Shree Mahalaxmi Temple, Bandode

The Shree Mahalaxmi Temple stands in Bandode, a village in Ponda known for its brightly painted Goan houses with wood carving. Besides the presiding goddess Mahalaxmi, it houses Shree Rawalnath, Shree Baleshwar, Shree Narayan Dev and Shree Narayan Purushram. Legend holds that Mahalaxmi appeared when the gods churned the ocean for the nectar of immortality.

The temple keeps two Mahalaxmi idols. Its story says another temple of the goddess stood at Colva in Salcete, and two devotees, Safto and Fato, smuggled that idol away; her footprints are still worshipped at Talauli near Ponda, and the idol was eventually placed in Bandode beside the existing one. Images of Safto and Fato are kept here too. At Ram Navami the Colva idol is taken out in procession by palanquin and chariot, and the other idol follows the next day.