From frog dances to forest prayers: how Telangana villages are begging for rain

Telangana’s monsoon shortfall this season has brought back not one but several traditional rain rituals across its districts, as villages that had not needed them in a decade turn once more to old customs for relief. In Nednur village of Rangareddy district’s Kandukur mandal, women revived ‘kappa aata’, tying a live frog to a small wooden stick, decorating it with turmeric and vermilion, and carrying it in procession through the village while singing rain-invoking folk songs.

The custom is rooted in the belief that frogs serve as messengers to the rain gods. Villagers place them on bamboo frames and sprinkle water over them to induce croaking, and the procession usually ends with rice and other essentials gathered for a shared community feast. In Nednur, where maize is the principal crop and farming depends entirely on rainfall, large stretches of land remain unsown this season because the monsoon has not arrived on time.

‘We learnt these traditions from our grandmothers. There was no need to perform them over the past decade. Now, we are once again invoking the rain god,’ said Anjamma, one of the women who took part. Farmer Mutyal Reddy described the anxiety building in the village: ‘We are witnessing a situation like this after a decade. We never had to pray to the rain god as he was kind to us. If rains do not arrive within the next week, it will be a huge loss for us.’

Kappa aata is not confined to Nednur this season — villages in Jangaon, Jagtial and Karimnagar districts have also revived the ritual. In Mulugu, communities have instead turned to Varadapasham, in which sweet rice is offered on sacred rocks and then eaten without using hands, a gesture of humility before the rain gods. In Suryapet district, residents have carried out Vanavasam, gathering in nearby forests to seek divine intervention for rain before sharing a communal meal.

The last time such rituals were performed this widely across Telangana was in 2016, during a period of recurring droughts and severe rainfall deficits. This year, the shortfall has crossed 60% in parts of Rangareddy district, a gap meteorologists attribute to the absence of active low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal, leaving Telangana in a temporary rain-shadow zone even as neighbouring states receive substantial rainfall.

With sowing operations stalled and farmers uncertain how long the dry spell will last, one Nednur villager with two acres of unsown land said the government should step in and compensate residents for agricultural work already carried out this season.

Wikimedia Commons/by Vinay kumar malyam upadyaya