For hundreds of years, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) families have carried more than their language and customs with them. They have carried their Kuladevatas, the family deities who protect each family through the generations.
The community began on the banks of the river Saraswathi in Punjab. Some families moved to Mithila, in north-eastern Bihar, the old kingdom of Janaka, where they learned the Vedic traditions. Later, at Parasurama's invitation, GSB families went to Gomantak (today's Goa) to perform Vedic rituals there. They first settled in 66 villages known as Sasashti, and then in 30 more (Tiswadi). These 96 settlements gave them the name Shah-Navi, or Shenvi, meaning 96, a name GSBs across India still use.
From Goa, families moved down the west coast to Karnataka and Kerala. Many left because Portuguese rule made life very hard. Wherever they went, they took their Kuladevatas, their customs and their mother tongue, Konkani.
In Kerala, travelling back to the family temples in Goa and the Konkan coast became harder with every generation. Their spiritual guide, Srimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji, head of the Sri Kashi Math Samsthan, wanted families to keep worshipping their Kuladevatas, and decided to bring all eight together in one place. The Sree Kuladevata Mandir Complex at Ambalamedu opened on 28 February 1994, when all eight deities were installed here.
Today it is where GSB families come together, as their elders did, to pray to the same family deities.
The journey, from the Saraswathi to Kerala
Two thousand years, five places, the same eight family deities. Tap a place on the line to read about it.
Ancient period · 1 of 5
Punjab
Origin
The GSB community began on the banks of the river Saraswathi in Punjab. The river has since dried up, but it was at the heart of Vedic life, and the community takes its name, Saraswat, from it.