Vahini's Musings

  Mallanna Patnalu: Walking Faith, Bodily Devotion, and the Language of Vows     Devotion is not a form that is often silent or motionless in the Telangana religious landscape of the folks. It dances, stands, sings, pain and pain. Of all the expressive forms of belief on Mallanna worship, Mallanna Patnalu is one of the strongest and most embodied forms of worship. It does not become seen as a practice but is done through the body and its character is characterized by discipline, pain, faith and promise. The simplest way to know Mallanna Patnalu is to realize the way that the Buddha of folk traditions has its mark not written in script but defiled in the flesh and foot and in the memory. What Are Mallanna Patnalu?   In this respect patnam or patnalu is what is called a vow-bound ritual trip by Mallanna-devotees. It is the fulfilment that is done when a wish has been fulfilled or in anticipation that the divine intervention can happen. In contrast to the sy...

  Sammakka Saralamma Jatara: A Living Testament of Tribal Faith and Resistance       In the depths of the Medaram forest in Telangana transpires something which cannot be defined within the frames of the religion, festival or pilgrimage. Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is neither about high temples nor modelled idols; it has neither the hierarchical priests. Instead, it is based on the soil, the remembrance and shared souls of the Koya tribal people. Every two years, millions of people come to this woodland to commemorate Sammakka and her daughter Saralamma- personalities that are not only remembered as goddesses, but as beacons of fearlessness, defiance as well as righteousness. Medaram: The Forest of the Holy Land Medaram is not just sacred owing to chance, it is deliberately sacred. The spiritual structure of the jatara is made up of the thick forest, streams and open clearings. It has no stone shrines to which there are idols. Rather, it is the manifestat...

  Ainavolu Mallanna: Faith, Folklore, and the Living Pulse of Telangana   The tradition is in the very heart of the Telangana culture, distant of the lure polished stone avenues of the classical temples, the tradition breathes the breathing of the soil and of the seasons and of the people. Ainavolu Mallanna is not just a God who is worshipped in a village; this is a thing that unites the community recollection, rural existence, and folk faith into one continuous story. The Mallanna is a rounded off version of a spirituality that is quite intimate, ground-level, and deeply human, rooted in the village of Ainavolu (or Inavolu) near Warangal. Its Sacred Geography and The Village Ainavolu is located in an area that was historically influenced by Kakatiya dynasty but the worship of Mallanna came to being before monumental architecture and writings. The divine area that surrounds Mallanna is not grand in any disarming way. Rather it beckons the devotees with simplicity, ...