01The Kadambas’ Shiva
The Kadambas who ruled Goa from the 11th to the 14th century took Saptakoteshwar as their kuladevata and put his name on their gold coins. His temple stood at Naroa on Divar island in the Mandovi. When the Bahmani Sultanate took Goa in the 1350s, the temple was destroyed and the linga dug up. After Vijayanagara won Goa back, Madhava Mantri, the Vijayanagara governor, re-established the temple around 1391.
02From a well to Shivaji’s temple
The Portuguese, masters of the islands of Goa from 1510, demolished the temple in 1560 and built a chapel on the site. The linga was set into the mouth of a well as a curb, until Hindus recovered it and carried it secretly across the river to Narve in Bicholim, outside Portuguese territory, where a small shrine was made. In 1668 Chhatrapati Shivaji, then campaigning on the Goa frontier, ordered the temple rebuilt and the linga properly installed; a stone plaque at the entrance records his order. The temple keeps the Maratha form he gave it, with a dome over the sanctum and a deepastambha in front.
The life of this place
- c. 1352–1366Under Bahmani rule the temple is destroyed and the linga dug up.
- c. 1391Madhava Mantri of Vijayanagara re-establishes the temple.
- 1560The Portuguese demolish the temple on Divar; the linga is later taken to Narve.
- 1668Shivaji orders the temple rebuilt at Narve.
At Narve in Bicholim taluka, about 35 km from Panaji; a ferry crosses from Divar. Ganesh Chaturthi and Mahashivaratri are the main festivals.
