Mapusa is a town in North Goa, India. It is situated 13 km north of the capital Panaji. The town is the headquarters of BardezTaluka. It is located on the main highway NH-17, linking Mumbai to Kochi. In Portuguese, the town is known as Mapuça.
History
Mapusa is a small town clustered around the Mount. The name Mapusa is thought to be derived from the Konkani word for a 'measure' - 'map' and the phrase fill up - 'sa'. Ancient Goan agrarian community had a well established Gaunkari or Community Farming System, where villages formed associations, worked on community land and shared profits. Market day was a major event, with goods brought in from every district to one central area. Mapusa has thus remained a prominent market center for many centuries.
Geography
Mapusa is located at. It has an average elevation of 15 metres.It lies on the banks of Mapusa River. Mapusa has a tropical climate with temperatures ranging from a high of 37 °C in summer with high levels of humidity to a low of 21 °C in winters.
Demographics
Indiacensus, Mapusa had a population of 40,487. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Mapusa has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 73%. In Mapusa, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Economy
Mapusa is close to one of the main centres of Goa's tourism industry. Mapusa's proximity to many beaches in the north of Goa makes it a suitable base during the tourist season. Because it is a mainly commercial town with a large resident population, Mapusa has only a limited number of hotels and accommodation. Mapusa comes alive on Friday, the traditional market day also known as Mapusa Friday Market. People from surrounding villages and towns come to Mapusa to sell their wares. This fair has a lot of local flavour and specialises in agricultural produce, vegetables, locally grown fruit, spices, clothes and even plants. Every Friday, the Mapusa Market bulges at the seams, with seemingly every square inch of space occupied by sellers with only just enough room for the prospective buyers, the alleys between the regular stalls being occupied with temporary mats and boards. From lottery tickets displayed in great swathes to barber shops, the bazaar caters for almost every requirement imaginable. There is the fish street, dried fish of all possible varieties and whole fresh fish from baby shark and squid to the ubiquitous bangda. Fresh fruit and vegetables are gathered together and beautifully displayed, from huge sweet potatoes, and pumpkins and the local shiny red brown Moira bananas to the tiny fresh beans and other pulses.
Mapusa, however, does not have too many tourist sites. There are a few colonial era Municipal building on the Altinho hill, but it is a fairly small town with mostly modern buildings spread around the slopes of Altinho. The most famous local shrine is Shree Dev Bodgeshwar Sansthan of Lord Bodgeshwar, located on the outskirts of the town in the middle of some rice fields, which is beautifully lit up at night and draws thousands of devotees for its annual Jatra. The Church of Our Lady of Miracles, founded in 1594 and rebuilt several times since, located around 600m east of the Municipal Gardens, is famous more for its annual festival than for its architecture. It was built by the Portuguese on the site of an old Hindu temple, and thus the Hindu community still holds the site as sacred. On the sixteenth day after Easter, the church's annual feast day is celebrated here by both Hindus and Christians – one of the best examples of the way in which Hinduism and Christianity often coexist merrily in Goa. Maruti Temple, in the centre of town, is a small, pastel-coloured Maruti temple that was built in the 1840s at a site where Hanuman was covertly worshipped during more oppressive periods of Portuguese rule. After temples had been destroyed by the Portuguese, devotees placed a picture of Hanuman at the fireworks shop that stood here, and arrived cloaked in secrecy to perform pujas. In April 1843 the picture was replaced by a silver idol and an increasing number of worshippers began to gather here. Eventually the business community of Mapusa gathered enough funds to acquire the shop, and the temple was built in its place. The intricate carvings at the doorway of the temple are the work of local artisans. The Mapusa Market gathers Goan traders as well as merchants from adjacent states for goods such as spices, toddy and home-grown goods. For example, there are four varieties of locally growned bananas sold in this market and other varieties imported from Karnataka. There is also a part of the market where the traders specialise in repairing ustensiles such as blenders and food mixers for the preparation of spices.
