The submerged village Curdi & Transplanted Mahadev temple

Goa is one of the most beautiful states in India. It is the land of serene beaches and picturesque landscape but the true beauty of Goa lies in the various other aspects, like temples churches, villages, architectures. The traditions and cultures of Goa are unique.

It’s been almost 3 years consecutively I have been visiting this place and every time as I stepped on the land of Curdi ‘The vibes are weird’ the village is calm yet disturbing.

Kurdi or Curdi is a village in Sanguem taluka of Goa. The village was submerged in the 1980s by the reservoir of the Salaulim Dam, A conceptualized dream project of Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar, the Selaulim dam. Most of the villagers were into agriculture and farming. The government compensated the families with agricultural land and land for housing purpose with 10,000 square metres, with all plans in place, the people of Curdi began moving out by 1971, making way for the construction of the dam.

Since then the village is under water...

Every year, at the peak of summer during April-May, parts of the submerged village rise above the water level. The only structure that still remains intact in Curdi village even after the whole village was submerged is the Someshwar temple this temple is called to ‘jaagrut devasthan’ dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple stone Nandi along with other idols from the temple were moved to Valkini near salaulim dam.

Every year, people who used to stay in Curdi celebrate utsav at Someshwar temple to RELIVE their memories and for the love of their ancestral place and gather around their respective places of worship, they celebrate the feast of a chapel as there is also a Church which is on other hill.

The village has beautiful valleys with lush green mountains but the land is barren. once a year in the summer you can see:

· Tarred road - still intacted

· Culverts

· nullahs

· Church

· School

· A building that once housed a police outpost.

· Tulsi structure

· Ample numbers of roots of tree

And as always we made an impromptu decision of visited Curdi once again and took a other away round route to explore the depth as it was too dried-up this year. Which came out on Salaulim Dam side. And as Sunny wanted to see Transplanted Mahadev Temple to Shelpem.

Transplanted Mahadev Temple to Shelpem.

This is a transplanted temple. Originally located 17km south-east of the Present location, in Kurdi Angod on the banks of river Salaulem. The construction of a dam across Salaulem had threatened the submergence of the temple, hence It was systematically dismantled piece by piece and rejoined again near the Salaulem dam providing similar topographical setting. It consisted of a square Garbhagriha and a porch in front with extant super structure. The main idol of Someshwar is still in kurdi. Currently there is nandi on the entrance and Ganesh Idol.

This transplanted temple originally located 17 kms South-East of the present location in Kurdi Angod on the bank of river Salaulim. The construction of a dam across Salaulim, had threatened to submerge the temple. Hence it was systematically dismantled and reconstructed at a higher elevation, providing similar topographical setting. Transplantation literally means to shift an object from one place and re-erect the same without changing the original character, to a safer place.

You can still the numbering on the rocks of the temple

This temple is over thousand years old…. built during the kadamba rule in Goa!! The whole process of transplantation took 11 years to complete.

Transplated temple Kurdi

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