Eight and a half centuries
Most temples reckon their age from a foundation stone. This kshetra reckons it from a refusal to abandon the deity.
The presiding deity of Narve did not originate here. The Atma-Ling was brought across the river in secret, by devotees who had been forbidden, under pain of punishment, from worshipping it at all. All that follows is a consequence of that crossing.
Established under the Kadamba dynasty as the kuldevata of the royal family, and revered throughout the Konkan as one of the principal Shaivite kshetras of the region.
Finds mention in the Sahyadri Khanda and the Saptakotishadhyan. It is believed that Lord Shiva manifested Himself here as an Atma-Ling, pleased by the penance of the Sapta Rishis.
The shrine is attacked and damaged. Worship is thereafter restored and continues at Naroa for nearly two more centuries.
Under the Portuguese religious prohibition the temple at Naroa is demolished and idol worship banned outright. Rather than surrender the sacred Atma-Ling, devotees conceal the same.
The eight years that follow are the very reason this temple exists today. No structure, no priest, no public rite — only a concealed Ling, and devotees who would not part with it.
Shri Narainrao Shenvi Suriarao, Sardesai of Bhatagram, shifts the Ling across the river and re-consecrates the same at Narve, then known as Hindale — beyond the reach of the prohibition.
A cave shrine in the laterite becomes the new garbhagriha. The same serves as the sanctum sanctorum to this day.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj commissions a full temple above the existing cave shrine, deliberately preserving the original laterite sanctum instead of replacing the same.
The Sabhamandap and the Deepstambh date from this reconstruction.
Daily abhishek and aarti, Palkhi on every Somvar and Ekadashi, and eighteen annual observances. The kshetra now forms part of Goa Tourism’s Ekadash Teerth Darshan circuit.
Recent renovation work has brought to light sealed chambers, wells and passages beneath the premises, which are still being documented.
Eight years without a structure, without a priest, without a public rite — and not one day without worship.1541 – 1549 CE · The concealment