Famous Temples in India

History

According to a version of the Puranas (Indian mythological verses), Brahma was cursed by Lord Shiva ‘not to receive any worship’ and there are only two other shrines in India, dedicated to him apart from Goa – at Pushkar, Rajasthan and at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. In all probability, the veneration of Lord Brahma may have arrived in the Konkan region of present day Goa and established during the reign of the early Chalukyas of Badami, around the 5th century A.D. The almost six feet high idol seen here through its iconography can be dated to the 12th century A.D.

Goa faced a very turbulent period of severe religious persecution by the Dominican Order between 1560 to 1812, with a brief gap of 20 years and which is known as “the Goa Inquisition”. During this era, over 270 temples all over Goa were brutalised and destroyed with the intention of obliterating the locally existing age-old religious culture and stamping a new evangelistic culture. There is a wrong impression that the Portuguese regime existed in Goa since 1510. In reality, the Portuguese ruled over Tiswadi since November 25, 1510, took over Salcete around 1547 and Bardez around 1552. The present day Goan borders were actually frozen in 1788, after the lands in the South were ceded from the Saundekar King and those in the North were conquered from the Ranes, Marathas, and the Bhosles of Sawantwadi.

Sattari came under the Portuguese rule only around 1773-1775. Before that, these were lands under the feared Ranes. The Portuguese army had to rethink a hundred times before even contemplating attacking these areas as they faced many humiliating retreats against the swift moving Rane armies. This factor rendered these places safe for establishing the many deities which had to take flight from their original locations. Similarly, this Brahma idol was shifted from Carambolim (Karmali) to Nagargao, Sattari to save it from religious persecution. The village was then named after this as Brahma-Karmali or Brahma-Carambolim. It is said that the original name of this ward was ‘Chandivde’.