Prabhas as tall as 85 ft. lined up back to back and ready for their journey / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
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Three centuries, one tradition, and nine villages
Three centuries, one tradition, and nine villages
For decades, nine villages in Andhra Pradesh have been constructing huge Prabhas as an offering to Lord Shiva at the Kotappakonda Temple in Guntur district. However, changing cultural trends and political interference are creating suspicions among the locals that the whole celebration is transforming into something else, unlike the original festival.
By Varun Borugadda
Kotappakonda is a hill temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Maha Shivratri is grandly celebrated around the villages of Kotappakonda. In the Kavuru Village of Guntur District, the preparation for the usually festival starts ten days in advance. The villagers were busy constructing their 86-feet tall Prabha, a chariot decorated with lights and flowers, built as an offering to Lord Shiva. It is made of long wooden logs of pine trees. The Prabha symbolises pride for the villagers. "It is not even in its final form," says Jagarlamudu Chenchu Ramaiah, a farmer, as he carefully skims through the paper clips of the articles on their village Prabhas that had appeared in various newspapers and magazines. He explains that the entire village looks forward to this annual festival. They believe that Lord Shiva said that if the devotees bring one crore and one Prabhas, he will come down the hill for them.
Residents of Kammavaaripalem village busy transporting their Prabha / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
The actual preparations do not just start ten days before the festival; they usually begin by the middle of the cold and breezy January. The villagers bring the raw materials from the Andhra-Orissa border. "We have erected a massive banner at the village entrance to promote the upcoming event. This year marks the 76th anniversary of our electrical Prabha, which is decorated with many lights. Earlier, it used to be a non-electrical one. Electrical Prabhas are being built since the time of our independence," says Ramaiah proudly.
This year's Prabhas were being constructed by the residents of the nine villages near the hill temple. The nine villages include Appapuram, Govindapuram, Maddirala, Yadavalli, Purushottapatnam, Ameensaheb Palem, and Kammavari Palem, Boppudi, and Kavuru. "Each Prabha costs around Rs.20 lakhs to build," says Koneti Srinivas of Ameensaheb Palem village, who looks after the construction of the Prabha every year. The Prabha starts its journey from the base of the hill, one day before the festival, and reaches there on the day of the festival.
Prabha of Purushottapatnam village / Photograph By Varun Borugadda
While villagers were busy preparing for the festival, a review meeting was arranged by some high-ranking officials on 21 February 2022 by Umesh Yadav, Guntur District Collector, and Gopireddy Srinivasreddy, the Narsaraopeta MLA. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the Rs 30 crores developmental work taken upon the occasion of the Maha Shivarathri festival. "This year, we expect around six lakh more devotees, as the last two years we saw a decline in numbers owing to the Covid-19 pandemic," Umesh Yadav. He urged all the department heads to finish the work by 25 February and noted that the safety of the devotees is the most essential task. He declared that it needs to be taken care of at any cost. Two people died in a deadly accident in 2020, when the villagers of Peddagottipadu of Guntur district were taking their Prabha on a bullock cart to the Temple.
"This year, we expect around six lakh more devotees, as the last two years we saw a decline in numbers owing to the Covid-19 pandemic."
Narsaraopeta MLA Gopireddy Srinivasreddy speaking to the officials / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
While there is growing politicisation of the procession of Prabhas, knowing the history of the origin of the Prabhas is useful. A Prabha used to be around one- foot tall, and now it has transformed into a vast 90-feet chariot. It is a symbol of pride for the locals and is worth having a glimpse at the past.
Traditions and their transformation
Gorantla Singarakonda Chowdary, a famous theatre artist, hailing from Maddirala, Guntur District, critiques the changing trends in celebrating the festival. Noting that this culture is centuries old, he says, "My father doesn't know when this tradition started; even his father doesn't remember. This is an ancient tradition."
On the day of the Maha Shivaratri festival, devotees maintain an all-night vigil locally known as Jagaranam to worship the deity. On that night, people who take these Prabhas to the base of the temple hill construct a stage and conduct various events, including plays, puppet shows, Kolatam (stick dance), and recording dance, which is a form of erotic entertainment where women dancers perform semi-naked dances, and singing programs.
"In the past, only devotional programs were conducted, but to attract more people to their Prabhas, villagers started to show commercial plays like Chintamani Natakam in the 1990s. That is how the culture of recording dances had also started," says M. Satyanarayana, Post Graduate Teacher of Computer Science at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Maddirala. "It all started after Sr.NTR (Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao) of the Telugu Desam Party won the elections and became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the first time in 1983," recalls Chowdary. The villagers began to conduct recording dances near their Prabhas, and the whole culture peaked in the 1990s.
"Even though most of my village population belongs to the Kamma caste, the village is divided politically based on people's political affiliation. A year ago, the split led us to build two separate Prabhas, one for YCP (Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party) and the other for TDP (Telugu Desam Party)."
YCP flags on the tractor that is used for pulling the Prabha / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
The final destination of the Prabhas is the base of the hill, called Nidhi, which translates into treasure. It is here that the Prabhas are displayed for the devotees. Villages that have an affiliation with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have been hoisting the flag of TDP on their Prabha for a very long time.
Prasad Chowdary, a resident of Kammavaripalem, says that the politicisation of this event had started to happen only in the past ten years. "Even though most of my village population belong to the Kamma caste, the village is divided based on people's political affiliation. A year ago, the split led us to build two separate Prabhas, one for YCP (Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party) and the other TDP. Prasad mentions that this incident happened because the younger people drifted towards political affiliation, and the elders could not stop them. After all, the youth prepare the Prabhas, and the elders fear losing their participation and refrain from saying anything against them.
Ananth Thota, who is making a documentary film on this phenomenon, says that he fears that the politicisation of the whole event might lead to the future generation not knowing the true essence of the festival and how important it is for their villages. He says that the villagers affiliated with the TDP did this out of genuine love for the party. Unfortunately, now the whole event is getting politicised. Over the past few years, villages affiliated with YCP have started to hoist flags on their Prabhas.
"Money is one of the reasons behind this," says Sai Ganesh, a friend of Thota. People who donate more money for the Prabha dictate which flag to hoist. This is done out of political pride. People associated with TDP did not allow people from the YCP party to conduct events near their Prabhas when they were in power. "Now, YCP people might do the same," says Ganesh.
However, M. Rajesh also known as Babji, who is affiliated to YCP as a former sarpanch of Kavuru, Guntur, and Madhampati Rama Rao, the TDP local leader, of Kavuru, Guntur, have a different opinion on the entire situation. They say that the Prabhas belong to the individual villages, and political parties do not have any affiliation. The farmers from the villages donate funds for the construction of Prabhas. "If the two parties have any internal conflict in our village, you wouldn't see us speaking to you together," says Babji as Rama Rao smiles in agreement.
A police officer deployed at Purushottapatnam / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
Villagers believe this will go on for generations
"Suppose people manage to separate the festival from politics, which creates a division among them, this festival and the Prabhas will sustain for a long time," says Chowdary. Ananth expressed that youth should take a stand against politicisation and get back to the roots of the celebration. Kavuru resident, Gopi Chowdary, notes that the whole village believes that the tradition of constructing Prabhas and offering it to Lord Shiva will be passed on to the next generations successfully.
Photo Story
Images from Maha Shivarathri festival at Kotappakonda temple, Guntur / Photograph by Varun Borugadda
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