Water miracle still flows at Shigao, proving piety can end drought

Keri: A legend courses along with the water of a channel at Shigao, carrying a holy belief and thwarting all attempts to decode a phenomenon revered by people.At Shigao, Goddess Sateri is the presiding deity and in the vicinity of the temple lies a sacred site locally known as Tirthpanto, on the left bank of the Dudhsagar river.

The idol of Lord Ganapati located here is considered hallowed by the villagers.A channel-like structure at Tirthpanto, carved in laterite stone, is believed to take water from the Dudhsagar river into the sacred tank of Kaley. How this water flows into Kaley from Shigao is not known or understood to date.The perennial Dudhsagar river is a lifeline for the villagers of Shigao in Dharbandora, situated on the foothills of the Western Ghats.

The river provides the villagers with drinking and irrigation water.Near Tirthpanto lies a sculpture of a two-handed Lord Ganapati. Every year, during Ganesh Chaturthi, locals install a wooden canopy over the clay idol of Lord Ganapati at their homes. The canopy is adorned with natural seasonal wealth comprising fruits, vegetables, and flowers.But before the canopies are brought home, they are set up over the sculpture at Tirthpanto, as villagers seek the blessings of the lord.

Naresh Shigaonkar, a septuagenarian from Shigao, said, “The local belief is that the water of the Dudhsagar river has been flowing since the hoary past through the underground channel into a sacred tank created by the villagers of Kaley in Sanguem.”The villagers recount a mythical story in which a girl from Shigao married a youth from Kaley. At the time, the village faced a grave paucity of drinking water.“After the married girl gave birth to a child, her father visited her at Kaley,” a local said.

“He could not bear the pain she had to endure just to fetch drinking water every day. He then visited the temple of Goddess Sateri and invoked her tearfully.”It is believed that the goddess appeared in the father’s dream and advised him to take water from the Dudhsagar river in a pot and pour it down to Tirthpanto.The goddess, according to the legend, commanded the daughter not to look back when the water came gushing in. It is believed that the daughter, ecstatic by the sight of the water, forgot to adhere to the edict.

As a consequence, the daughter turned into a lifeless stone sculpture.“However, from that day, water has been continuously flowing through the outlet in the direction of Kaley inside the tank. Kaley no longer faces a water shortage,” said a local, Santosh Sawant Desai, 59. Villagers of Kaley come to respect the stone sculpture of the daughter as the folk deity.