Shri Shantadurga Temple
Riverine sanctuary of a peacemaking goddess who holds two serpents, one for Shiva, one for Vishnu.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Shri Shantadurga Temple in Goa opens on an image of the goddess gripping a live serpent in each hand, said to represent Vishnu and Shiva, gods she stepped between during a quarrel fierce enough to threaten the universe. You'll hear how her name itself joins two opposites, calm and fierce, and how in fifteen sixty-four Portuguese forces destroyed her original shrine on the coast, sending devotees fleeing across the Zuari River under cover of darkness. It follows her long stay in a modest hillside shrine at Kavlem, on land where Hindu worship was still tolerated, before a Maratha minister paid for a permanent stone temple decades later.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Shree Mangesh Mandir, Mangeshi
Hillside Shiva shrine whose golden chariot is hauled through the streets by devotees each February.
Shri Mahalasa Narayani Temple
Copper-roofed shrine famed for a forty-foot, five-metal lamp tower lit every Sunday night.
Convent of Santa Monica and The Chapel of The Weeping Cross
Cloistered convent chapel where a carved crucifix reportedly wept blood before a viceroy in the year sixteen thirty-six.
Basilica of Bom Jesus
Baroque basilica of black granite and laterite, holding the incorrupt body of a Jesuit missionary in a silver casket.
Reis Magos Fort
Restored riverside fort of pale ramparts, once a viceroy landing spot and a century-long jail.
Cabo de Rama Fort
Cliffside Portuguese fortress ceded without a fight, with a still-active chapel amid its ruined ramparts.