Displaced in religious conflicts, devotees unfailingly throng Candola’s Malyachi jatra

Keri: The annual Malyachi jatra associated with the temple of Bhagvati Haldonkarin was held at Candola on Saturday. Bhagvati Haldonkarin is the presiding deity of the agricultural village of Aldona, Bardez.
Immediately after the conquest of Bardez, when the destruction of Hindu temples and shrines reached its climax, the devotees brought the deity along with the affiliate deities through the waterways across the Par river, first to Mayem in 1567 and later to Candola in 1748.
Devotees from the agricultural village of Candola, and those who sought refuge in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and other parts of Goa after the new conquest, gather in large numbers for the Malyachi Jatra.
Various cultural and religious activities mark the festivity, but the centuries-old tradition of lighting the unique earthen cluster of 52 lamps in a procession is a mesmerising moment.
Tejas Pandit, a heritage lover whose family is associated with the temple, told TOI, "Since my childhood, for more than a quarter, I have been participating in the fair. Leaving our ancestral village of Aldona painfully, struggling for survival, we eventually settled in the 19th-century commercial town of Vasco. My grandfather used to come via boat from Vasco to Banastarim and walk to reach Candola to participate in the jatra.".
Jayendranath Haldankar, a Goan theatre artist, told TOI, “Our ancestors, originally from Aldona, sought refuge in Poraskade, Pernem, and we now reside in Nhaibag, on the banks of the Terekhol river. However, we visit Candola on the occasion of the Malyachi jatra without fail to seek the blessings of the mother goddess.