01Saved by the forest
Goa once had hundreds of temples of the Kadamba age. The Bahmani raids of the 14th century and the Portuguese demolitions of the 16th took almost all of them. This one survived because it stood far from any road, in the jungle below the Sahyadri crest where the Surla stream runs, and nobody came. It is built of black basalt brought from across the hills, in the Kalyani Chalukya manner the Kadambas followed, with a pillared mandapa and a small sanctum facing east, so that the first sun falls on the linga.
02Still in worship
The mandapa ceiling carries a carved lotus, and the panels show Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and the Devi. The shikhara is unfinished, or lost its top long ago. A Naga carving on the doorway is sometimes read as the mark of the Kadamba kings. The temple is protected by the Archaeological Survey, but it is not a dead monument: villagers still worship here, and Mahashivaratri brings people from across Goa through the forest at night.
The life of this place
- 12th–13th centuryThe temple is built in the time of the Kadambas of Goa.
In the Bhagwan Mahavir sanctuary, about 65 km from Panaji. The road ends close by; go in the morning.
