Fierce faith amidst frantic fray of Banni festival at Devaragattu temple in in Kurnool district of A.P. Premium

Annual Banni festival in Devaragattu, Andhra Pradesh, features unique rituals, stick fights, and procession of deities.

On October 12, at midnight, the first ‘outu’, a rocket firecracker, was lit in the Neraniki village, four kilometres from hilltop Devaragattu temple, the abode of Mala Malleswara Swamy, in Kurnool district on the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border.

Upon noticing the signal, a frantic fervour takes over the thousands gathered at the foothill. As soon as the sound of five ‘outus’ echoed in the hills, like a swarm of bees, devotees emerged out of the shrubby forests with sticks and fire torches. With sandalwood paste smeared on their foreheads, they make their way straight to the temple atop the Devaragattu hills.

Within minutes, the 500-odd steps to the hilltop were occupied with people, the temple priest, walked down swiftly with the processional deities of Mala Malleswara Swamy and His consort, escorted by the villagers of Neraniki, Neraniki Tanda, and Kothapeta in a procession.

Nearly 50,000–60,000 devotees from the five South Indian States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra gather downhill to wait for the procession’s arrival.

The procession, or the Banni Jaitra Yatra, starts once the idols are brought from the hill temple. “The idols would first be taken to the Mulla Banda, a place where the priest carrying the idol would be pierced in his leg with a thorn. The village barber would then remove the thorn. From there, the idols will be taken to Rakshasa Pada, where the Guravaiah, a traditional artisan, will pierce a needle in his calf muscle and offer five drops of blood as an offering to the demons whose Malleswara Swamy killed,’’ says Giri Mallaiah Swamy, the temple’s hereditary priest.

Commotion ensues as soon as the procession reaches the foothills when the stick-wielding villagers clear the path for the idols’ procession to pass through the jungle. This procession is called the Banni Jaitra Yatra.

The mayhem ends in bloodshed as people try to go near the processional idols and get hit by the sticks.