Bazaar-bustling Banastarim

The weekly bazaar has lent an extra glow to this lovely village

By Alister Miranda

Think Banastarim and you are bound to her a bazaar buzz in your ear. Its name has become synonymous with rustic marketing. The famed market is perhaps as old as Banastarim itself. Evolved as it has from a barter trade set-up to the present day currency ruled one, it has somehow managed to maintain its bustling rural charm. Unspoilt, its truly Goan virginity beckons even the most sophisticated shopper. Honest and hardworking folk from neighbouring villages and also from the far flung hinterland decorate the market every Friday with their goods. The selling-shopping activity actually starts on Thursday evening, slumbers off for the night, and is full grown early Friday morning. Week after week, addicted shoppers religiously flock to it like it were a Zatra. It is a haven for shoppers desirous of picking up a variety of home bred produce at reasonable rates.

It continues unshackled and sets its own pace, while accommodating all and sundry; turning back no one for want of space. It's there one day, gone on the next.
Other weekly market get-togethers held in other Goan villages are no match for the Banastarim bazaar. It definitely gives the now over-hyped Mapusa's Friday market more than a run for its money. No trinket -selling Tibetians and Lamanis here, only a pure unadulterated Goan shopping experience.

Now is the right time for picking up the traditional pavsacho purument (monsoon stocks). An assortment of plentiful dried fish, pickle mangoes, onions, dry chillies, sweet potatoes; the list can be unending. Villagers of Old Goa, Cumbarjua, Santo Estevam, Tivrem, Marcela, Bhoma, Kundaim, Mardol and Mangueshi, and even Bicholim, Sankhelim and Amona, come all the way to Banastarim's Friday bazaar to satiate their shopping needs. The bazaar literally casts a spell on all who choose to enter its precincts; and this writer was no exception. Having gone on a casual look-see while researching the village, he came back with a bag full of raw pickle mangoes, galmo (fine dried prawns) and luscious gaunvtti papayas.

Another recognizable feature that has made Banastarim known far and wide is the metal bridge, which, till recently, faithfully served as the only conduit between the Tiswadi and Ponda talukas. This vital link bridged the Mandovi river; and all traffic, almost in reverential adoration to it, slowed down while crossing the narrow viaduct. Although frequently targeted during Goa's liberation struggle, the bridge continued to carry the weight of the heavy highway traffic, even at the cost of its failing health. Now closed for traffic, proudly wearing all its weather and battle inflicted scars, it keeps a watchful eye over the new bridge.

Before the bridge came into existence, crossing the two talukas, to and fro, was by canoe. When Banastarim was Muslim-ruled, no crossing/entry toll was charged. The toll was introduced by Chatrapati Shivaji after wresting the Ponda taluka from Muhammed Khan from Bijapur on May 1, 1675. Everyone crossing via the Banastarim, Tivrem or Kundaim ferry had to compulsorily pay it. The tax charged then was 7 dhuddu for a male and 14 dhuddu for a female - an equivalent of 0.6 paise (100 dhuddu made up one tangh , while 10 tanghs were comparable to one rupee). Later, upon request from the people, Dharmaji Nagnath, who was installed by the Chatrapati as Governor, scrapped the toll.

The river has a big hand in shaping the topography of Banastarim. While the west side of the village is banked on the river, Bhoma and Kundiam lie to the South, Tivrem and Marcel to the North and on the East are kullaghar and cashew dotted hills that cascade past fertile fields and plantations to greet the quietly flowing Mandovi river.

Banastarim lies 16 kms from Panjim and 12 kms from Ponda. It is clubbed with the Bhoma-Adcolna-Banastarim Panchyat, which for the first time is headed by a Banastarim Sarpanch, Parvati Phadte Gaunkar. Adcolna is the mega ward, which is sub-divided into Tole Wada and Naik (Maina) Wadda, Phadte Wada is the other major ward of this village, which has a 90 per cent Hindu population. The 12 Catholic houses belong to the Marcel Parish. In days gone by the Catholics would either trudge it out to Old Goa or Marcel to attend Sunday Mass, but after a small chapel, conscrecrated to Our Lady of Fatima, was built 20 years ago a Eucharistic celebration is held every Sunday at 10 am.

The theatrically inclined hardworking Banastarkars stage a natak on January 25, under the ageis of the Zangleshwar Sounstha and the Vadeshwar Sports Club perform their nataks in the bazaar area. IFB Club is totally committed to sports. The village has not a single education institution to boast of, except a government primary school opposite the temple.

Banastarim boasts of a multi-talented group of young girls, all hailing from Tole Wada, who give devotional music performances at religious functions. This group is led by Revathi Satarkar - adept at playing the harmonium, tabla, pakwaz and who is also a good actress.

The scenery is captivating. Idyllic and tinged with an emerald green hue, it gives one the refreshing feeling that man and nature are at work in close conjunction. And indeed they do. Agriculture and horticulture are the mainstay of the economy - rice, arecanut, pineapples and vegetables being the main cash crops. Some villagers are engaged in toddy tapping, small scale toddy vinegar manufacture and cashew feni distilling.

The Maina Kullaghar with its fresh water spring is a hot favourite, specially in the summer, since the heat melts into a refreshing coolness. These are excellent environs to chill out. Drink or bathe at the spring and a tingling spanking-new feeling will envelope you. The tall swaying arecanut trees will then literally sing you a lullaby as you gently doze off in natures lap.

If a pre-announced power shut down is to hit the city, you are bound to just dash off to the cool confines of the Kullaghars. At the end of the day you'll surely wish one could take the divine 'air-conditioned' environment back home.
No profile of the village will be complete without mentioning how deeply the Banastarkars are enshrined in their religiously flavoured culture, all of which revolves around the Shree Navdurga Mahishasur Mardini temple, the Vetal-Betal temple and the Shree Ravalnath temple. The village and temples have a direct relation. It is a gold mine for researchers of the serious kind.

The Shree Navdurga Mahishasur Mardini temple, the biggest of the three, besides having a statue of the goddess, possesses an interesting picture depicting a slain Mahishasur in the form of a buffalo attacked by a Lion, all who lie at the feet of a victorious Durga having nine hands. Standing cheek-by-jowl to the Shree Navdurga temple are the life-size statues of Vetal and Betal housed in a small temple.

The age of the temples is difficult to ascertain, but some unclear records mention that a temple on the hill was built with the permission of the Muslim rulers. The Zatra, held during Amas in November-December would not take off without a bloody sacrifice of sorts was offered after frightening rituals. Goreamchi Zatra (Zatra of hooks) it was called. Attached to a wheel (the size of a cart wheel) were long iron rods with metal hooks at the loose end. This apparatus was held by two ropes that were used to spin the wheel. Four or five chosen villagers who had undergone the required amount of fasting and prayers were bathed, after which they were garlanded and three broad lines of teerth was applied to their foreheads. All this was done after the pujari recited the invocations (Gharanem).

The men were made to lie face down on the ground wearing just a white loin cloth. The drums then began to beat at a frenzied pace as the metal hooks were attached to the men's back to coincide with another round of invocations. Two men pulled the ropes and suspended the men in mid air, and the wheel was spun, with the hoisted men moving as in a merry-go-round. The villagers believed that these men were possessed by a spirit (bhar ieta) and would never experience the pain. But even these men had to scream and shout while blood poured out of their bodies, they wouldn't be heard over the intense din of the beating drums.

When news of this Goreamchi Zatra reached Portuguese Governor General Jose Ferreira Pestam, he did not believe it and sought to personally go and check it out. And go he did while the Zatra was at its sacrificial high. Jose Ferreira immediately passed an order on December 14, 1844, banning the Zatra.
Twenty-two years later, on February 9, 1866, the Banastarim Gaunkars wrote a letter to the Governor General requesting him to allow the Zatra to happen as sickness and poverty had descended upon the village ever since it was discontinued. The Phadtes, Pundalik -- Vassu, Vithal, Satu, Hari and Venkati put their thumb impressions to the letter, while their translator Minguel da Costa signed it. Permission wasn't granted. But what came to be known as Reddeachi Zatra (Buffalo Zatra) commenced instead.

Elders inform that a buffalo of medium build would be bought from a neighbouring village and tied near a peepal tree. It was well fed for eight days, but on the day of the Zatra it had to go without food. With drums beating continuously, around midnight, it would be coaxed to move towards a small lake for a bath. If the stubborn buffalo did not oblige, then it was dragged. It is said that once the buffalo had bathed, he invariably would be at his best behaviour. No more pushing and shoving was required. Undirected, he would walk past the Shree Navdurga temple and stop right in front of the Vetal-Betal Temple. Again, without any initiation he would place his head on a huge stone in front of the temple. Both the routes the buffalo takes are different. The seven Gaunkars would gather and the eldest (Vodlo Gaunkar) would symbolically put the first cut on the buffalo's neck with a sword. The local Mahar would with dexterity then separate its head from the rest of the torso.

A few years back this popular Zatra ran into trouble. The local youth fired the first salvo for scrapping the bloody practice. The were backed by concerned elders and also the pujari. The end to the Reddeachi Zatra came 12 years back via a Mamlatdar's order, informs the Shree Navdurga pujari Madhu Sudan Savoikar, who has been serving the temple for the last 19 years. Roosters are now being sacrificed instead.

An interesting characteristic of this Zatra was that for seven days people were forbidden to come near the temple. But one day, Goa's first chief minister, the late Dayanand Bandodkar, unknowingly drove up to the temple and entered it. He, however, acquitted himself from divine punishment with a gharanem at the Vetal-Betal temple.

Each family in the village has a role to play - the Naik Gaunkars, the Phadte Gaunkars, the Zalmis. Only the attiring of the devi is done by a dhobi from Bhoma Umesh Bhoomkar. During the Shigmo festival the Devi is carried in a palanquin, which moves compulsorily from house to house.

In the near future, a paxan stone, bearing a carving of Goddess Laxmi with two elephants, that surfaced 23 years ago just 15 metres from the Vetal -Betal temple is likely to attract a lot of attention. Most Banastarkars did not know about it until Vinod Naik 'rediscovered' it for us as we were scouting around. He told us that he was studying in the primary school, when he and his friends noticed it while searching for a ball they had lost among the bushes.

Yes, naturally appealing and ethnically pulsating is what Banastarim is today; was yesterday; and, hopefully, will remain forever.