A riot of colour will be unleashed at
Zambaulim in Quepem today as the devotees of Lord Damodar or Dambaab immerse
themselves in the celebrations of Gulalotsav – the festival of ‘Gulal’, an
annual traditional event that marks the culmination of the week-long Shigmo
celebrations. Every year, the festivities begin with the holy coconut being
taken from Purushottam Keni’s residence in Comba, Margao, to the Damodar temple
in Zambaulim in a grand procession about a week prior to the Gulalotsav. It is
believed that on this special day, Lord Damodar personally plays ‘Gulal’ with
his devotees.
67- year-old Bharat Zambaulikar from
Zambaulim is an ardent devotee of Dambaab and offers his services to the
Damodar Devasthan in the management of Gulalotsav every year. Zambaulikar says,
“The ‘palkhi’ of Dambaab that left from the Damodar temple at about 9.30 pm on
Monday, halts at the Ramnath temple at about 6 am on Tuesday. After the ‘aarti’
is conducted at 3.30 pm at the temple, Gulal is smeared on the idol of Dambaab
resting in the ‘palkhi’ and this marks the beginning of the Gulalotsav and
people apply Gulal to each other to join in the celebrations. At about 4 pm,
the ‘palkhi’ leaves from Ramnath temple and goes to the Damodar temple and
after doing 7 ‘pradakshina’ (circumambulation) of the temple, the ‘palkhi’ is
taken inside the Damodar temple and the Gulalotsav ends with the Maha Aarti.
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Manjunath Dukle, President, Damodar
Devasthan, Zambaulim, says, “While the programmes are managed by the
Mathagramastha Hindu Sabha, the rest, including the arrangement of rooms,
infrastructure and traffic management, is handled by the Damodar Devasthan.
People from all across Goa start pouring in from about 12 in the afternoon for
the Gulalotsav that starts at about 2.45 pm and goes on till about 4.30 pm.
Like every year, we are expecting about 2.5 lakh people to come and participate
in the festivities.”
Deepankar Naik, a resident of Margao and a
Mathagramstha, writes in his blog, “Dambaab is believed to go on a Feri (the
patrolling round) in Margao at mid-night sitting on his horse with a big metal
rod in his hand. They would first hear the sound of the rod being hit hard on
the ground and then see a bright white light coming that way. Even today this
belief continues and many can feel his presence. The relationship between
Damaab and Madgaonkars (residents of Margao) is like that of a father and son
where the father takes care of the son from time to time. Madgaonkars worship
Dambaab and ask for his blessings before starting any work. Even today when a
Madgaonkar buys a new vehicle, he takes it first to Dambaab’s temple to take
his blessings and then gets it home. It’s the spirit of Dambaab that has been
uniting the Madgaonkars – it is his own land and will always remain his!” (sic)
