Why to construct a shrine for Sea god?
In a place like Ratnagiri the importance of coast and sea is comparatively much higher than other districts. The district is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west. There is coast at a distance of every 3-4 km due to which fishing was one of the major occupation and source of income for people. But the economy here has changed a lot. From fishing to agriculture and now gradually inclining towards road transportation i.e., import export, it has come a long way. The shift of occupations has resulted in many changes in the village like structure of houses and materials used, food habit, road construction, etc. By taking a walk from the Miriya beach to the main road we can figure out this occupational change. There at the main road we find a temple of Mahapurush (a powerful positive energy as per the villagers). The villagers worship it with utmost devotion. Switch from fishing to agriculture and then to road transport contributes a lot in the creation of Mahapurush. Since Mahapurush stepped in villagers have forgotten the existence of Shri Samudra Dev. Samudra Dev is not a new deity for the villagers, it has been mentioned in some old legendary stories as saving the coast from immigrants. But due to decrease in fishing and increase in land-based occupation Samudra Dev is lost. Villagers never really found the need to build the shrine for Shri Samudra Dev. Let’s discuss various factors which provokes us to build a shrine for the sea god.
Fishing has become quite difficult in Miriya as high tides occur frequently in this region. Also, the level of water has increased. As the villagers say the sea is in rage with them and has become more violent than earlier, also many people fear that since the sea is very close to the village it can harm them in different ways like tsunami or cyclone and will destroy whole of the village in minutes. This maybe shows that they personify the sea as a godly figure which needs to be calmed. People can worship Him to make it calm which will by their belief slow the sea down and prevent such disasters. Temples get donations from around the world which help them to arrange/organize huge processions and functions which further helps to gather people and celebrate. In short, a temple benefits the social and economic aspect of the community. Ratnagiri is a small district with a good tourist image. There are many temples with the standard/usual gods present in them. It is rare to find a sea god shrine. It will surely be a big tourist attraction due to its uniqueness. Moving on to the other factor, the ancestors of the locals have been involved with the sea their whole life and have created many rituals and habits, all of it shaping their culture. But every time a new generation comes into existence, they alter the authentic culture. The shrine build will assist to revive some cultural elements by performing the ritual at a equal interval of time. Another aspect which will be benefitted when a shrine is build is the cleanliness and purity of the coast. No one will pollute/harm a sacred place for example the government in the last decades announced many forests as sacred groves (set of trees and bushes which are guarded in the name of god) which prevented deforestation.
I made this shrine as a place where you can experience light and shadows and also if you feel carefully a sense of silence. Here is a model of the shrine
This is the 1:50 ratio model:
and this is 1:200 model:
Drawings related to the above model:
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