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Shirali, Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka · 14.0321°, 74.5239°
The kuladevata shrine of about 125 Goud Saraswat Brahmin families at Shirali, housing Ganesha as Mahaganapati together with the goddess Mahamaya. Built roughly four centuries ago and renovated in 1904, it is the final home of images carried out of Goa during successive upheavals.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
The deities are said to have been moved from Ella in Goa to Divar Island in the 13th century, and when Portuguese rule threatened them around 1560 devotees invoked their presence into a silver elephant trunk and a mask of Mahamaya and carried them north to Shirali.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Undetermined
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…