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Khapri Temple: The God Who Liked his Drink
This temple is testimony to the fact that faith is a strange animal that can make God out of men.
The Khapri Temple at Kodibag in Karwar has a local deity. There is nothing strange about the fact except that this divine being started life as a disempowered human and that too, one with a penchant for cigarettes and liquor.
There are many stories about the origin of the deity. The Portuguese brought slaves of African origin to Goa. In Konkani, the local language, Africans were called Khapris. One such Khapri reportedly escaped from the clutches of the Portuguese but was captured by the British who tortured him.
The Khapri apparently withstood all that was inflicted on him as he had divine powers. The British officers eventually relented and released him from captivity. Subsequently, he became popular in the region for his healing powers and came to be revered.
Though spiritually inclined and possessed with miraculous healing powers, Khapri was addicted to beedis and alcohol. Which is why on the day of the annual fair at Karwar, both Hindus and Christians flock to the temple, to offer liquor, cigarettes and beedis in addition to flowers, coconuts and bananas!
The Khapri died when he was around 70 years old; the story goes that a few days after the cremation rites and immersion of his ashes in the river Kali, a stone resembling his form surfaced in the river.
The local people took the statue and constructed a temple in his memory. Ever since, the strange custom of offering liquor and tobacco to the deity has become a ritual.
Good to Know
Location: 1.5 km from the Sterling resort
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