wanderlust

Sunday may 25^th 2014

My husband loves driving, and I love destinations. So we decided you to travel down to Kittur, My husband being the meticulous person that he is when it comes to his gizmos and vehicles, had mapped where we wanted to go.  Early morning the with chirping birds we drove down through the town of Marcel, over the Amona Bridge to Sanquelim.

Sanquelim literally means chain in Konkani. It was a port town under the Prabhu-sardesai’s who were the descendents of the royal family of Ratnagiri for almost 500 years after taking control of the town from the Devagiri Yadavas in the 13^th century. They lorded over 84 villages with the support of the chieftains of Surla. These people in turn supported the Konkan Kadamba kings and eventually ruled independently with tactical alliances with the rulers of Bijapur and Sawantwadi.

The Desai’s of Sanquelim fought the Portuguese for 6 years and eventually lost.

Today Sanquelim stands as temple town and cultural hub. With 4 major temples and many small temples. The four major temples being Sri Radhakrishna temple, SriDattamaharaj temple, Sri Panduranga Temple and Rudreshwar temple

Our own favourite being the DattaMaharaj temple. What strikes to me each time, is this is one of the very few temples in Goa that has a hint of Jain roofing. The classic Jain style of roofing that we see in Kerala and Karavali is present though hidden by the more modern Portuguese-Maharashtrian facade.

The cool garden around the temple the Parijatha, also known as Prajukta. They really bring back memories of the pre-pilgrimage tourist bus days. I remember most temples having gardens and parks where we would pick and string flowers.

https://parwatisingari.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/parijata/

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