A missing link

An 8-century Ganesh idol discovered 15 years ago changed Diveagars fortunes. Now its missing

Fifteen years ago,in 1997,a Ganesh idol was discovered on Draupadibai Dharma Patils farm. The idol,which the state archeological department said dated back to the 8th century,put Diveagar,a fishing hamlet in Konkan,on Maharashtras tourism map. But now,the idol is missing and Diveagar is on edge.

The idol had changed fortunes in the village. People from Mumbai and Pune who heard about the idol and who came visiting discovered Diveagars beautiful beaches with sulu trees and sand-bubble crabs and began spending their weekends there. Over time,the village attracted tourists from all over Maharashtra and almost every household here got associated with tourism in some form or the other. Like Rane Bandhu,a farmer,who set up a khanaval,a restaurant where he served home-made food to tourists,six years ago. The experiment clicked and he found himself making good money. But everything changed when the idol went missing three weeks ago.

Over the last two weeks,my business has gone down by more than 50 per cent. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope the month of May gets better, says Bandhu.

Balkrishna Uday Bapat,the sarpanch of Diveagar,says,Every year,around 2.5 lakh tourists visit our village. But now that the main attraction of the temple is gone,we are worried there will be a fall in the number of tourists coming to Diveagar.

At least 200 families in Diveagar are in the business of khanaval,either as a single source of income or along with coconut and supari farming. They are now all worried. Forty-five-year-old Jeetendra Patil says their khanaval sustains his family of 10. But over the last few weeks,our income has already gone down by 80 per cent. We have been doing this for the last eight years. At our khanaval,we sometimes serve 100 people at one go. We will be uncertain about our future till the thieves are arrested and the idol is found, says Patil.

Apart from khanavals,villagers have invested in other tourism-related infrastructure such as home-stays,boating,camel rides and snacks stalls.

Eighty-year-old Draupadibai,from whose farm the 2-kg Ganesh idol was discovered 15 years ago,says she still remembers the day she found the idol. I was working in my field and my spade hit something hard. I kept digging and discovered a big box of copper with this beautiful Ganesh idol inside. I instantly knew it was valuable and informed the village head, she says.

Story continues below this ad

After long discussions and meetings among members of the village panchayat,the police and archaeological departments and government officials,it was decided that the idol should be given to the village temple trust. The idol was placed in the village Ganpati temple that was renamed Suvarna Ganesh Mandir. Draupadibais photographs adorn the wall of the Suvarna Ganesh Mandir and the copper box in which the idol was found is kept in the temple for darshan.

Ganesh Narayan Bapat,85,the main trustee of the Suvarna Ganesh Mandir,says the idol is of immense value for the villagers of Diveagar,not just for its antique value. It gave our village an identity, he says. In 1997,when the idol was found,the village panchayat and the villagers unanimously agreed to ban the sale of liquor in Diveagar.