The story
Bathukamma Hyderabad in Hyderabad
A nine-day Telangana festival in which women stack wildflowers into tiered cone shapes called bathukamma and gather each evening to sing and dance around them before immersing the flowers in water. Centered on Goddess Gauri, it runs from Mahalaya Amavasya to Durgashtami and is distinct from Bonalu, Hyderabad's other major goddess festival, which involves pot processions rather than floral stacks.
In Hyderabad's neighborhoods, women gather each evening for nine days to stack wildflowers into cone-shaped towers called bathukamma, layered in seven tiers that narrow toward the top like a temple gopuram.