Inside the shrine an exquisite image of Maruti greets the visitor. But there is more – the entire temple is embellished with kaavi (sgraffito) and represents one of the finest examples of its kind in Goa, as seen in the photographs below.

Ravaged by destructive mining the settlement of Advalpal is under severe pressure from rapacious miners and their political enablers. The future of this temple is highly uncertain – it is located on private property and the owner has had ‘offers’.

Hanuman of Advalpal, Goa
5D, 85L II

Hanuman temple in Advalpal, Goa
5D, 24-105L

Kaavi art on temple façade
5D, 24-105L

This photograph of the Deepastambha at the Mahalsa temple in Mardol was taken at daybreak.

Deepastambha at Mahalsa temple in Mardol, Goa
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

A more modest Deepasthamba adorns the courtyard of the temple of Goddess Bhumika in the village of Chopdem.

Deepastambha at Bhumika temple in Chopdem, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

An ancient Deepasthamba near the remains of Piso Ravlu temple in Mayem is embraced by a Peepal tree.

Deepastambha in Mayem, Goa
5D, 24-105L

Ganulo of Korgaon, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

Ganulo of Korgaon, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

A few weeks later I was again in Korgaon and there he was, hunched over in the temple verandah.

Ganulo
5D Mark II, 85L II

The Brahma temple in Pushkar, Rajasthan, is well known. Not as well known is the temple at Carambolim (also called Brahma-Karmali) in northeast Goa. The idol worshipped here is an 11th C masterpiece of scuplture.

The Brahma temple in Goa was originally located at Carambolim (Karmali) near Panjim. After its sacking by the Portuguese in the 16th C, the idol was moved to its current remote outpost and re-consecrated. Later, in a nod to its original home, the area around it came to be known as Brahma-Karmali.

There are other ancient Brahma images in Goa worshipped in subsidiary shrines in the villages of Parsem, Virnoda and Colomb. A striking Brahma head also figures in the museum collection in Old Goa.

The Carambolim temple recently got a complete makeover. These photographs were taken in November 2009.

Temple of Lord Brahma in Carambolim, Goa
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

Detail of 11th C Brahma sculpture in Carambolim, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

Lord Brahma in Carambolim, Goa
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Priest Sandeep Kelkar at the Brahma temple
5D Mark II, 85L II

Shubha and I share a common guru, the late Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang.” A not-so-well-known fact about Shubha – her father was Skand Gupt, the outstanding cricket commentator of yesteryear, whose distinguished voice and Hindi diction are remembered by AIR listeners of the 1970s and 1980s.

These portraits were taken in Mumbai in December 2009.

Shubha Mudgal
5D Mark II, 85L II

Shubha Mudgal
5D Mark II, 85L II

Shubha Mudgal
5D Mark II, 85L II

The Ganapati temple in the tiny Goan village of Khandola (also spelled Candola) is important to Goans and to Goan history. The original temple was located on the island of Divar at the site of what is today the cemetery adjoining the Church of Our Lady of Piedade. After it was destroyed by the Portuguese around 1540, the idol was squirreled away to Khandepar in Ponda taluka and later to Narve in Bicholim taluka. It was to endure still more turmoil in the years following before finding a stable home in Khandola sometime around 1750.

In 1969 the ancient idol was retired and a new one installed for active worship. But the plan to inter the old image through the process of visarjan was foiled by the good Lord Himself. During the prasad ritual, He demanded a permanent spot in the garbagriha (sanctum sanctorum) to the left of and 1 foot higher than His new doppelgänger. The Lord sure has a fine sense of humour but apparently He hasn’t yet switched to the metric system.

Now a few words about the photograph. For entry into the inner sacred space, the Khandola temple rules call for a ritual bath and appropriate attire. After some back-and-forth a compromise was struck: I agreed to wear the dhoti but the purificatory cold shower from the temple well at 6 in the morning was waived. And so – balancing my camera and tripod while holding on to a slippery dhoti, I came to photograph the ancient Ganapati-bab of Khandola.

This Ganesha sculpture is suggestive of the Hoysala style and is thought to date back to the 13th century CE.

13th C. Ganesha of Khandola, Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

Flower lady at Khandola temple
5D Mark II, 85L II

Goa is being mined to death, with devastating consequences, some of them not yet upon us. Forests have been flattened, and beautiful villages trashed, muddied, their air rendered unbreathable with toxic particulates. Health problems among villagers are on the rise. The rapid spread of groundwater pollution has imperiled Goa’s water supply. Left unchallenged, the miners will bring about Goa’s demise long before the effects of climate change kick in.

Enabling and profiteering from this destructive effort are Goa’s criminal Chief Minister Digambar Kamat – himself a beneficiary of the scores of new mining leases sanctioned (by him) – and his cronies. As the most venal man ever to be elected to the state’s top political office (that takes some doing given the superlative standards of corruption attained to by Goan politicians) Digambar Kamat‘s rightful place is behind bars. But India is not a nation governed by the rule of law.

These days on the River Mandovi there is a virtual traffic jam of barges pregnant with iron ore. The Chinese are paying top dollar and the mining mafia along with their political bedfellows are raking in the moolah, environment and people be damned.

Although these images make a political statement (fine with me) I shot them because I saw photographic merit in the compositions. The first three were taken from the Mandovi bridge in Panjim soon after sunrise, the last from the ferry in Old Goa on a stormy afternoon.

Ore-laden barge in River Mandovi in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, 14L II

Barge, River Mandovi, and the city of Panjim
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Barge in RIver Mandovi in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, 14L II

Barges at the pier in Old Goa
5D Mark II, 85L II

Tulsidas-bab was born in 1934 in the village of Borim located in Goa’s Ponda taluka (the same village gave us the poetic genius Bakibab Borkar). He had the privilege of receiving training for 10 years from Madhukar Pednekar – also from Goa, from the village of Malpem in Pednem taluka – perhaps the greatest harmonium wizard of the 20th C.

In the course of a long and distinguished career, Tulsidas-bab has provided harmonium support to most of the leading Hindustani vocalists of our time – Amir Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kishori Amonkar, Jitendra Abhisheki, Basavraj Rajguru, to name a few. Even more important, he has produced the next line of musicians, with several of his students now counted among the top tier harmonium players in the country.

In 2005 Tulsidas-bab was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the then President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

In the late 1970s and through the 1980s, the frequently-played filler interlude in between programmes on AIR-Panjim was a musical ‘button’ in Raga Tilak Kamod performed by Tulsidas Borkar.

Tulsidas Borkar, harmonium maestro
5D Mark II, 85L II

Tulsidas Borkar, at his home in Mumbai
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Harmonium maestro Tulsidas Borkar
5D Mark II, 14L II

Today the Codd bottle is on the verge of retirement. Khandelwal Glass Works in India and another company in Japan are believed to be the last two surviving manufacturers of this relic.

Sightings of the Codd bottle have now become scarce in Panjim. I managed to wangle a sample from the Mohan Cold Drink House in Cortin. However, the traditional wooden opener was not to be found. You may remember the ‘experts’ in the art of opening this bottle – they could lengthen the duration of the hiss by controlling the pressure on the marble as it dislodged.

For a historical perspective on soda bottles, see this.

Codd soda factory in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Codd soda machine in Panjim, Goa
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Codd soda bottle
5D Mark II, 85L II

Wide angle view of the Codd bottle
5D Mark II, 14L II