Bhalavalikar GSB community

Village Bhalavali is next to our village Devi Hasol and it is said that Devi Hasol was once a part of Bhalavali village.Village Bhalavali is important from few Goud Saraswat Bramhin who are known as Bhalavalikar G.S.B.; a caste to which I belongs.Portugese attack Goa around 1505. They conquered Anjandweep island where Arya Durga temple was there in the island. Because of this people in Goa started shifting to the adjacent districts due to fear of Portugueuse. Some people went towards south direction and settled in Karwar Ankola and up to Mangalore also. While our ancestors were staying near Priol village ran towards north via sea and came in the Purnagad port. Few GSB families were travelling together and came in the village Bhalavali and settled there. The families with the surname Wagle, Potkar, Patkar, Bandivadekar, Tendulkar, Sakhalkar, Kinare, Kamat, Kabir, Kawatkar, Juvale, Sinkar/Sardar, Haldavnekar, Wakde. The names like Kelkar, Marathe and Muleye which are very common in Chitpavan Brahmins are also seen in our Bhalavalikar GSB.

These families landed in Bhalavali village and settled there initially. Their main activity was agriculture. The whole area was surrounded by thick jungle where animals like leopard, fox, deer, pigs, varieties of poisonous snakes etc were there. Only few acres of land surrounding both the sides of the river which is called Bhalavali river was available for agriculture purpose. The people constructed their houses in that area. Our Wagle family's original plinth is still seen in the Pishend Wadi of Bhalavali village. All other GSBs also settled in the surrounding area. Some settled on the south side of Bhalavali river while some settled on the north side of the Bhalavali river. Afterwards they felt the need of some temple for worshipping. The first temple which they established was in the north side of the river and that was of Lakshmi-Madhav. The south side of the river the temples of Ganpati, Ravalnath, Navdurga were also established. This shows that the people who had come here also have not forgotten their original place of Goa. Some GSB families settled near the temples also. Afterwards they found that land was not sufficient to cope up with the increasing population of GSBs. So they shifted to the nearby area and 11 different villages at that time. Some in Rajapur taluka and some in Lanja mahaal at that time. The different villages are Devi Hasol, Satavali, Harche, Dorle, Peokhal, Kotapur, Gawde-Ambire, Bapere etc.

The temple of Lakshmi-Madhav is said to be "gadi" or "simhasan" or "throne" of all these 12 villages. Any Bhalavalikar GSB from all these villages they come to Lakshmi-Madhav temple for taking Darshan.