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Journalism of Courage
On Wednesday (October 4), the Union cabinet approved a tribal university for Telangana – the Sarakka Central Tribal University, which will come up in Mulugu district at a cost of Rs 889 crore.
Though the University was a commitment made by the Central government as a part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 – wherein both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana would get support to establish a tribal university each – the Telangana tribal university faced significant challenges as land allocation of 500-600 acres could not be done in time.
During his visit to poll-bound Telangana recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the university would be named after Sammakka-Sarakka – a mother-daughter duo revered among the local tribal community.
Sammakka is said to have been married to Pagididda Raju, a feudal chief of the Kakatiyas (a Deccan dynasty) who ruled the Warangal area. She had two daughters and one son – Sarakka or Saralamma, Nagulamma and Jampanna, respectively. In the battle against the local rulers in protest against the taxes, Saralamma died, while Sammakka disappeared into the hills and the local tribals believed that she metamorphosed into a vermillion casket.
Mulugu holds a biennial festival – the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara – which is considered among the largest gatherings of tribal people in the world. The event commemorates the battle of the 13th-century mother-daughter duo against the local rulers in protest against the imposition of taxes on the Koya people. The Jatara (yatra, or pilgrimage) begins at Medaram, and the rituals are conducted by the Koya priests, in accordance with their customs and traditions.
Until 1955, about 2,000 people used to visit Medaram, mostly from the Koya tribe. But down the line, it has assumed the form of a large Hindu religious festival, so much so that it is believed that after Kumbha Mela, the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara attracts the largest number of devotees in the country. In 2008, nearly 80 lakh people are estimated to have attended the festival, which went up to a crore in 2012.
Political and social resonance
Considering the footfall of the festival, the Samakka-Sarakka Jathara was declared a state festival in 1996. Until 1998, the only way to reach Medaram, where the festival is held, was on a bullock cart. But in 1998, the state government (the undivided Andhra Pradesh at the time) constructed a motorable road.
Since then, the Sammakka Sarakka Jathara has become one of the most famous tribal festivals in the world and close to 1.5 crore devotees from various tribal and non-tribal communities participate in this festival, including those from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jharkhand. It is often referred to as the Kumbh Mela of the tribals.
The festival also sees regular participation by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, as much as by the state government of Telangana, including Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. The Centre released Rs 6.25 crore for the yatras held in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Apart from this, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs sanctioned Rs 7 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 5 crore in 2021-22 for establishing community shelters and other infrastructure in and around Medaram.
The Ministry of Tourism, as a part of the Tribal Circuit under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, sanctioned Rs. 75.88 crore for the integrated development of a tribal circuit of Mulugu-Laknavaram-Medavaram-Tadvai-Damaravi-Mallur-Bogatha Waterfalls where the temple of Sammakka-Sarakka is located.
Mulugu, a reserved Scheduled Tribes (ST) assembly seat, has a population of around 2.6 lakhs as per the 2011 Census with a 75 per cent ST population. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ramappa Temple is located about 15 km from Mulugu.
