Virginal Warkhand

This out and out Hindu-inhabited village has remained unharmed by the monster of modernity

By Alister Miranda (Goa Today)

 Once you cross Dhargalim’s cluster of shops on National Highway 17 and are wheeling North on the downhill slope, look out for an attractive blue and white signboard announcing the existence of Nagzor, Warkhand’s most famous ward.

Turn right, and while taking in the sights of vast expanses, move along for another five kilometres, on the road that ends at borderline Ibrampu,r till you are face to face with yet another blue-white signboard that points to Warkhand. This is the Nagzar junction, from where a road shoots off towards Poroscodem via mainland Warkhand. Although a mere 15 kilometres from Mapusa, Warkhand still remains tucked away, virginal and not much heard of.

Originating in its hilly heights, and cascading down into the plateau-like valley, its scenic bliss and quiet, spells poetic tranquillity. As soon as the monsoon sets in, Warkhand sees hectic agricultural activity with man and beast engaged in the hard toil of tilling the fertile land. A green carpet is then painted and within no time nature’s canvas is complete with the swaying paddy blooms. Harvesting, once complete, the land becomes a grazing paradise for the cattle. Horticulture then takes over. But, the continuance of the agricultural and horticultural buzz notwithstanding, Warkhand’s ageing residents maintain that the farming activity has reduced considerably over the years. The panoramic open spaces along the three-kilometre road, from Nagzar to Warkhand proper, used to be the village rice bowl they say, while pointing out that the slump in agriculture came about ever since their sons and daughters sought employment in government and private service. Yet, they are not bitterly complaining though. Like most other Pernem villages, Warkhand can also boast of a good number of skilled masons, whose skill lies showcased in the typically bucolic houses.

The 2686.67-hectare hamlet is inhabited by Hindus alone, and not even a sign of Christianity by way of a roadside or hilltop Cross, exists. The loving village folks are highly religious, but at times can be easily swayed by superstition. This was witnessed during the Panchayat polls last month, when a rumour, tinged with superstition, saw the downfall of an otherwise popular and capable candidate who had earlier won three times on the trot.

Hindu religiosity in big measure mainly hovers around the imposing and tastefully illuminated temple of Shree Mauli Shantadurga, whose foundation anniversary -Sthapana Divas- is celebrated towards the end of April or in early May, and the Zatra of the deity in December. The other temples in the village are dedicated to Vasudev (Nagzar and Tulaskar Wadi), Mahapurush and Datta (both at Nanache Pani).

An interesting aspect, which is directly linked to the fear of the village Goddess, is that no one from the village distils alcohol in any form. As legend has it, (a legend that has been passed on from generation to generation) one over-enthusiastic villager put up a distillery, but what frighteningly came forth was not liquor, but blood, inform the elders. Like Mencurem in Bicholim taluka, here too there is neither a single liquor vending outlet, nor does anyone store liquor in the village, except in Nagzor. No drunks are found in the village. And this has unwittingly made parents from neighbouring villages vie for Warkhand bachelors to marry off their daughters.

The villagers, numbering about 3500, live huddled in the wards of Warkhand (Varcha Wadda and Madla Wada), Deull Wada, Nagzar, Tulaskar Wadi, Nanache Pani and Shimeche Advan. A peculiar topographical feature of Warkhand is that all its wards, except the wards of Warkhand and Deul Vadda, lie distanced from each other by at least two to three kilometres; with Nanache Pani and Shimeche Advan ensconced in the hills. But this is not to suggest that the huge empty spaces between them have in any way affected the development of the village. On the contrary, Warkhand can be highlighted as a showpiece of how development in villages should be undertaken without disturbing the agricultural profile of a village.

Full marks to the five-member Village Panchayat of Warkhand-Nagzar for making it a model village, while most panchayats are huffed and puffed at by their denizens because they’ve allowed the worm of corruption to eat into healthy all-round development.

This otherwise unassuming village of the Dhargalim constituency has a water- project sponsored by Directorate of Agriculture benefiting 691 families and watering a total area of 1590 hectares; a beautiful Panchayat Ghar which houses the telephone exchange (the first in Dhargalim constituency), a gymnasium managed by the panchayat in association with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, a health centre; two libraries – a Government Library in Warkhand and a Panchayat Library in Nagzar; two drama stages at Warkhand and Nagzar; two irrigation canals; five primary and one high school; a children’s park; cemented footpaths and illumination of all wards and approach roads. It could also, debatably, be the only panchayat in Goa to have availed of funds from three Members of Parliament – John Fernandes, Eduardo Faleiro and Sripad Naik, for the ongoing construction of a sports complex, a school building and a community hall. The roads too are in excellent condition, so much so that our city roads pale in comparison. The credit for all the useful and not outrageous development done, keeping in tact the agricultural and rural profile of Warkhand, goes to the young and dynamic outgoing sarpanch Pandurang Yeshwant Parab and the three successive panchayat bodies he has intelligently headed. He was decorated with the Best Sarpanch Award in the year 2000. It is also to the credit of the Panchayat to have solicited the unstinted support and co-operation of the Panchayat minister and constituency representative Babu Azgaonkar and water resources minister Ramakant Khalap. And it will be a shocker if the incumbent Dhargalim constituency MLA Babu Azgaonkar does not get re-elected.

Nagzar, which is the hub of all the little commercial activity of Warkhand, got its name from the spring that lies on its border with Dhargalim. Provision stores, bars, restaurants, fabrication and motor winding units, a cashew kernel oil factory and a fair price shop lie packed here. However, the main markets for the Warkhandkars are at Pernem and Mapusa. The renowned Pandurkar goldsmiths hail from Nagzar. So does the famed painter and idol maker Deelip Mandrekar (65), who has won many awards for his stage setting while accompanying Goan theatre troupes all over the nation.

The residents of Nanache Pani and Shimeche Advan live a hardy and rustic life amidst the forested hills. Innumerable generations have lived on the tenanted properties owned by landlords from Mapusa, Arabo, Parsem and Pernem. They are mostly engaged in looking after the kullaghars (plantations – mainly beetlenut) which cascade down the hill slopes. Undrying spring water, which takes a serpentine path via narrow canals, makes sure the plantations are in constant good health.

Gangaram Raghu Mavlankar (75), speaking to us in his typical Pernem-accented Konkani, informed that Nanache Pani got its name from the spring water that formerly seemed to flow out from the huge nana trees that once dotted the jungle. The potable springs flow into Nanachi Tali (pond) from where it is channelled down the slopes. Desecration of the area around the pond is not allowed, as the Rastroli Devasthan lies cheek-by-jowl. At the anthill that marks Rastroli’s abode, a Brahma Bhofeb (divine meal) is laid out annually in February. Shemeche Advan, the other hill-held ward is similar in appearance, with only a motorable road yet to connect it to the rest of Warkhand. Peacocks, wild boars, deers, porcupine, and, above all, tigers continue to live in ‘harmony’ with these two high-perched wards. "Quite often, at dusk, the tigers come and sit in the middle of the tar road", says Laxman Mavlankar of Nanache Pani.

The Warkhand of yore remained totally cut off. Except for Nagzar, the other wards, including Warkhand were difficult to access. Thanks to the bridge at the entrance of Warkhand, till not so long ago, during the monsoons, people at times had to stay put on the other side of Warkhand whenever the rivulet flowed above the danger mark. The bridge has been instrumental in connecting the road to the National Highway 17 at Poroscodem.

Transport facilities that were hardly available, except from Nagzar, today abound. But, the cradles in which the sick and the elderly were formerly carried around are still used by the Shemeche Advan residents. Nagzar, which has always been well connected, is serviced by buses that fly past to Chandel and Hansapur. Warkhand is the last stop for most buses that start from Mapusa and move through Pernem and Poroscodem.

Basic medical facilities are now adequately available when compared to the time when country medicines and the trusted voiginn were the only life saviours. For helping deliver countless babies in their homes, the village folks fondly remember ‘Bayula’ from Warkhand and Nanache Pani’s Satyabhama Aroskar.

How Warkhand’s nomenclature evolved is not known, but the murmurs that it is the eleventh khand after Kashi (Kashi is considered to be the tenth) still resounds in the village. But the basis of this belief could lie in the Pandavachi Hovri (Pandavas’ Cave) that lies near the base of the Warkhand bridge. "The Pandavas had planned to stay in Warkhand provided the cave that they had begun digging was completed before the cock-crow at dawn. That was not to be, and so they left us," narrates the sixty-one-year old Narayan Daure. The cave has, however, been declared as a ‘protected site’ by the Goa government’s Directorate of Archives and Archaeology.

Warkhand, the land that nurtures rich traditions and steeped in religious fervour, and inhabited by a people that seem to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s dictum of ‘simple living and high thinking’ to the fullest, stands out as a shining example of how a village can retain its virginity amidst modernity.