A shrine quite unlike any other

On the left bank of Goa’s lifeline Mhadei river, at a point known as Brahmyachi Mali, stands a shrine worshipped by locals of Velguem, Sattari. The small image consists of a man with an oar.
Shrines are common place in any devout country. This place of worship is located within the property of a brahmin, Balkrishna Joshi. This isn’t odd either. Until one learns that the shrine is dedicated to a folk deity, who is believed to have been a dalit.
“I have spent my own money to build the shrine after the deity’s blessings helped me and my family to overcome hurdles. He has been respected by the villagers in the vicinity as one of the folk deities. Every year, we offer food to the dalit community from Khadki,” said Joshi.
The belief is rooted in an interesting legend.
Sometime in the 19th century, the dalit man, Rajgo, is believed to have been born, while Goa was still under Portuguese rule. He was working as a boatman, ferrying people in his country canoe from Velguem, Khadki, and surrounding areas of Sattari to its headquarters Valpoi, via Masorde.
He was associated with the the Rane-Sardesais of Khadki. This was an era when Rane-Sardesais, with the help of villagers of Sattari, were fighting the Portuguese. Locals of Khadki, too, helped them.
Sattari resident Sahdev Vithal Khadkikar says that the dalit boatman, too, was assigned the task of bringing liquor and food to the mutineers, who are believed to have taken refuge in an underground cave locally called Bhab in Velguem, to avoid the wrath of the Portuguese soldiers.
But the alert Ranes would drink or eat the food transported to them only after it was tasted by the dogs. It is believed that one day, the Ranes similarly fed the liquor transported by Rajgo to the dogs to test its safety. Once tasting the liquor, the dogs are said to have died instantly.
It made the Ranes furious and caused them to doubt the loyalty of Rajgo, believing that he might have poisoned the alcohol. The angry Ranes soon awarded the him the death penalty.
“Rajgo was a brave and loyal man. Unfazed by the death sentence, he took a bath in the Mhadei River and sat in front of the Ranes, wearing a garland of red-coloured wild flowers of Patkolni. It is said that when his head was cut off, it fell in Guleli, a village of Rajgo’s ancestors. Rajgo’s unmoved acceptance of the sentence removed all doubts from the minds of Ranes, who then began considering Rajgo as a loyal man of principles,” said Khadkikar.
Realizing their mistake, villagers of Khadki and Velguem built a memorial in honour of Rajgo. People who passed through the road or over the river began paying tribute to Rajgo who assumed the status of a folk deity within a short span of time. Locals began offering flowers, woolen carpets or hanging bells, and started believing that their wishes were being fulfilled.
Narayan Sakharam Khadkikar, a 55-year-old resident of Shivajinagar, Khadki, said, “In our hamlet, we too have established a shrine in the memory of Rajgo as he brought honour to our community.”
Another folk tale told by Suryakant Gaonkar from Bhuipal narrates how Rajgo refused to ferry the Portuguese soldiers from Masorde to Velguem, and the soldiers, in anger, killed Rajgo with a single gun shot.
As he played a significant role in protecting the mutineers and villagers, after his death, people built the memorial that got transformed into a religious shrine.
Though Rajgo was born into the dalit community in Sattari- dalits were regarded as untouchables-this man is being worshipped as the folk deity for his noble work and deeds, and, intriguingly, has found a place in the household of a brahmin family.
Who was Rajgo and why do many locals of Sattari’s villages consider him a deity? STOI unearths the story of a boatman & some mutineers in the Portuguese era.