The visarjan in Adpai, Ponda, unlike the rest of Goa, is held in the afternoon. The village consists of 17 family Ganesh idols and each family creates unique tableau with a theme and the entire family follows a colour scheme and dress code as they head out with the idol for immersion on the fifth day of the festival. These 17 families include the Khalche Mule, Khandekar, Mangni, Tari Lotlikar, Tari, Madhle Mule, Varche Mule, Kurdikar, Khandeparkar, Borkar, Mahalaxmi Bandodkar, Vasta, Pokle, Mardolkar, Shivamba Lotlikar, Soshebhatkar and Khumne Bhatkar. The families originally from Adpai consists of nearly 100 members.
Once the idol is placed on the bamboo structure of the tableaux, it is systematically taking with much joy to be placed at Datta Mandir. Vishvesh Naik belongs to the Khandekar family in Adpai. “This year, our tableaux had Lord Ganesha sitting in front of a giant eagle. It was quite a heavy tableaux and we started working on it nearly a month back. All the idols have to reach the temple by 6 pm. Once the idols are placed in the temple, we say the aarti with Shamele, Kasalle and Dhabh, which is a special instrument that is played only at Adpai and Dongri in Goa for the aarti,” says Vishvesh.
This year, the tableaux included Chandrayaan-3, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Lairai Devi, Sant Tukaram, Lord Ravalnath, Lord Jagannath, Lord Shiva, Lord Hanuman, Lord Ram and even the Vikram Lander. After prayers, the idols are carried in canoes into the Zuari River for immersion.
