Rosy day in Zambaulim as Dambab comes to play

Margao: Madgaonkars kept their tryst with their patron deity Lord Damodar, or Dambab as he is reverentially known, as they flocked to Zambaulim, 25km from the state’s commercial capital to celebrate the annual gulal. It’s their ardent belief that Dambab plays gulal with Madgaonkars on this auspicious day.
It was a riot of colours amid a sea of revelers as “Zambaulecho Gulal” got under way.Cries of ‘Shree Ramnath Damodar Maharaj ki Jai!’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’ rent the air as devotees flung fistfuls of gulal at the ‘palkhi’ carrying the idol of Lord Damodar stationed in the courtyard of Shree Ramnath Devasthan. Within seconds a cloud of red enveloped the landscape.
History has it that the original temple of Lord Damodar was located in the area known as ‘Madd’ in Margao, which is now referred to as Lingakadden and where the ancient temple tank still stands. During the time of the early conquests by the Portuguese in the 16th century, locals attempted to shift the Shivling to a safer place, but only managed to sever a part of it which they shifted to Zambaulim where the current temple of Shree Damodar stands. It’s in gratitude to Shree Ramnath that Dambab’s palkhi is brought to the temple the night before gulal.
The week-long Shishirotsav at Zambaulim began with the arrival of the traditional nal’l (holy coconut) from the house of late Purushottam Keni in Comba, Margao, to Damodar temple, Zambaulim, in a procession, on Thursday. Dhulpeth is celebrated the day after gulal, which is famous for the sumptuous meals served to devotees. The shigmotsav culminates with the immersion of the nal’l into the river.