Khanapur: The second tribal festival in the State, Nagoba Jatara, began with a maha puja of the new moon of the month of Pushyama in Keslapur in Adilabad district on Tuesday night. Devotees not only from Telangana but also from neighboring states flocked to the Nagoba Temple in large numbers to have darshan of the Nagoba Goddess.

The Mesram family members performed abhishekam with the holy Godavari river water brought from Hastinamadugu by the district authorities. Apart from Mesram family members, Adilabad District Collector Rajarsisha, SP Ghaus Alam, MLC Dande Vittal, Khanapur MLA Veduma Bojju Patel, both MLA Anil Jadhav, ITDA PO Kushboo Gupta and others vitnessed the Maha Puja at Nagoba Temple.

Earlier, the Mesram clan members went to the temple where their clan deities presiding and performed traditional pujas.

From there, the new idol of Nagoba was brought to the temple along with the puja paraphernalia. The Mesram clan members performed pujas by bringing the Gari deity with holy Ganga water. According to the cultural traditions of the tribals, they came to the temple in an enthusiastic procession playing drums and performed special pujas to the Nagoba deity. The Maha Jatara, which began on Monday midnight, was held according to the cultural traditions of the tribals. Worshipping nature as a deity is a tradition of the tribals that has been going on for generations.