Adpai comes alive as ‘Kutumba Ganeshas’ are immersed
The environs of Adpai a tiny village in Ponda taluka comes alive annually on the fifth day of the ‘Chovoth’ as over a thousand families members scattered across Goa, come together for the immersion ritual of the 17 ‘kutumba (family) Ganesh’ idols.
The village narrow roads reverberated with devotional songs, as processions of Ganesh idols and tableaux depicting several mythological scenes and current issues pass through these tiny lanes for the immersion ritual.
Ganesh Chaturthi, popularly known as ‘Chovoth’ in Goa, is a festival in which family members gather to worship Lord Ganesh. Many old houses wear a new bright look and come alive to the sounds of the festive celebration.
Here the 17 ‘kutumbs’ (joint families comprising several nuclear families) – the Kurdikar, Khandeparkar, Borkar, Bandodkar, Mahalaxmikar, Pokle, Soshebhatkar, Khumne Bhatkar, Mardolkar, Lotlikar, Shivamba Lotlikar, Mangni, Khandekar, Khalche Mule, Varche Mule, Naik-Tari and Vasta do not celebrate the festival individually, but come under one roof for a collective celebration.
Despite the fact that members of the seventeen kutumbs are dispersed around the state for economic reasons, they all gather at their ancestral paternal homes in Adpai to celebrate the festival together.
The clay idol of Lord Ganesha is not purchased; instead, a member of the Naik Kurdikar family creates it in the temple, as is the tradition. When Ganpati’s clay idol is ready for worship, it is taken inside the temple where the final touch – painting the eyes open – is done. It is believed that life is imbibed into the clay idol only after the first prayers.
In the evening all the idols are carried to the village’s Datta Mandap, where following a last communal prayer, they are taken on canoes and immersed in the Zuari river.
Photos by Lynn Barreto Miranda / lynn.barretomiranda.com
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