Arvind's contribution to the Fourth Estate
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Goa - On a different note
I have been a frequent traveller to Goa in the past but somehow did not visit this lovely coastal State for almost a decade. This time however the trip was purely to visit our ancestral temples. Goa and Temples may not rhyme well since it is better known for its beaches, churches and now Casinos. The Gowda Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) were the early settlers of Goa, where they built Temples dedicated to family deities. However, during the Portuguese persecutions in early 16 th century, many GSB families fled Goa along with their family deities to nearby regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Although the temples were destroyed by the Muslim rulers in 15 th century and later by the Portuguese, they were renovated intermittently by benevolent rulers and hence they still stand tall even to date. I visited few temples since visiting all the temples can consume almost the entire day. Some of the temples visited were – Devaki Krishna and Lakshmi Rawalnath (both at Mashel) ; Navadurga a