saralamma, Nagulamma and Jampanna. 
  • Sammakka resisted Kakatiya rulers following famine and unjust taxation, after a battle that killed her family, she disappeared into the forest, leaving behind bangles and kumkum, which remain her sacred symbols. 
• Core Belief System: The festival centres on kinship worship, invoking Sammakka, Saralamma, Pagididda Raju and Govinda Raju as a family, not as a distant cosmic pantheon.  
  • It has no Vedic or Brahmanic influence, rooted entirely in animist and clan-based belief systems of the Koya community. 
• Key Rituals: Devotees offer “bangaram” (jaggery equal to body weight), and take a sacred dip in Jampanna Vagu. The goddesses are symbolically brought from Chilakalagutta hill to the gadde (platform) once every two years, instead of devotees going to the hill to worship. 
• Cultural Significance: The Jatara symbolises tribal memory, resistance and identity, reflecting Adivasi cosmology and kinship worship, and now draws non-tribal participation.