Goud Saraswat Brahmin - Kuldevtas

Kuldevtas

Further information: List of Kuldevatas of Goud Saraswat Brahmins

Kuldevtas(family deities) are considered of utmost importance to the GSB's. Normally Saraswats who follow the Advaita Sampradaya believe in the concept of "Panchayatan" – worshipping five gods like form of Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, Surya and Ganapati. Some GSB temples still maintain this concept, while others which follow Madhva Sampradaya believe in Lord Hari being supreme and parivara devatas being the Lords Devotees and hence they have main deity installed in the main sanctorum with four parivara devatas around. "Kuldev" or "kuldaivat" are the deities which a set of families primarily worship. Their temples are built and maintained by these families, also called "Mahajans" (or Kulavis) of their respective temple.

Many Kuldevs/Kuldevatas are situated in Goa. However, during the early Portuguese persecutions, many Saraswats fled Goa along with their Kuldevs to nearby regions of Maharashtra & Karnataka. Hence, besides Goa, there are many GSB Temples in Maharashtra (Konkan side like Malwan, Vengurla, Savantwadi, Kudal, Ratnagiri, etc.). The Saraswats of Goa are predominantly the worshipers of Shiva and Durga, though many of them have got converted to Vaishnavites but they still retain their worship to their ancestral shavaite and vedic deities.

Many Saraswats have a strong faith in Durga and continue to pay respect and tribute by either taking part in festivals or some other occasions relating to Durga. Every Saraswat Brahmin has a system of worshipping two deities amongst which one is a Pallavi or supporting deity. Majority of the Saraswats have some or the other aspect of Durga included in their family deity. It can be Shantadurga, Aryadurga, Mahamaya, Vijayadurga or Mahalakshmi. Besides the Kuladevta, Saraswats also offer their prayers to their Ishta Devta. The Vaishnavite Saraswats consider Venkatraman - Padmavati, Vithoba - Rukmini and Shri Vishnu as their Ishta Devta, similarly the Smartas consider Durgaparameshwari and Bhavani Shankar as their Ishta Devta. However many of the Ishta Devta's are in turn the presiding deities of their respective Mutts.