Earlier there is a mention of the village Aadi. This Aadi village is about 6-7 kilometers from Ratnagiri. You can go there by S.T.bus or auto rickshaw or taxi. Every hour there is a S.T. Bus from Ratnagiri to go to Aadi. There are 6-7 prospering Karmarkar families in this village. Other residents are Kunabi people. There is a Hemadpanti style temple of Laxmikanta near these houses. The annual festival is held on the 12th ascending moon day of Kartik month. The temple of the village deity (goddess) is about 2 kilometers away from the village. Her name is “Adishti”. In the Karmarkar families, the naivaidya (offering of food) is offered every year on Padava, i.e. first ascending moon day of Chaitra month and on (Dev Diwali) the first ascending moon day of the Margasheersh month. In these offerings the above mentioned deities are also included. The Karmarkars of Nachana however offer food naivadya to Navalai and Pavalai.
A story is told about Adishti deity. A certain trader of bangles used to visit the village quite often. One day as the he was passing by the temple, one married women got bangles from him, but when he asked for money, she said, “I belong to the Karmarkars, so take the money from them.” and she vanished. Having heard this story, the Karmarkars constructed the temple here with their own contributions. Even today, the Karmarkars offer food to this deity and donate bangles to married women every year as also whenever there is some auspicious function in the family. The family religion and rituals are very important in every family. It is a practice in every family to observe these family rituals without fail every year for the welfare of the family. The Karmarkars of Manglwedha observe the Gondhal of Goddess Tulja Bhavani after every auspicious function held in the family. Not all the Karmarkars perform the Bodan,( a specific ritual) but in some families it is performed.
However it is seen that the Karmarkars settled at different places observe some other local rituals besides the above-mentioned ones. Sant Tukaram has advised people to observe the family religion and rituals strictly. He says,
Family religion is knowledge, and an instrument
Family religion is the safety in ones hand
Devotion to family religion, and is divine freedom
Family devotion is to get rest and repose
Family religion is sympathy and obligation
It is the gist of all the ways
Family religion is important, it is respect and honour
It is blessings of the life eternal
gods and goddesses
With emotion and as per the procedure.
There are nine methods of devotion. We call it nine-fold devotional worship. The fifth one out of those is the Archana devotion. That means archana to Deity. It means, one should worship one’s deity and must observe in addition the family religion and rituals.
The family deity of Ramdas is the Tulajabhavani of Tulajapur. When he went to see her for the first time, he exclaimed his joy, “Saw mother Tulaja and got eternal peace in mind. All my worries are over, felt the grand divine support
This is how he expressed the importance of the family rituals. Women are more conscious of the family religion and rituals. Our Karmarkar women might be certainly observing all these family religion and rituals.
In addition to these family deities, it is seen that wherever the Karmarkars went to other provinces or regions and settled there year after year, included the local deities in their daily worship. Most of us the Karmarkars of Mangalwedha, keep an idol of Lord Vitthal and Goddess Rakhumai in our temples at home for daily worship. The reason is that we live in the “bhoo-Vaikuntha” the vicinity of Pandharpur, the heavenly area on the earth. In addition there are individual deities for worship also.