01Out of Margao
Margao, the old Mathagram of the Saraswat settlers, had Damodar at its centre. In the 1560s, as the Portuguese demolished the temples of Salcete, the Damodar temple was pulled down; Goan histories record that a church was raised on its site. The linga was carried south-east to Zambaulim, just across the border of Portuguese territory, on the Kushavati river. Margao has not forgotten him: the town’s old families still count Damodar as theirs, and a small Damodar shrine was later built again in Margao.
02Kushavati and the Gulal
The waters of the Kushavati below the temple are held to heal, and pilgrims bathe there before darshan. In Phalgun, at Shigmo, the temple keeps its Gulal festival: the deity comes out in procession and the crowd, Hindu and many Christian neighbours too, throws coloured powder until the whole village is red and pink. The present temple building is a 20th-century rebuilding with a broad hall and a Goan lamp-tower.
The life of this place
- 1560sThe Damodar temple at Margao is destroyed and the linga is taken to Zambaulim.
About 22 km south-east of Margao on the road towards Quepem and Rivona.
