Travelogue | Goa: Day 2

The day to started off with visits to multiple temples. We first went to the Shantadurga temple where we can see an interesting confluence of Hindu and Portuguese architecture.

The entrance was decorated with a fruit toran especially made for the festival going on. The basic colour is a Indian brown complemented by a pure white outline which is classic western. These temples have characteristic semicircular domes and pyramid shaped sloping roofs with mangalorean tiles. The interiors have extensive wood work and the sanctum santorum is coated with silver. Despite of the warning of the cyclone the Sun god happy to shine. The light was so nice that the photograph with the temple in the background looks almost like a painted curtain. I was happy that I got some time to have a quick sketch of the temple by the time others were just exploring the beautiful surroundings.

The second temple was just adjacent to the Shantadurga temple and was called as the Kapileshwar. This is a stone structure with the naturally available stone in Southern Maharashtra and Goa which is called as jambha. The temple has similar structure of the sabha mandap and the garbha graha. It is a bit small in size and also doesn’t have the extensive courtyards or the bhakt nivas as found in the bigger temples such as Shanta Durga and Mangeshi.

The next stop was the famous temple of Mangeshi which is the traditional temple of the famous music family of India the Mangeshkars. Similar to the Shantadurga temple even this temple has a mix of architecture as you can see in the pictures the base colour is a pastel shade and has the similar white outline the only difference here is that instead of the Indian brown this as a refreshing light blue colour. Deepmal or the tower of light painted in pure white is another characteristic of the Goan temples.

Another regular feature of this temples is the courtyard on all sides having clean rooms for the pilgrims who wish to stay and perform various religious and social activities. The temples are extremely clean and have a positive vibe as you enter the sabha mandap. Almost every temple had less density of visitors since it was a Monday and we had a peaceful darshan!

By this time it was 2:00 p.m. and we needed a pit stop we found a nice small little Udupi joint and immediately decided to stop there for having some crispy dosas and the traditional South Indian thali.

After the morning visits to various temples we decided to go to the old Goa where we visited the famous Bom Basilica. This is another impressive stone structure with a massive height the interiors are exquisitely done but it is the walls of this Basilica which provide the photographers and excellent background for various types of photography. Kaumudi and I got chance to sketch a quiet corner of this vast structure. We also took turns in photographing each other.

This was a fullfilling day as a whole and we decided to head back home. In addition to a lavish dinner, my favourite dessert was waiting for me. This was bought from a famous bakery The Goan Oven (TGO) as it is popularly known.