Place · Kadamba capital & temple town · India
Ponda
The inland Goan town in South Goa, 30 kilometres from Panaji — the medieval capital of the Kadamba kingdom of Goa (10-14th century) and later refuge of major Goan Hindu temples that were secretly moved here from the Portuguese-occupied Old Goa territories during the Inquisition period (1540-1600). The Shri Mangeshi temple (originally at Kushasthali/Cortalim, moved to Mangeshi in Ponda between 1560 and 1570), the Shri Mahalasa Narayani temple (originally at Verna, moved 1567), the Shri Shantadurga temple (originally at Keloshi/Quelossim, moved 1564) and about 20 other Goan Hindu temples were rebuilt in Ponda beyond the Portuguese Old Conquest territory. Ponda is now the chief Goan Hindu pilgrimage centre with over 10 million annual pilgrim visits. ASI partial protection.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 15.402, 74.015
Connections (3)
- Image migrationOld Goa
The temples of Salcete and Bardez were demolished in the sixteenth century under the Old Conquests' religious laws, and their congregations carried the images across the Zuari into Adil Shahi and then Maratha Ponda, where they were re-enshrined. Shanta Durga, Mangueshi and Mahalasa are Goan village deities in exile a few kilometres from the villages that still fund them.
- Site withinMangueshi Temple, Ponda
The Mangueshi Temple at Priol village in Ponda taluka, 22 km east of Panjim, is the largest and most frequented of the six Mahā-Śiva temples of Goa. The deity was moved here in 1560 from Kortalim (now Cortalim) on the Sal estuary to escape the Portuguese Inquisition and the demolition of pre-colonial temples on the Konkan coast; the current structure dates to 1738.
- Site withinSafa Shahouri Masjid, Ponda
The Safa Shahouri Masjid at Ponda, built in 1560 by Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur, is the oldest surviving mosque in Goa and one of only three to escape the Portuguese demolitions. A single-chamber laterite prayer hall on a basalt plinth with a stepped water tank; the mihrab arch is in the stylised late-Bijapur manner typical of the Deccan Sultanate's final years.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ponda”. Charles Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire; the Historical Archives of Goa; UNESCO’s Churches and Convents of Goa file.
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