पाट । हुमरमळा । चेंदवण ।
We started off in Suzuki Eco, from Parule towards Kudal and in five minutes reached the Pat Mauli temple, at the junction of roads leading to Kudal and Vengurla.
In front of this temple, there is a big beautiful lake fully covered with charming lotus flowers, with petals of carmine red color, radiating outwards. They were looking like a huge parade of troops in Red Square offering their salute to the Sun God, who was halfway up the horizon.View Larger Map It was very difficult to make out the water as almost its entire surface was covered the dark green leaves. White cranes, interspersed in-between were appearing like white lilies woven in to the red-white-green quilt. Hundreds of coots were trying to navigate between the Lotus leaves.
This lake is believed to be under protection of Goddess Mauli, whose temple is nearby. People believe that anybody plucking the lotus flowers or killing the birds will attract the wrath of the goddess and come to great harm. You may call this as blind faith, but I suspect this type of dictums have arisen from the great wisdom of our ancestors, who believed in environmental protection.
The temple is neat and clean, like many other temples in the region. A portrait Shri Narayanrao Patkar of Dombivli adorns one of its walls.
We took the left road at the junction towards Kudal and stopped at the Rameshwar temple in Humarmala. Having paid our respect to the ancient Shivalinga, we were appreciating the well preserved ancient wooden carvings (No photography allowed inside!), a local troupe of 10-15 persons entered the outer hall with a lot of din. They were dressed in various flashy attires of kings, queens, demons, warriors, wild animals and spooky ghosts. Their faces were painted with bright colors and decorated with various mottos. They were chanting in local language, leading to explosions of laughter from the crowd gathered and all their chants ended with loud “शबय। शबय। शबय।“
From the full moon day of Holi till the next new moon day, the village folks of southern Konkan celebrate a festival called Shimga or Shimgotsav. As the day of Holi comes after the winter crop season and farming folk are resting after tenuous farming and harvesting, this festival was designed by our ancestors for fun and frolics, and also to give expression to the hidden talents of the young generation in dance, drama, music, costume designing and other such art forms. It is the Halloween of Konkan!View Larger MapThis troupe was sporting the characters of God Shiva, demon king Ravana and other mythological figures. They performed a small skit, albeit with musical accompaniment, in the main hall of the temple. The performance brought wide ear to ear smiles to all and made our day uniquely memorable.
Leaving the main tar road, we took a small country road towards left in to hills of Walawal. We rested for while in a small deserted Ganesh temple, soaking in and marvelling at the botanical treasure laid bare for us along the way and resumed our upward journey towards Chendvan village. Situated at the top a hill on the border of Chendvan and Walawal villages, is the famous temple Chendvan-Mauli. The goddess is the revered Gramdevata of both these villages, who is known to bless her devotees and alleviate their suffering. View Larger Map
Temple is wide and good looking, adjoining a small cliff. The four feet tall stone idol with blazing eyes has ten hands carrying artifacts and weapons like conch, wheel, mace, trident, sword etc. Facing the goddess in a small alcove is the idol of her elder son, seated on a horse, holding spears and arrows to crush the invaders. He is holding the twelve commandments of rules and is rearing to go at the command of the goddess. On a clear day standing outside this temple, one can see the village of Walawal down below, nestled in greenery and the waters of river Karli beyond.
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