Bonalu is an annual festival celebrated in hyderabad-India in the month of July/August. Women prepare rice cooked with Milk,Jaggery in New Brass or Earthen Pot adorned with Neem Leaves,Turmeric,Vermilion and a lit lamp on the top of the Pot. Women dance in front of the procession by carrying the pots on their heads and make offering of Bonam along with Turmeric-Vermilion,Bangles and Saree to the Mother Goddess across the Temples. Potharaju is special attraction in this procession who is the brother of Mother Goddess, is represented in the procession by a well-built, bare-bodied man, wearing a small tightly draped red dhoti and bells on his ankles, and anointed with turmeric on his body and vermilion on his forehead. He dances before the procession and beat the devotees with the special rope. Devotees feels like its a blessings of god and some other people ran away to escape from Pothuraju.
