Apart from its verdant landscape, inviting beaches and invigorating air, its long and varied history makes this short stretch of land very interesting.In the 3rd century it formed a part of the Mauryan Empire. Later on it was ruled by the Shan of Kolhapur and eventually passed on to the Chalukya dynasty from 580 to 750 A.D. Goa fell to the Muslims in 1312 but Harihara I of the Vijayanagar Empire forced them out. Over the next 100 years, Goa’s harbors were important landing places for ships carrying Arabian horses.
With its beautiful natural harbor and wide rivers, Goa was the natural choice of the Portuguese who wanted to control the spice trade route from the east. They arrived in 1510 and soon permeated the little state with their presence and missionary zeal. The Jesuit missionaries led by St Francis Zavier arrived in 1542 and soon Portuguese control extended to Brandez and Salcere. Portuguese rule continued until 1961, when Goa became an Indian Union territory.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
THE RANES OF GOAN FOLKLORE
This article appeared in GOA TODAY , March 1987, pp. 28-33 (with illustrations). The article was meant for a Goa University publication to commemorate 25 years of Goa's liberation. The editorial board of the University developed cold feet and politely declined to include this article to avoid any conflict with Pratapsingh Rane, who was chief minister at that time. The Editor of Goa Today, Vaman Sardessai had more courage to publish this essay. It was his last issue before taking up the posting of Ambassador of India in Angola.)
THIS ARTICLE formed the crux of a research paper that was to be originally included in a Goa University publication on Goa's freedom struggle. The paper was deemed improper and was unceremoniously rejected at the time when historians subservient to ruling political interests were only interested in paying floral tributes to Goa's freedom struggle, or whatever they chose to understand by that. Unfortunately, even the institution that is meant to set the tone for our intellectual life, including historical research, joined the chorus with 'Goa Wins Freedom': This is the state of intellectual subservience and poverty twenty-five years after our liberation! And there are all the indications in our country that this tendency is on the rise.
The following exercise is what some modern scholars engaged in "subaltern studies" call historical 'deconstruction'. Our post-liberation historiography should not uncritically replace one elitist approach by another if political change in Goa is to serve truly democratic goals. We have an opportunity to put the "subaltern" or subordinate classes at the centre stage of our historical inquiry. Deconstruction in this context, is only a tool of analysis that seeks to attack and break down the existing elitist paradigms. It is not a nihilistic exercise, but a prolonged critical exercise to clear off the rubbish and prepare the ground for a sound alternative construction in the scheme of post-liberation historiography of Goa. What has been done here is to apply deconstruction analysis to one historical episode, namely the Rane myth in Goa's freedom struggle. Similar exercise will need to be extended to wider areas of Goa's history.
Truth is said to be stranger than fiction. The role attributed to the Ranes in Goa's freedom struggle is one illustration of this old dictum. Folklore and more recent political developments seem to have conspired to elevate the so-called 'Rajputs' of Satari to unquestioned honours as Goa's freedom fighters. Folklorising and political myth-making had its reasons and validity as means to sustain anti-colonial campaign. But twenty-five years after liberation we should be able to put aside political emotionalism and let historical criticism have its say.
How good is the Rane claim for Rajput origin? An anthropological study conducted by Dr. Germano de Silva Correia took the tradition of Rajput origin for granted, but the application of field techniques does not seem to have enabled him to confirm it decisively. He concluded saying that "their ethnic origin remains an anthropological problem to be solved" (Les Ranes de Satary, 1928:29). In the absence of further evidence, it remains to be proved that the Ranes of Satari differ essentially from the Marathas of the Deccan.
The origin of the Rajputs is a red herring that has been much dragged about in the historical writings on early medieval and medieval India. One can observe an extreme polarity of opinions which extends in range from attempts to trace the Rajputs to foreign immigrant stocks of the post-Gupta period, to contrived justifications for viewing the Rajputs as of pure kshatriya origin. The question of the indigenous origin of the Rajputs assumed symbolic overtones in the heyday of nationalist historiography and in the historical and purely literary writings of various genres, the military and chivalrous qualities of the Rajputs were repeatedly projected. All such writings tended to suggest that the Rajputs rose to prominence in the process of resisting foreign invasions and that they shouldered willingly the kshatriya duty of fighting for the land as well as for its people and culture.
Even in detailed studies of Rajasthan, the origin of the Rajputs in the early medieval period is far from settled and much less examined. There were widespread claims in the early medieval period to the traditional kshatriga status. Such claims were attempts to get away from, rather than reveal, the original ancestry. It was a process in which new social groups sought various symbols for the legitimization of their newly gained power. The case of the Ranes of Satari can be taken to illustrate a similar process of mobility to kshatriya status in this part of western India.
While elsewhere in the New Conquests the traditional village community set-up suffered some destruction under their Dessais, the village communities of Satari ceased to exist as a result of the recurring feuds among the Ranes themselves and their attempts to assert their own feudal control and relative independence. This is a very important historical background to be taken into consideration while critically assessing the so-called contribution of the Ranes to Goa's freedom struggle. Freedom, as we now tend to understand it, seems to have been the last thing the Ranes aspired to.
In a taluka that is blessed with abundant natural resources, its own ganvkars inhabiting its original seventy or so villages were reduced to misery and beggary. Even the traditional Dessais and Nadkarnis were marginalised by the Sardesai Ranes who established their mokasas all over the fertile and cultivable low-lying western region of the taluka and extended their administrative and fiscal control over the rest of the taluka. The armed force of the Ranes was assisted in this task by their Brahmin Dubhashis. The Ranes also patronised hordes of Bhats who descended from across the ghats into Satari to perform their religious role of preaching the oppressed local population into submission to their new overloads, smoothening thereby the mechanism of violence and reducing the administrative costs. The Bhats were generously rewarded with many deussuns and areca groves. The Bhats grew in numbers and wealth just as the native ganvkars decreased in numbers and increased in misery. All that was left for them were places of worship and beliefs about the nobility of the Ranes.
We do not have much documentary evidence that could throw light upon the efforts of the Satari ganvkars and their traditional leaders to resist the oppression of the Ranes until the time when the region came under the Portuguese jurisdiction. As in the case of most subaltern classes they were hardly in a position to produce records of their protest. But we do have, for instance, a long representation submitted by a dozen ganvkars of various villages of Satari to the Portuguese Governor of Coa, D. Manuel da Camara in April 1824. The document listed the grievances of the villagers against the Ranes and their "tyrannical yoke" which had obliged many to seek refuge in the Portuguese territory and beyond the ghats. They were pleading with the Portuguese Government to protect them by taking direct charge of the villages of Satari and their revenue administration. It is very probable that this representation was inspired and drafted by the Nadkarnis of Sanklli. While these Nadkarnis pretended concern for the plight of the village ganvkars they were actually interested in regaining their own lost traditional control. With their proverbial skill to manipulate accounts and property records, in the 1830s the Nadkarnis of Sanklli nearly succeeded in settling old scores with the Ranes. Some details of this case could better help understand the complexity of interests in conflict and to realize that the Ranes did not represent the natives of Satari in their so-called freedom struggle.
The Nadkarnis represented traditional village interests and kept up their own freedom struggle against the Ranes. Obviously they were no match to the Ranes in military skill and force, but they relentlessly pursued their struggle with traditional chicanery and cunning. 'The Nadkarnis and their agents had infiltrated into the Portuguese administrative ranks. Soon after the disturbances created by the Ranes which coincided with the political instability, caused by the liberal-constitutional struggle in Goa (1822-1835), the Nadkarnis got round the Portuguese administration to frame a case against the Ranes for defrauding the Portuguese administration since 1746. In the process of fiscal inquiry entrusted by the Portuguese government to a certain Atmaram Parab, the Nadkarnis, Dessais and ganvkars of Satari produced 'documented' information to prove that the Ranes had been paying revenue dues to the Sawants of Wadi in lieu of the mokasas. Hence, in keeping with the terms of submission to the Portuguese the Ranes ought to have paid the same dues to the Portuguese exchequer. Obviously, the Nadkarnis would get back into the job of administering the revenue collection and of playing the power game that goes with it.
Luckily for the Ranes, their defence counsel managed to checkmate the judicial aspersions cast by the accusation of tax evasion by proving that Lakshman Kustam Sinai Nadkarni of Sanklli had cooked up the information supplied to Atmaram Parab and had also forged documents in Old Marathi using the seals of the Sawants. Another Nadkarni of Sanklli, Mallapa Sinai, was also involved. They had also roped in the official state translator (lingua do Estado) Sakharam Narayan Vaga. His handwriting was identified in the interpolations made on the 'Book of Peace Treaties' (Livro de Pazes) in the Secretariat archives.
It is apparent from the above that the Ranes had enemies from within. The traditional landed interests were not reconciled to being subjected to the power and ambitions of the Ranes. Any critical study of the recurring rebellions and disturbances caused by the Ranes will have to take into account the machinations and scheming of the Nadkarnis of Satari. What appears often as a straight Rane-Portuguese conflict will then be seen as a more complex situation in which the "subaltern" classes of Satari silently, or rather subtly, participated in the contest and sought to undermine the dominance of the Ranes.
It was not in the interest of the Portuguese to deprive the Ranes of their privileges in Satari because they had served as a useful contra force to check the adventurism of the Marathas. Alarmed by Shivaji's attempts to extend his sway in the Konkan, the Portuguese continued to support the turbulent Dessais of Kudal, Pedne, Bicholim and Sanklli in resisting the territorial ambitions of the Maratha chieftains of the Deccan. Contrary to the myth propagated by most traditional Maratha historians that all Marathas (if not all Hindus) had enthusiastically rallied round Shivaji's banner and his Hindavi Swarajya, an eminent and critical Maratha historian, A R Kulkarni tells us that "the people of the Konkan never associated themselves with the Maratha movement launched by Shivaji. Shivaji did succeed in capturing some parts of the Konkan but the core of Konkan which was under the Desais and the Portuguese never came under the Maratha control."
Unfortunately, since liberation Goans are being taught their history by teachers from outside Goa with insufficient grasp of the local ethos and cultural background. We read in the Goa Gazetteer that "the aim of these wars (revolts of Ranes) was to regain the lost territory and freedom. The Ranes were supported by the common people who were eager to sweep out the intolerant, obnoxious rule of the Portuguese." No critical historian could state that the native population that was reduced to serfdom by the Ranes had the option to choose whether to join them (the Ranes) or not in their resistance to those who attempted to check their banditry.
The Ranes backed any neighbouring ruler (including the Portuguese) when it suited them, and they backed out from repeatedly renewed "oaths of fealty" to the Portuguese whenever it did not suit their interests. That the "common people" of Satari should have "supported the Ranes" can best be understood from the analysis of a modern and critical Maratha historian, Prof. P. V. Ranade: "Robbing the rich for the benefit of the poor is an instinct of all primitive rebellions. Shivaji's campaigns of mulukhgiri into Mughal territories were campaigns of plunder against rich emporiums and must have thrilled the hearts of the 'naked rascals'. Shivaji was shrewd enough to exploit this primitive instinct. Thus he and his successors (applicable to Ranes) could enlist the Maratha bargirs and shiledars in the mulukhgiri carnpaigns on the basis of an appeal to their predatory instinct and religious ethos."
There are several instances of the Ranes serving the Portuguese as mercenaries in Goa as well as far away from it in Ceylon during the 17th century. In the 18th century we find them serving the Portuguese as feudatories that were not always reliable. But that was nothing unusual in the feudal set-up. The doyen of Indian historians, Prof. D. D. Kosarnbi, a Goan by origin, states in his classic book An Introduction to Indian History that, with their depredations till the end of the last century, the Ranes were no better than "robbers claiming feudal titles". The evidence and analysis he provides tend to confirm such an assessment. The Ranes only sought to preserve and enlarge their feudal privileges. Under the Portuguese suzerainty since 1746, the clash between Portuguese colonial interests and their own feudal interests became inevitable. That is exactly what happened. The only option open to the Ranes was to shake off Portuguese fiscal controls, or submit to their encroachment and eroding power at the expense of their own feudal claims.
Faced with the above alternatives the Ranes tried solutions of despair. They were ill-matched to face the superior organizational and military powers of the Portuguese. This was true despite the apparent inability of the Portuguese to quell the rebellions without compromises and grants of amnesty. The Rane Revolts coincided with a very disturbed political period in Goa. A time arrived when new and powerful economic interests which had entered Satari finally crushed their ambitions: over 26,000 acres of land were taken over on long leases by industrial interests for large-scale plantations. Some of these planters were British and American citizens. In the wake of the establishment of the railroad by the British in and around Goa, the timber wealth of Satari attracted exploiters. An increasing administrative cooperation and coordination between Goa and British India made it increasingly difficult for the Ranes to carry on their traditional game of hit-and-run.
The revolts of the Ranes were woven into a myth of freedom struggle and even provided themes for Konkani folk songs as a result of the growing political discontent among the native intelligentsia of the Old Conquests of Goa. The Pinto Revolt, the Peres da Silva affair, and the liberal-political struggle provide the background and clues which account for the transformation of Satari's feudal lords into legendary freedom fighters.
THIS ARTICLE formed the crux of a research paper that was to be originally included in a Goa University publication on Goa's freedom struggle. The paper was deemed improper and was unceremoniously rejected at the time when historians subservient to ruling political interests were only interested in paying floral tributes to Goa's freedom struggle, or whatever they chose to understand by that. Unfortunately, even the institution that is meant to set the tone for our intellectual life, including historical research, joined the chorus with 'Goa Wins Freedom': This is the state of intellectual subservience and poverty twenty-five years after our liberation! And there are all the indications in our country that this tendency is on the rise.
The following exercise is what some modern scholars engaged in "subaltern studies" call historical 'deconstruction'. Our post-liberation historiography should not uncritically replace one elitist approach by another if political change in Goa is to serve truly democratic goals. We have an opportunity to put the "subaltern" or subordinate classes at the centre stage of our historical inquiry. Deconstruction in this context, is only a tool of analysis that seeks to attack and break down the existing elitist paradigms. It is not a nihilistic exercise, but a prolonged critical exercise to clear off the rubbish and prepare the ground for a sound alternative construction in the scheme of post-liberation historiography of Goa. What has been done here is to apply deconstruction analysis to one historical episode, namely the Rane myth in Goa's freedom struggle. Similar exercise will need to be extended to wider areas of Goa's history.
Truth is said to be stranger than fiction. The role attributed to the Ranes in Goa's freedom struggle is one illustration of this old dictum. Folklore and more recent political developments seem to have conspired to elevate the so-called 'Rajputs' of Satari to unquestioned honours as Goa's freedom fighters. Folklorising and political myth-making had its reasons and validity as means to sustain anti-colonial campaign. But twenty-five years after liberation we should be able to put aside political emotionalism and let historical criticism have its say.
How good is the Rane claim for Rajput origin? An anthropological study conducted by Dr. Germano de Silva Correia took the tradition of Rajput origin for granted, but the application of field techniques does not seem to have enabled him to confirm it decisively. He concluded saying that "their ethnic origin remains an anthropological problem to be solved" (Les Ranes de Satary, 1928:29). In the absence of further evidence, it remains to be proved that the Ranes of Satari differ essentially from the Marathas of the Deccan.
The origin of the Rajputs is a red herring that has been much dragged about in the historical writings on early medieval and medieval India. One can observe an extreme polarity of opinions which extends in range from attempts to trace the Rajputs to foreign immigrant stocks of the post-Gupta period, to contrived justifications for viewing the Rajputs as of pure kshatriya origin. The question of the indigenous origin of the Rajputs assumed symbolic overtones in the heyday of nationalist historiography and in the historical and purely literary writings of various genres, the military and chivalrous qualities of the Rajputs were repeatedly projected. All such writings tended to suggest that the Rajputs rose to prominence in the process of resisting foreign invasions and that they shouldered willingly the kshatriya duty of fighting for the land as well as for its people and culture.
Even in detailed studies of Rajasthan, the origin of the Rajputs in the early medieval period is far from settled and much less examined. There were widespread claims in the early medieval period to the traditional kshatriga status. Such claims were attempts to get away from, rather than reveal, the original ancestry. It was a process in which new social groups sought various symbols for the legitimization of their newly gained power. The case of the Ranes of Satari can be taken to illustrate a similar process of mobility to kshatriya status in this part of western India.
While elsewhere in the New Conquests the traditional village community set-up suffered some destruction under their Dessais, the village communities of Satari ceased to exist as a result of the recurring feuds among the Ranes themselves and their attempts to assert their own feudal control and relative independence. This is a very important historical background to be taken into consideration while critically assessing the so-called contribution of the Ranes to Goa's freedom struggle. Freedom, as we now tend to understand it, seems to have been the last thing the Ranes aspired to.
In a taluka that is blessed with abundant natural resources, its own ganvkars inhabiting its original seventy or so villages were reduced to misery and beggary. Even the traditional Dessais and Nadkarnis were marginalised by the Sardesai Ranes who established their mokasas all over the fertile and cultivable low-lying western region of the taluka and extended their administrative and fiscal control over the rest of the taluka. The armed force of the Ranes was assisted in this task by their Brahmin Dubhashis. The Ranes also patronised hordes of Bhats who descended from across the ghats into Satari to perform their religious role of preaching the oppressed local population into submission to their new overloads, smoothening thereby the mechanism of violence and reducing the administrative costs. The Bhats were generously rewarded with many deussuns and areca groves. The Bhats grew in numbers and wealth just as the native ganvkars decreased in numbers and increased in misery. All that was left for them were places of worship and beliefs about the nobility of the Ranes.
We do not have much documentary evidence that could throw light upon the efforts of the Satari ganvkars and their traditional leaders to resist the oppression of the Ranes until the time when the region came under the Portuguese jurisdiction. As in the case of most subaltern classes they were hardly in a position to produce records of their protest. But we do have, for instance, a long representation submitted by a dozen ganvkars of various villages of Satari to the Portuguese Governor of Coa, D. Manuel da Camara in April 1824. The document listed the grievances of the villagers against the Ranes and their "tyrannical yoke" which had obliged many to seek refuge in the Portuguese territory and beyond the ghats. They were pleading with the Portuguese Government to protect them by taking direct charge of the villages of Satari and their revenue administration. It is very probable that this representation was inspired and drafted by the Nadkarnis of Sanklli. While these Nadkarnis pretended concern for the plight of the village ganvkars they were actually interested in regaining their own lost traditional control. With their proverbial skill to manipulate accounts and property records, in the 1830s the Nadkarnis of Sanklli nearly succeeded in settling old scores with the Ranes. Some details of this case could better help understand the complexity of interests in conflict and to realize that the Ranes did not represent the natives of Satari in their so-called freedom struggle.
The Nadkarnis represented traditional village interests and kept up their own freedom struggle against the Ranes. Obviously they were no match to the Ranes in military skill and force, but they relentlessly pursued their struggle with traditional chicanery and cunning. 'The Nadkarnis and their agents had infiltrated into the Portuguese administrative ranks. Soon after the disturbances created by the Ranes which coincided with the political instability, caused by the liberal-constitutional struggle in Goa (1822-1835), the Nadkarnis got round the Portuguese administration to frame a case against the Ranes for defrauding the Portuguese administration since 1746. In the process of fiscal inquiry entrusted by the Portuguese government to a certain Atmaram Parab, the Nadkarnis, Dessais and ganvkars of Satari produced 'documented' information to prove that the Ranes had been paying revenue dues to the Sawants of Wadi in lieu of the mokasas. Hence, in keeping with the terms of submission to the Portuguese the Ranes ought to have paid the same dues to the Portuguese exchequer. Obviously, the Nadkarnis would get back into the job of administering the revenue collection and of playing the power game that goes with it.
Luckily for the Ranes, their defence counsel managed to checkmate the judicial aspersions cast by the accusation of tax evasion by proving that Lakshman Kustam Sinai Nadkarni of Sanklli had cooked up the information supplied to Atmaram Parab and had also forged documents in Old Marathi using the seals of the Sawants. Another Nadkarni of Sanklli, Mallapa Sinai, was also involved. They had also roped in the official state translator (lingua do Estado) Sakharam Narayan Vaga. His handwriting was identified in the interpolations made on the 'Book of Peace Treaties' (Livro de Pazes) in the Secretariat archives.
It is apparent from the above that the Ranes had enemies from within. The traditional landed interests were not reconciled to being subjected to the power and ambitions of the Ranes. Any critical study of the recurring rebellions and disturbances caused by the Ranes will have to take into account the machinations and scheming of the Nadkarnis of Satari. What appears often as a straight Rane-Portuguese conflict will then be seen as a more complex situation in which the "subaltern" classes of Satari silently, or rather subtly, participated in the contest and sought to undermine the dominance of the Ranes.
It was not in the interest of the Portuguese to deprive the Ranes of their privileges in Satari because they had served as a useful contra force to check the adventurism of the Marathas. Alarmed by Shivaji's attempts to extend his sway in the Konkan, the Portuguese continued to support the turbulent Dessais of Kudal, Pedne, Bicholim and Sanklli in resisting the territorial ambitions of the Maratha chieftains of the Deccan. Contrary to the myth propagated by most traditional Maratha historians that all Marathas (if not all Hindus) had enthusiastically rallied round Shivaji's banner and his Hindavi Swarajya, an eminent and critical Maratha historian, A R Kulkarni tells us that "the people of the Konkan never associated themselves with the Maratha movement launched by Shivaji. Shivaji did succeed in capturing some parts of the Konkan but the core of Konkan which was under the Desais and the Portuguese never came under the Maratha control."
Unfortunately, since liberation Goans are being taught their history by teachers from outside Goa with insufficient grasp of the local ethos and cultural background. We read in the Goa Gazetteer that "the aim of these wars (revolts of Ranes) was to regain the lost territory and freedom. The Ranes were supported by the common people who were eager to sweep out the intolerant, obnoxious rule of the Portuguese." No critical historian could state that the native population that was reduced to serfdom by the Ranes had the option to choose whether to join them (the Ranes) or not in their resistance to those who attempted to check their banditry.
The Ranes backed any neighbouring ruler (including the Portuguese) when it suited them, and they backed out from repeatedly renewed "oaths of fealty" to the Portuguese whenever it did not suit their interests. That the "common people" of Satari should have "supported the Ranes" can best be understood from the analysis of a modern and critical Maratha historian, Prof. P. V. Ranade: "Robbing the rich for the benefit of the poor is an instinct of all primitive rebellions. Shivaji's campaigns of mulukhgiri into Mughal territories were campaigns of plunder against rich emporiums and must have thrilled the hearts of the 'naked rascals'. Shivaji was shrewd enough to exploit this primitive instinct. Thus he and his successors (applicable to Ranes) could enlist the Maratha bargirs and shiledars in the mulukhgiri carnpaigns on the basis of an appeal to their predatory instinct and religious ethos."
There are several instances of the Ranes serving the Portuguese as mercenaries in Goa as well as far away from it in Ceylon during the 17th century. In the 18th century we find them serving the Portuguese as feudatories that were not always reliable. But that was nothing unusual in the feudal set-up. The doyen of Indian historians, Prof. D. D. Kosarnbi, a Goan by origin, states in his classic book An Introduction to Indian History that, with their depredations till the end of the last century, the Ranes were no better than "robbers claiming feudal titles". The evidence and analysis he provides tend to confirm such an assessment. The Ranes only sought to preserve and enlarge their feudal privileges. Under the Portuguese suzerainty since 1746, the clash between Portuguese colonial interests and their own feudal interests became inevitable. That is exactly what happened. The only option open to the Ranes was to shake off Portuguese fiscal controls, or submit to their encroachment and eroding power at the expense of their own feudal claims.
Faced with the above alternatives the Ranes tried solutions of despair. They were ill-matched to face the superior organizational and military powers of the Portuguese. This was true despite the apparent inability of the Portuguese to quell the rebellions without compromises and grants of amnesty. The Rane Revolts coincided with a very disturbed political period in Goa. A time arrived when new and powerful economic interests which had entered Satari finally crushed their ambitions: over 26,000 acres of land were taken over on long leases by industrial interests for large-scale plantations. Some of these planters were British and American citizens. In the wake of the establishment of the railroad by the British in and around Goa, the timber wealth of Satari attracted exploiters. An increasing administrative cooperation and coordination between Goa and British India made it increasingly difficult for the Ranes to carry on their traditional game of hit-and-run.
The revolts of the Ranes were woven into a myth of freedom struggle and even provided themes for Konkani folk songs as a result of the growing political discontent among the native intelligentsia of the Old Conquests of Goa. The Pinto Revolt, the Peres da Silva affair, and the liberal-political struggle provide the background and clues which account for the transformation of Satari's feudal lords into legendary freedom fighters.
After the independence of India
After the independence of India
Unarmed Indians move against Goa border (newsreel)
When India became independent in 1947, Goa remained under Portuguese control. The Indian government of Jawaharlal Nehru insisted that Goa, along with a few other minor Portuguese holdings, be turned over to India. Portugal, however, refused. France, which also had small enclaves in India (most notably Pondicherry, see French India), gave them up. Portugal, however, amended its constitution so that Goa became a Portuguese province and refused to surrender it.
In 1954, unarmed Indians[4] took over the tiny land-locked enclaves of Dadra and Nagar-Haveli. This incident led the Portuguese to lodge a complaint against India in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The final judgement on this case, given in 1960, held that the Portuguese had a right to the enclaves, but that India equally had a right to deny Portugal access to the enclaves over Goan territory.
In 1955 a group of unarmed civilians, satyagrahis[5] demonstrated against Portugal. At least 22 of them were killed by Portuguese gunfire.[6]
Later the same year, the satyagrahis took over a fort at Tiracol and hoisted the Indian flag. They were driven away by the Portuguese, with a number of casualties. On 1 September 1955, the Indian consulate in Goa was closed. In 1955 also Jawaharlal Nehru declared his government would not tolerate Portuguese presence in Goa. India then instituted a blockade against Goa, Damão and Diu, in an effort to force the Portuguese to leave.
On December 19, 1961, Indian troops crossed the border into Goa. Code named 'Operation Vijay', the move involved sustained land, sea, and air strikes for more than 36 hours; it resulted in the unconditional surrender of Portuguese forces. A United Nations resolution condemning the invasion was proposed by the United States and the United Kingdom in the United Nations Security Council, but it was vetoed by the USSR.
Under Indian rule, Goan voters went to the polls in a referendum and elected to become an autonomous, federally administered territory. Goa was admitted to Indian statehood in 1987.
After annexation by India, the area was under military rule for five months, but the previous civil service was soon restored and the area became a federally administered territory. Goa celebrates its "Liberation Day" on 19 December every year, which is also a state holiday.
Unarmed Indians move against Goa border (newsreel)
When India became independent in 1947, Goa remained under Portuguese control. The Indian government of Jawaharlal Nehru insisted that Goa, along with a few other minor Portuguese holdings, be turned over to India. Portugal, however, refused. France, which also had small enclaves in India (most notably Pondicherry, see French India), gave them up. Portugal, however, amended its constitution so that Goa became a Portuguese province and refused to surrender it.
In 1954, unarmed Indians[4] took over the tiny land-locked enclaves of Dadra and Nagar-Haveli. This incident led the Portuguese to lodge a complaint against India in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The final judgement on this case, given in 1960, held that the Portuguese had a right to the enclaves, but that India equally had a right to deny Portugal access to the enclaves over Goan territory.
In 1955 a group of unarmed civilians, satyagrahis[5] demonstrated against Portugal. At least 22 of them were killed by Portuguese gunfire.[6]
Later the same year, the satyagrahis took over a fort at Tiracol and hoisted the Indian flag. They were driven away by the Portuguese, with a number of casualties. On 1 September 1955, the Indian consulate in Goa was closed. In 1955 also Jawaharlal Nehru declared his government would not tolerate Portuguese presence in Goa. India then instituted a blockade against Goa, Damão and Diu, in an effort to force the Portuguese to leave.
On December 19, 1961, Indian troops crossed the border into Goa. Code named 'Operation Vijay', the move involved sustained land, sea, and air strikes for more than 36 hours; it resulted in the unconditional surrender of Portuguese forces. A United Nations resolution condemning the invasion was proposed by the United States and the United Kingdom in the United Nations Security Council, but it was vetoed by the USSR.
Under Indian rule, Goan voters went to the polls in a referendum and elected to become an autonomous, federally administered territory. Goa was admitted to Indian statehood in 1987.
After annexation by India, the area was under military rule for five months, but the previous civil service was soon restored and the area became a federally administered territory. Goa celebrates its "Liberation Day" on 19 December every year, which is also a state holiday.
legands,ancient history and decline
legands
According to some Hindu legends, Parashurama flung his axe into the sea and commanded the Sea God to recede up to the point where his axe landed. The new piece of land thus recovered came to be known as Konkan meaning "piece of earth" or "corner of earth" (Kona(corner) + kana(piece)).
The legend of Lord Parshurama commanding Lord Varuna to make the seas recede to make the Konkan .
The Southern Konkan was called Govarashtra.
The Mahabharata refers to Goa as Goparashtra, "a nation of cowherds or of nomadic tribes". In other ancient Indian texts in Goa is also known as Gopakapuri, Gapakapattana, Gomanchala, Govapuri. Suta Samhita, an Indian classic, describes Goa as such: "To the north of Gokarn is a 'kshetra' with seven 'yojanas' in circumference: therein is situated Govapuri, which destroys all sins. The sight of Govapuri destroys the sin committed in a previous existence, as at sunrise darkness disappears. Even by making up his mind to bathe once in Govapuri one attains a high place (in the next world). Certainly there is no 'kshetra' equal to Govapuri.";
Settlement
According to the legends of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community, they were settled along the banks of the Saraswati river. When the river suddenly went dry, Parshurama created the new land on the coast and ordered them to migrate there. The Saraswat Brahmins settled in three islands in the estuary of the Zuari and Mandovi rivers. The Sarswats settled in three different groups which lent the name to the land based on the number of families settled there:Twelve(Barah) families in Bardesh(modern Bardez); Thirty(Tees) families in Tiswadi; and sixty six(Sashasta) families in Sashti(modern Salcette).[1] . These three islands formed the ancient Gomantak.
Ancient history
In the 3rd century BCE, Gomanta formed part of the Maurya Empire. It was later ruled by the Satavahana dynasty. Eventually, it became a part of the Chalukya empire, who controlled it from 580 to 750. Over the next few centuries it was ruled successively by the Silharas, the Kadambas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani. The Kadambas are credited with constructing the first settlement on the site of Old Goa in the middle of the 11th century.
Muslim rule
In 1350 CE, Goa was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate. However in 1370, the Vijayanagar empire, a resurgent Hindu empire situated at modern day Hampi, reconquered the area. The Vijayanagar rulers held on to Goa for nearly 100 years, during which its harbours were important landing places for Arabian horses on their way to Hampi to strengthen the Vijaynagar cavalry. In 1469, however, Goa was reconquered, by the Bahmani Sultans of Gulbarga. When this dynasty broke up in 1492, Goa became a part of Adil Shah's Bijapur Sultanate, who made Goa Velha their second capital. The present Secretariat building in Panaji is a former Adil Shahi palace, later taken over by the Portuguese Viceroys as their official residence.
Portuguese conquest
In 1498, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and landed at Calicut. In 1510 Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Goa at the behest of the local cheftian Thimayya. After losing the city briefly to its former ruler, the Muslim king of Bijapur, Albuquerque returned in force and captured the city, killing the Muslim inhabitants.[citation needed]
Church in Old Goa
Albuquerque and his successors left almost untouched the customs and constitutions of the thirty village communities on the island, only abolishing the rite of sati (widow-burning). A register of these customs (Foral de usos e costumes) was published in 1526; it is among the most valuable historical documents pertaining to Goan customs.[2]
Goa was the base for Albuquerque's conquest of Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515). Albuquerque intended it to be a colony and a naval base, as distinct from the fortified factories established in certain Indian seaports. Goa was made capital of the Portuguese Vice-Kingdom in Asia, and the other Portuguese possessions in India, Malacca and other bases in Indonesia, East Timor, the Persian Gulf, Macau in China and trade bases in Japan were under the suzerainty of its Viceroy. By mid-16th century, the area under occupation had expanded to most of present-day limits.
Goa was granted the same civic privileges as Lisbon. Its senate or municipal chamber maintained direct communications with the king and paid a special representative to attend to its interests at court. In 1563 the governor even proposed to make Goa the seat of a parliament representing all parts of the Portuguese east but this was rejected by the king.
The Portuguese set up a base in Goa in their quest to control the spice trade. Merchandise from all parts of the East was displayed in its bazaar, and separate streets were set aside for the sale of different classes of goods–Bahrain pearls and coral, Chinese porcelain and silk, Portuguese velvet and piece-goods, drugs and spices from the Malay Archipelago.
In 1542 St. Francis Xavier mentions the architectural splendour of the city; but it reached the climax of its prosperity between 1575 and 1625. Travellers marvelled at Goa Dourada, or Golden Goa, and there was a Portuguese proverb, "He who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon."
In the main street slaves were sold by auction. The houses of the rich were surrounded by gardens and palm groves; they were built of stone and painted red or white. Instead of glass, their balconied windows had thin polished oyster-shells set in lattice-work. The social life of Goa's rulers befitted the headquarters of the viceregal court, the army and navy, and the church; luxury and ostentation becoming a byword before the end of the 16th century.[citations needed]
Almost all manual labour was done by slaves; common soldiers assumed high-sounding titles, and it was even customary for the poor noblemen who congregated together in boarding-houses to subscribe for a few silken cloaks, a silken umbrella and a common man-servant, so that each could take his turn to promenade the streets, fashionably attired and with a proper escort.[citations needed]
Around 1583, missionary activity in Cuncolim led first to small skirmishes and finally to the murder of all the missionaries. The Portuguese authorities called the 16 chieftains of each ward (vado) of the Cuncolim village to the Assolna fort, ostensibly to form a peace pact with the villagers. At the fort, the chieftains were slain, except for two who jumped from the fort into the Arabian sea and presumably swam to Karwar. The villagers were left without their traditional leaders and the Portuguese began confiscating the land of the locals and set up the Goa Inquisition.
Decline
The appearance of the Dutch in Indian waters was followed by the gradual ruin of Goa. In 1603 and 1639 the city was blockaded by Dutch fleets, though never captured, and in 1635 it was ravaged by an epidemic. With the situation already volatile, Maratha troops entered parts of Bicholim in 1641 and began the minor Bicholim conflict, which ended in peace treaty between the Portuguese and Maratha Empire.[3]
Trade was gradually monopolised by the Jesuits. Jean de Thévenot in 1666, Baldaeus in 1672, Fryer in 1675 describe its ever-increasing poverty and decay. In 1683 the Mughal army prevented it from capture by the Marathas, and in 1739 the whole territory was attacked by the marathas again, but could not be won because of the unexpected arrival of a new viceroy with a fleet. This continued until 1759, when a peace with the Marathas was concluded.
In the same year the viceroy transferred his residence from the vicinity of Goa city to New Goa (in Portuguese Nova Goa), today's Panaji, which became the official seat of government in 1843, effecting a move which had been discussed as early as 1684. Old Goa city's population fell steeply during the 18th century as Europeans moved to the new city.
In 1757, King Joseph I of Portugal issued a decree penned by his prime minister, the Marquês de Pombal, granting the Portuguese citizenship and representation to all subjects in the Portuguese Indies. The enclaves of Goa, Damão, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli became collectively known as the Estado da Índia Portuguesa, and had representation in the Portuguese parliament.
In 1787, there was a rebellion started by some priests against Portuguese rule. It became famous as the Conspiracy of the Pintos.
According to some Hindu legends, Parashurama flung his axe into the sea and commanded the Sea God to recede up to the point where his axe landed. The new piece of land thus recovered came to be known as Konkan meaning "piece of earth" or "corner of earth" (Kona(corner) + kana(piece)).
The legend of Lord Parshurama commanding Lord Varuna to make the seas recede to make the Konkan .
The Southern Konkan was called Govarashtra.
The Mahabharata refers to Goa as Goparashtra, "a nation of cowherds or of nomadic tribes". In other ancient Indian texts in Goa is also known as Gopakapuri, Gapakapattana, Gomanchala, Govapuri. Suta Samhita, an Indian classic, describes Goa as such: "To the north of Gokarn is a 'kshetra' with seven 'yojanas' in circumference: therein is situated Govapuri, which destroys all sins. The sight of Govapuri destroys the sin committed in a previous existence, as at sunrise darkness disappears. Even by making up his mind to bathe once in Govapuri one attains a high place (in the next world). Certainly there is no 'kshetra' equal to Govapuri.";
Settlement
According to the legends of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community, they were settled along the banks of the Saraswati river. When the river suddenly went dry, Parshurama created the new land on the coast and ordered them to migrate there. The Saraswat Brahmins settled in three islands in the estuary of the Zuari and Mandovi rivers. The Sarswats settled in three different groups which lent the name to the land based on the number of families settled there:Twelve(Barah) families in Bardesh(modern Bardez); Thirty(Tees) families in Tiswadi; and sixty six(Sashasta) families in Sashti(modern Salcette).[1] . These three islands formed the ancient Gomantak.
Ancient history
In the 3rd century BCE, Gomanta formed part of the Maurya Empire. It was later ruled by the Satavahana dynasty. Eventually, it became a part of the Chalukya empire, who controlled it from 580 to 750. Over the next few centuries it was ruled successively by the Silharas, the Kadambas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani. The Kadambas are credited with constructing the first settlement on the site of Old Goa in the middle of the 11th century.
Muslim rule
In 1350 CE, Goa was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate. However in 1370, the Vijayanagar empire, a resurgent Hindu empire situated at modern day Hampi, reconquered the area. The Vijayanagar rulers held on to Goa for nearly 100 years, during which its harbours were important landing places for Arabian horses on their way to Hampi to strengthen the Vijaynagar cavalry. In 1469, however, Goa was reconquered, by the Bahmani Sultans of Gulbarga. When this dynasty broke up in 1492, Goa became a part of Adil Shah's Bijapur Sultanate, who made Goa Velha their second capital. The present Secretariat building in Panaji is a former Adil Shahi palace, later taken over by the Portuguese Viceroys as their official residence.
Portuguese conquest
In 1498, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and landed at Calicut. In 1510 Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Goa at the behest of the local cheftian Thimayya. After losing the city briefly to its former ruler, the Muslim king of Bijapur, Albuquerque returned in force and captured the city, killing the Muslim inhabitants.[citation needed]
Church in Old Goa
Albuquerque and his successors left almost untouched the customs and constitutions of the thirty village communities on the island, only abolishing the rite of sati (widow-burning). A register of these customs (Foral de usos e costumes) was published in 1526; it is among the most valuable historical documents pertaining to Goan customs.[2]
Goa was the base for Albuquerque's conquest of Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515). Albuquerque intended it to be a colony and a naval base, as distinct from the fortified factories established in certain Indian seaports. Goa was made capital of the Portuguese Vice-Kingdom in Asia, and the other Portuguese possessions in India, Malacca and other bases in Indonesia, East Timor, the Persian Gulf, Macau in China and trade bases in Japan were under the suzerainty of its Viceroy. By mid-16th century, the area under occupation had expanded to most of present-day limits.
Goa was granted the same civic privileges as Lisbon. Its senate or municipal chamber maintained direct communications with the king and paid a special representative to attend to its interests at court. In 1563 the governor even proposed to make Goa the seat of a parliament representing all parts of the Portuguese east but this was rejected by the king.
The Portuguese set up a base in Goa in their quest to control the spice trade. Merchandise from all parts of the East was displayed in its bazaar, and separate streets were set aside for the sale of different classes of goods–Bahrain pearls and coral, Chinese porcelain and silk, Portuguese velvet and piece-goods, drugs and spices from the Malay Archipelago.
In 1542 St. Francis Xavier mentions the architectural splendour of the city; but it reached the climax of its prosperity between 1575 and 1625. Travellers marvelled at Goa Dourada, or Golden Goa, and there was a Portuguese proverb, "He who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon."
In the main street slaves were sold by auction. The houses of the rich were surrounded by gardens and palm groves; they were built of stone and painted red or white. Instead of glass, their balconied windows had thin polished oyster-shells set in lattice-work. The social life of Goa's rulers befitted the headquarters of the viceregal court, the army and navy, and the church; luxury and ostentation becoming a byword before the end of the 16th century.[citations needed]
Almost all manual labour was done by slaves; common soldiers assumed high-sounding titles, and it was even customary for the poor noblemen who congregated together in boarding-houses to subscribe for a few silken cloaks, a silken umbrella and a common man-servant, so that each could take his turn to promenade the streets, fashionably attired and with a proper escort.[citations needed]
Around 1583, missionary activity in Cuncolim led first to small skirmishes and finally to the murder of all the missionaries. The Portuguese authorities called the 16 chieftains of each ward (vado) of the Cuncolim village to the Assolna fort, ostensibly to form a peace pact with the villagers. At the fort, the chieftains were slain, except for two who jumped from the fort into the Arabian sea and presumably swam to Karwar. The villagers were left without their traditional leaders and the Portuguese began confiscating the land of the locals and set up the Goa Inquisition.
Decline
The appearance of the Dutch in Indian waters was followed by the gradual ruin of Goa. In 1603 and 1639 the city was blockaded by Dutch fleets, though never captured, and in 1635 it was ravaged by an epidemic. With the situation already volatile, Maratha troops entered parts of Bicholim in 1641 and began the minor Bicholim conflict, which ended in peace treaty between the Portuguese and Maratha Empire.[3]
Trade was gradually monopolised by the Jesuits. Jean de Thévenot in 1666, Baldaeus in 1672, Fryer in 1675 describe its ever-increasing poverty and decay. In 1683 the Mughal army prevented it from capture by the Marathas, and in 1739 the whole territory was attacked by the marathas again, but could not be won because of the unexpected arrival of a new viceroy with a fleet. This continued until 1759, when a peace with the Marathas was concluded.
In the same year the viceroy transferred his residence from the vicinity of Goa city to New Goa (in Portuguese Nova Goa), today's Panaji, which became the official seat of government in 1843, effecting a move which had been discussed as early as 1684. Old Goa city's population fell steeply during the 18th century as Europeans moved to the new city.
In 1757, King Joseph I of Portugal issued a decree penned by his prime minister, the Marquês de Pombal, granting the Portuguese citizenship and representation to all subjects in the Portuguese Indies. The enclaves of Goa, Damão, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli became collectively known as the Estado da Índia Portuguesa, and had representation in the Portuguese parliament.
In 1787, there was a rebellion started by some priests against Portuguese rule. It became famous as the Conspiracy of the Pintos.
Monday, March 16, 2009
PRE-PORTUGUESE CULTURE OF GOA by Prof. George Moraes
Goa was aryanized when Chandragupta Maurya incorporated the West Coast of India in his province of Aparanta, and the impact of Magadhan Prakrit, the official Language of the strongest empire India has ever known, on the local Dravidian spoken in this part of the coast, resulted in the formation of Konkani, as was the case with other Aryan vernaculars. For, influenced by the Magadhan Prakrit, the Dravidian languages could not only hold their own but flourished beyond the Magadhan frontier.
After the Maurya Empire had passed its meridian in the second century B.C. its satrap in Aparanta made himself independent. A scion of the imperial Mauryas. the dynasty he founded ruled over the West Coast for well nigh four centuries from its capital Sopara, the Bombay of those days, now a suburban station.
The history of the dynasty is almost a blank. The records so far found disclose the names of only three of its kings, namely Suketavarvan(1) who ruled some time in the fourth or fifth century, Chandravarman(2) in the sixth century and Anarjitavarman(3)in the seventh, but furnish no clue as to their mutual relationship. The dates are approximate. They are fixed by comparing the style of the Nagari script in which these records are written with the stages in the evolution of this script, which may be dated fairly correctly. It is possible to infer from the places mentioned in these records and their find-spots that at its zenith the Western Maurya Kingdom comprised the Lata or South Gujarat. coastal Maharashtra, Goa, and half of the North Kanara district.
The Bhojas were a thorn in the side of the Western Mauryas for centuries. They are mentioned, to begin with in the edicts of Ashoka among the peoples serving the Maurya Empire in its frontier districts. And it fell to their lot to garrison its South-Western tip, consisting of part of the West Coast. On the decline of the Empire, the Bhoja Chief of the times made himself independent in his domain, following the example of the governor of Aparanta, and assumed the royal style of Maharaja as the latter had done. The records disclose the name of five of his successors - Devaraja' who ruled some time in the fourth century Simharaja(5) in the fifth Prithvimallavarman(6) and Asankitavarman(7) in the sixth and Kapalivannans in the seventh. From Chandrapurta, the present Chandor. their capital. the Bhojas extended their kingdom which at its widest extent included Goa and the districts of Ratnagiri and Kolaba to the north and half of the Kanara district to the south, besides, a part each of the Dharvar and Belgaum districts in the east across the ghats.
The Mauryas could not remain supine to the loss of their territory. After a long warfare, they succeeded in overpowering the Bhojas and bringing the entire West Coast under their rule. The Bhojas cease to appear in the annals of the West Coast so much so that when the Chalukyas of Badami resolved to annex it to their kingdom, they had to reckon with a sole power - the Mauryas. To them, in the picturesque words of a Chalukya record. Kirttivamma was a 'night of doom', but it was Pulikesi II that gave them the "coup de grace".
After the Chalukya interregnum, the Rashtrakutas who had thrown off the Chalukya yoke in the Konkan left it in the safekeeping of their loyal feudatories, the Northern and Southern Silaharas, while they themselves betook to the Deccan to stake their claim to imperial power. In his thought-provoking book on Goan Emigration (Goyancaranchi Goyambhaili Vasnuk) in Konkani, the notable Goan historian, the late Mr. Varde Valavlikar, holds that the Rashtrakutas who were proud of tracing their origin to Lattalapur, styling themselves .'Lattalapuravaradhishwaram' or boon Lords of Lattalapur, were Goans(cheddes)(9), identifying Lattalpur with Loutolim in Salcete. The identification seems more reasonable than with Latur in Andhra Pradesh as suggested by earlier historians. For one thing, the advance of the Rashtrakutas was from west to east and not vice versa as it would have been, if the latter identification were correct. For another, a Rashtrakuta is mentioned as an important individual in a record of the Maurya King Anirjitavarnan (seventh century)(10), and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the family gathered enough power in the course of years to be able to replace the Chalukyas.
The Silaharas ruled over South Konkan for about three centuries when they had to yield place to a new power that had risen in the hinterland, the Kadambas, and was casting covetous eyes on the famous maritime city of Chandrapura through which the regions behind the ghats carried on their overseas trade. The Kadambas ruled Goa for two and half centuries until its conquest by Mahmud Gavan on behalf of his Bahmani master. The Hindu rule was restored in Goa by Vijayanagar. The Sultan of Bijapur re-conquered it only to lose it to Albuquerque in 1510.
The people could Live a peaceful life in their village communities unaffected by these vicissitudes. In a typical village community, the cultivable land was divided into three classes: the highland, the land at a lower level where the settlers have their dwellings, clustered together in their respective wards for mutual protection. and the land at the lowest level which is the most fertile part of the village. This low land is carefully built up and enforced by embankments which prevents water from the village gushing into the cultivable part of the village, the so called Khazan area. From embankment to embankment the entire village is cultivated, the water from the stream nearby being regulated by small dykes and when necessary by larger ones at its mouth.
Self-sufficing and self-supporting and each with its own statute for the cultivation of the land in common, these tiny republics were left alone by the powers that be, who were content to receive from them a small portion of their produce and in exceptional circumstances a tax to overcome a grave crisis.
Composing the vangores or families of the original founders of the villages were the Gauncares and others admitted by the latter to share their status. The income from the properties of the village was ear- marked for the upkeep of worship and the payment for the essential services such as those of the barber, the blacksmith, the basket-maker and sorcerer. The clerk - who often was a gauncar himself-was held in high esteem and enjoyed the privilege of cultivating a choice field in the village while the priest and other servants received adequate payment.(10)
Buddhism was popular and held the field in the Konkan for twelve centuries. It had been brought to Sonaparanta, as Goa was then called, by a son of the soil, a direct disciple of the Buddha, Purna, in the fifth century B.C. The impression left on the psyche of the people by the enrapturing personality of the Buddha even when Buddhism, enfeebled by splitting into sects, was losing its hold, is well brought out by an inscription of the Bhoja King Asankitavannan (sixth century A.D.). It describes the Buddha as one "whose feet are licked by the rays of the shining jewels in the coronets of gods and demons", and "a reservoir of countless virtues". And significant in this connection is the epithet "affectionate without a motive", applied to him.(12) An added impetus was the profession of Buddhism by both the ruling houses. the Mauryas and the Bhojas, the people even in religious matters following in the footsteps of the rulers. Buddhism so profoundly affected their workday life that Bodhidharma. founder of the Zen School of Buddhism in China during the early part of the sixth century, hailed according to one account from this milieu, actually from a royal family ruling over the West Coast of South India. It has been suggested that he might have been a prince of the early Kadamba family. The suggestion, however, in untenable for the reason that the early Kadambas are not known to have come under the influence of Buddhism. And since the account puts emphasis on the South, he was connected rather with the family of the Bhojas than that of the Mauryas - that he was a Goan in other words.
With the emergence of Vajrayana, Buddhism lost its pristine purity. Its esoteric practices were regarded as immoral, and it went down in the eyes of the elite. Far worse with the inclusion of the Hindu gods in its pantheon it began to lose its identity. And before long a situation was reached in which the gods were the same and only the priests were different. The supersessions of the Buddha by Maitreya, Amitaba, Avalokiteshvra a misfortune. They lacked the character and personality of Sakyamuni.
With Sankara and Ramanuja, many saints and their disciples, Saivism and Vaishnivism, acquired an active priesthood. And while the forceful energies of Buddhism were declining the Brahman-Hinduist religion enjoyed a sort of revival. Hinduism and Jainism fame to be in the ascendant, obtaining greater patronage from the royalty and the people. It should be noted however, that Brahmans of the times were not of the same extraction as the present Brahmans of Goa. the Sarasvats, their gotras being different. The appearance of the Sarasvats in the Konkan for the first time is in the records of the Shilaharas (800 -1200) - holding eminent positions of ministers and the like. They suffer an eclipse during the Kadamba rule and subsequent period, but are seen as occupying a premier place in society during Portuguese rule with the epithet 'honrado' applied to them in the Jesuit letters. The advent of the Chaddos seems to have been coterminous with that of the Sarasvats, seeing that the village communities are for the most part shared by these two classes. Shenvi: the honorific of the Sarasvats, analysis of which had long remained a mystery,is now revealed by the discovery of two of their records. It corresponds to the epithets Dvivedi, Trivedi, and Chaturvedi usually borne by Brahmans, and means 'versed in the six vidyas'.(13)
There is some truth in the statement that all that is good and great in the East has gone into the building of temples. To this task of temple building the Shilahara and the Kadamba contribution was considerable. According to a missionary estimate of the seventeenth century, there were three hundred temples in Bardez alone, each village boasting five shrines dedicated to deities collectively known as Pamchadevata.(14) These shrines are all fallen prey to the ravages of time and vandal, but two temples managing to escape, each reveals a style developed under the respective aegis of the two dynasties that brought Goa under their rule during the pre- Portuguese period - the Shilaharas and the Kadambas.
It was reported recently that the Archeological Section of the Historical Archives of Goa had found the ruins of a temple at Kudnem village, and I was thrilled to read the further detail laconic though it was, that there is the curvilinear tower, rising above the edifice. The Shikhara crowning the Garbhagriha. the sanctum, is a distinguishing feature of the Shilahara temples, as exemplified by the beau ideal of the Shilahara temple architecture, the Saiva temple, built by King Mammuni in 1060 A.D. at Ambarnath, now a suburb of Bombay on the Central Railway beyond Kalyan. As behoving the Bombay region, the historic meeting place of nations, the temple is a harmonious blending of what distinguishes the Northern from the Southern styles, the curvilinear tower, the Shikhara of the Northern temple and the Mukhamandapa, the elongated porch surmounted by the vimana, a tube-like horizontal roof of the Southern ones, in whose shade, the Sukhanasi, the weary worshipper could stretch his legs after his orations.
The sanctum, a sunken square chamber, is reached by a flight of steps. In the middle of this chamber is a Linga, which is the cult object. Dr. H.D. Sankalia and Mr. A.V. Naik, who have written a learned article on this temple, find something unique in the image of Mahishasuramardini. She is generally represented in the Tribhanga pose (pose on three bends in the dance and in art). But here at Ambarnath "her Tribhanga form is dancing, vibrant with spirited action. and graceful with beautiful curves of the neck, back, arms and legs".(15)
I was so taken up by this splendid monument, a proud testimonial to the high watermark to which our art had attained during this period, that I thought it was worthy of a monograph. like those on the European Cathedrals, expatiating on its glories. I could not attempt the task myself. It was beyond me to solve the problems it set, specially the dance depicted in the frieze running round its walls, for the identification of which a knowledge of the folklore, which may still be surviving in the locality, is essential. It was also outside my province to form an estimate of the engineering skill of the builders. The prospective monograph, therefore, could only be cooperative work since these problems still remain to be solved, pace Dr. Sankalia's learned article, which appeared about this time (1939-40), the period of my interest in the temple.
The temple at Surla is typical of the Kadamba style in every detail. I have devoted a whole chapter in my Kadambakula to the evolution of the Kadamba style of temple architecture, contrasting it with the Pallava and the Chaluka architectures on the one hand and the Hoysala architecture on the other. The distinguishing feature of the Kadamba style is the tapering terraced tower, a perfect pyramid, the vigorous and purposeful line of each of these terraces attracting the eye even from a long distance. The Kadamba style would seem to have reached its perfection in the Sri Kamala Narayana Temple at Degamve (Northern Karnataka). It is a typical example of a temple built in this style which had come under the Hoysala influence. It was constructed by Tippoja, the architect of God Bankesvara at the command of Kamala Devi, the queen of the Goa Kadamba King Sivachitta, in the middle of the 12th century.
The temple is rectangular in shape and consists of three cells with the pillared hall running from North to South in front of the shrines on the west side. Each of these shrines is divided into two parts, the Garbhagriha and the Sukhanasi. The frames of the doorways of the Sukhanasi are carved with creepers. The pieced stone windows which surround the doorways are more ornamental than in any other Kadamba temple. The Garbhagihas have, as in other Kadamba temples, the dedicatory block with the image of Gaja-Lakshmi.
The first cell contains the image of Narayana. The second cell has the icon of Lakshmi-Narayana with Lakshmi seated on the lap of Vishnu. Garuda and Maruti are standing on either side of this image. The third cell bears the image of Kamala with two attendants on either side. The walls of the temple are adorned with niche having plasters surmounted by terraced pyramidal towers in the Kadamba style crowned with a Kalasha. On the parapets surrounding the Mukhamandapa. the following friezes are sculptured from top to bottom: 1) pillars with roaring lions between them 2) pyramidal towers surmounting these pillars and having dancing girls in various poses between them and 3) beautiful scroll work on top.
The ceiling has pendant lotuses - all of them artistic pieces of workmanship remarkable for richness of ornamentation and elaboration of details. (16)
The Surla temple is a poor specimen of the Kadamba style. It is however significant that it betrays Yadava influence, as pointed out by a devoted circle of students and scholars in a recent issue of Purabhilekh-Puratahra (Vol. IV, No. 1). The Yadavas were Marathas and their influence on the traditional temple-building is an instance in point of the rapid Marathisation of territory during their rule.
We are so far familiar with the curvilinear and pyramidal towers of our temples. The arch with the key stone, which had revolutionized architecture in the West, was introduced into India by the Muslims; and with the conquest of Goa by the Bahmanis and the Adilshahis, our architects learnt their use. The mosques that were built in Goa must have been modelled on their prototypes in Bijapur with all their distinctive features: the dome deposited on the lotus with pointed arches high above the prayer chambers, supporting it.
The ruling powers, the Shilaharas and the Kadambas, not to speak of the Mauryas and the Bhojas, adhered to an ideal summed up in the phrase dushta - nigraha - nigraha -sishta-paripalanam i.e. to restrain the evil and protect the good. People dwelt in harmony. without bickerings arising from religious differences, as the kings followed the policy of universal protection and took care not to pamper the denomination to which they themselves belonged or champion the cause of any new-fangled doctrine. There were persons professing Islam and Christianity in one or other of the Kadamba Kingdoms whose way of life must have been totally different from that of the Hindus. These were not only left free to worship in their mosques and tarasas, meaning churches, but they even rose high in government service. Ibn Batuta who passed through Goa in or about 342 testifies to the Christian presence in Goa, while a record of the Goa Kadamba King pays eloquent tribute to his Muslim governor of the city - Sadan -(Chhadama) to whose wise administration it owed a substantial part of its prosperity.
These Muslims, who were mostly Arabs, were mainly engaged in trade; and they enjoyed a high position in society thanks to the prosperity they brought to the state. In the inscriptions, for instance, of the Shilaharas of North Konkan, the nakhara or trade guild of these merchants called anjuman which appears in these records in its sanscritized form of Hanjumana - is ranked with the three vargas, namely the three higher orders of Hindu society. They are among the privileged ones - ministers, high government officers and heads of mathas - to be informed of an agreement entered into by certain merchants with Rattaraja, the Southern Shilaraha monarch. The Muslims enlisted themselves in the Goa Kadamba armies and when the latter invaded the north Shilahara kingdom they are said to hew taken active part in the devastation of the Shilahara territory.(17). They would thus appear to have built for themselves an almost impregnable position on the West Coast.
Some of these Muslims were owners of merchant fleets and it is not unlikely that the Goa Kadambas availed themselves of their expertise in navigation to build for themselves a powerful navy. Wood was plentiful in our mountain region and vessels of whatever kind could be easily constructed with the desirable material. They were thus able not only to hold their own in their kingdom but lord it over the neighbouring states 11 well. A maritime power, the Kadambas of Goa gave impetus to coastal as well as overseas shipping. With Goan ships bound for inland and foreign posts and ships from far and near visiting Goa, the latter became the entreport of the West Coast. The Kadambas who proudly styled themselves Paschima samudradhisvaras richly deserve this title. The Arab ascendancy in the art of navigation continued till the early years of the 16th century when it passed to the Portuguese. It is a happy coincidence that Vasco da Gama, the greatest seaman of the age, was led into Calicut by the greatest pilot of the times, Ibn Majid, forty-four of whose log books, full of information of the seas he navigated, have so far come to light.
It is one of the glories of the Kadamba monarchs that they all patronized learning with the result that many learned men nourished at their court. This was true even during the regime of the early Kadambas. The Halsi inscription of Harivarma while describing the attributes of his father, Ravivarma. avers that the latter supported holy and learned people "with the wealth he had amassed with just means". The Halsi inscription of the Goa Kadamba king Sivachitta, while speaking of his ancestor Jayakesi, asserts that the streets of his capital were filled with the palanquins of his pundits.918) They are inscription of other rulers, a fact which shows that they were not only patrons of scholars hot ware themselves men of academic distinction. Among the poets who flourished at the Goa Kadamba Court, the roll of honour is filled with the names of Chandrasuri of the Saligramiya gotra. Vyavaharapatra - kavi Vishvarupa, Kavinam Chakravarti Pandya and Raja Guru Padmaya Bhatta, Dharmadhikarana Madhusudhana Suri, Yajnesvara Sur Govindadeva, ddescribed as nirankushamati in kavita, and Annanayya.
What made the rise of these literateurs possible was the sound training imparted in the various educational agencies of the time, viz. agrahara. brahmapuri and matha. The most important of these agencies was the agrahara consisting of a community of learned Brahmans whose profound scholarship attracted students from far and near. Here education of an advanced type was dispensed in all branches of human knowledge. And it was here that people of diverse races and religions assembled. The agaharas may therefore be said to have constituted the real universities of medieval India, the studium generale or schools of universal learning.
The second agency that disseminated learning was the Brahmapuli which was a settlement of learned Brahmans in parts of towns and cities. It differed from the agrahara, for while the latter was a corporate body and formed a unit by itself, the Brahmapuri does not seem to have possessed these characteristics.
The third agency that played an important role in cultural life was the matha. It was a typical Indian monastery with monks, ascetics and students living within its precincts. It also served as a free boarding house.
In order to enable these institutions to carry on their work, they were richly endowed by kings and chieftains and philanthropic and wealthy citizens.(19)
For a long time Sanscrit was used for official purposes in Goa and throughout Konkan and Konkani like Marathi took centuries to develop. The first recorded instance of the former being employed for other than domestic purposes is in the imprecation against the revocation of a grant, the well- known ass curse, occurring in an early grant of the Sitahavas; whereas the first such instance of the latter is as late as the 14th century in the Konkani prayer of a cowgirl, finding expression, strangely enough, in the Marathi poet Namdeo.
It was long believed that there were hardly any writings to speak of in Konkani before the Christian missionaries applied themselves to the task and produced a sizable corpus of literature. But during a sojourn in Portugal, the late Dr. P.S.S. Pissurlencar fame upon several pieces of Hindi hagiograph in Konkani in the public library at Braga.(20) They were written in the Roman script, which would indicate their missionary provenance. For in their own writings, the missioners preferred Roman to the indigenous script current in Goa - Kandevi. This was the running hand of Old Kannada developed during the Kannada period, which was in use throughout Goa till the end of the nineteenth century. These pieces of writing were evidently intended for the use of the missioner. attempting to learn the language, and formed part of the Konkani literature nourishing in Goa since pre-Portuguese days. And indeed if it was necessary for Fr. Thomas Stephens to master Gnaneshvari and other Maathi classics before he could produce his best epic in the language, the Krista Purana, it stands to reason that he had to take similar pains for mastering the extant Konkani literature, to produce his other chef d'oeuve Doutrina Cristao, a compendium of Christian doctrines in Konkani. Pissurlencar however believed that the Konkani works he had discovered at Braga, were translations from Marathi for the use of the Christian missioners. But the latter studied both Marathi and Konkani and were not in need of Konkani translations of Marathi works. It would ether seem that they were meant for the use of the common people who could not read them in the original.
Agriculture was by and large the occupation of the people. Industries were few and far between, being confined to spinning, weaving, masonry, brass works, carpentry, jewelry iron works, basket-making and the extraction of oil. The trade in the country was mainly in the hands of three classes of leaders: indigenous, itinerant and foreign. There was a sprinkling of cities where trade and industry were regulated by guilds, each craft having a guild of its own, and merchants similarly organizing themselves after the commodities sold by them. The guilds acted as local banks and government treasuries and they fulfilled the duties of municipal self-government. For with them were invested the monies that were granted to temples and institutions of public utility by kings and wealthy citizens from the interest whereof they had to fulfill the terms of the grants.
The pre-Portuguese Culture, high though it was, was not without its defects. Society was so static that one born in a lower caste could not change it to improve his fortune. Its treatment of the outcastes was cruel and inhuman. In its eyes the lower orders, as the Manusmriti puts it, existed only "to serve meekly" the other classes, particularly the Brahmans, holding out hopes of promotion to higher ranks in subsequent births. It fails miserably if the treatment of women is made a measure of its excellence. The widows were compelled to burn at the stake of their dead husbands, and escaping were subjected to unheard indignities - shaving of the head and wearing of mean clothes. It denied them m- marriage, which drove a number into prostitution, as the same word standing for widow and prostitute in most Indian languages would show. It is no wonder that A.P Sharma writing on the position of women in a recent issue of the Times of India July 24, 1988) should have been forced to observe: looking back the modern Hindu feels intrigued and hurt, even baffled and shocked when he tries to make out why his great ancestors decided to use the accidents of sex and birth as the sole determinants of one's rank and function in the social system. To put it bluntly, one could say with sufficient justification and continuance of the Aryan patriarchate have been guilty of sexism and racism".
After the Maurya Empire had passed its meridian in the second century B.C. its satrap in Aparanta made himself independent. A scion of the imperial Mauryas. the dynasty he founded ruled over the West Coast for well nigh four centuries from its capital Sopara, the Bombay of those days, now a suburban station.
The history of the dynasty is almost a blank. The records so far found disclose the names of only three of its kings, namely Suketavarvan(1) who ruled some time in the fourth or fifth century, Chandravarman(2) in the sixth century and Anarjitavarman(3)in the seventh, but furnish no clue as to their mutual relationship. The dates are approximate. They are fixed by comparing the style of the Nagari script in which these records are written with the stages in the evolution of this script, which may be dated fairly correctly. It is possible to infer from the places mentioned in these records and their find-spots that at its zenith the Western Maurya Kingdom comprised the Lata or South Gujarat. coastal Maharashtra, Goa, and half of the North Kanara district.
The Bhojas were a thorn in the side of the Western Mauryas for centuries. They are mentioned, to begin with in the edicts of Ashoka among the peoples serving the Maurya Empire in its frontier districts. And it fell to their lot to garrison its South-Western tip, consisting of part of the West Coast. On the decline of the Empire, the Bhoja Chief of the times made himself independent in his domain, following the example of the governor of Aparanta, and assumed the royal style of Maharaja as the latter had done. The records disclose the name of five of his successors - Devaraja' who ruled some time in the fourth century Simharaja(5) in the fifth Prithvimallavarman(6) and Asankitavarman(7) in the sixth and Kapalivannans in the seventh. From Chandrapurta, the present Chandor. their capital. the Bhojas extended their kingdom which at its widest extent included Goa and the districts of Ratnagiri and Kolaba to the north and half of the Kanara district to the south, besides, a part each of the Dharvar and Belgaum districts in the east across the ghats.
The Mauryas could not remain supine to the loss of their territory. After a long warfare, they succeeded in overpowering the Bhojas and bringing the entire West Coast under their rule. The Bhojas cease to appear in the annals of the West Coast so much so that when the Chalukyas of Badami resolved to annex it to their kingdom, they had to reckon with a sole power - the Mauryas. To them, in the picturesque words of a Chalukya record. Kirttivamma was a 'night of doom', but it was Pulikesi II that gave them the "coup de grace".
After the Chalukya interregnum, the Rashtrakutas who had thrown off the Chalukya yoke in the Konkan left it in the safekeeping of their loyal feudatories, the Northern and Southern Silaharas, while they themselves betook to the Deccan to stake their claim to imperial power. In his thought-provoking book on Goan Emigration (Goyancaranchi Goyambhaili Vasnuk) in Konkani, the notable Goan historian, the late Mr. Varde Valavlikar, holds that the Rashtrakutas who were proud of tracing their origin to Lattalapur, styling themselves .'Lattalapuravaradhishwaram' or boon Lords of Lattalapur, were Goans(cheddes)(9), identifying Lattalpur with Loutolim in Salcete. The identification seems more reasonable than with Latur in Andhra Pradesh as suggested by earlier historians. For one thing, the advance of the Rashtrakutas was from west to east and not vice versa as it would have been, if the latter identification were correct. For another, a Rashtrakuta is mentioned as an important individual in a record of the Maurya King Anirjitavarnan (seventh century)(10), and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the family gathered enough power in the course of years to be able to replace the Chalukyas.
The Silaharas ruled over South Konkan for about three centuries when they had to yield place to a new power that had risen in the hinterland, the Kadambas, and was casting covetous eyes on the famous maritime city of Chandrapura through which the regions behind the ghats carried on their overseas trade. The Kadambas ruled Goa for two and half centuries until its conquest by Mahmud Gavan on behalf of his Bahmani master. The Hindu rule was restored in Goa by Vijayanagar. The Sultan of Bijapur re-conquered it only to lose it to Albuquerque in 1510.
The people could Live a peaceful life in their village communities unaffected by these vicissitudes. In a typical village community, the cultivable land was divided into three classes: the highland, the land at a lower level where the settlers have their dwellings, clustered together in their respective wards for mutual protection. and the land at the lowest level which is the most fertile part of the village. This low land is carefully built up and enforced by embankments which prevents water from the village gushing into the cultivable part of the village, the so called Khazan area. From embankment to embankment the entire village is cultivated, the water from the stream nearby being regulated by small dykes and when necessary by larger ones at its mouth.
Self-sufficing and self-supporting and each with its own statute for the cultivation of the land in common, these tiny republics were left alone by the powers that be, who were content to receive from them a small portion of their produce and in exceptional circumstances a tax to overcome a grave crisis.
Composing the vangores or families of the original founders of the villages were the Gauncares and others admitted by the latter to share their status. The income from the properties of the village was ear- marked for the upkeep of worship and the payment for the essential services such as those of the barber, the blacksmith, the basket-maker and sorcerer. The clerk - who often was a gauncar himself-was held in high esteem and enjoyed the privilege of cultivating a choice field in the village while the priest and other servants received adequate payment.(10)
Buddhism was popular and held the field in the Konkan for twelve centuries. It had been brought to Sonaparanta, as Goa was then called, by a son of the soil, a direct disciple of the Buddha, Purna, in the fifth century B.C. The impression left on the psyche of the people by the enrapturing personality of the Buddha even when Buddhism, enfeebled by splitting into sects, was losing its hold, is well brought out by an inscription of the Bhoja King Asankitavannan (sixth century A.D.). It describes the Buddha as one "whose feet are licked by the rays of the shining jewels in the coronets of gods and demons", and "a reservoir of countless virtues". And significant in this connection is the epithet "affectionate without a motive", applied to him.(12) An added impetus was the profession of Buddhism by both the ruling houses. the Mauryas and the Bhojas, the people even in religious matters following in the footsteps of the rulers. Buddhism so profoundly affected their workday life that Bodhidharma. founder of the Zen School of Buddhism in China during the early part of the sixth century, hailed according to one account from this milieu, actually from a royal family ruling over the West Coast of South India. It has been suggested that he might have been a prince of the early Kadamba family. The suggestion, however, in untenable for the reason that the early Kadambas are not known to have come under the influence of Buddhism. And since the account puts emphasis on the South, he was connected rather with the family of the Bhojas than that of the Mauryas - that he was a Goan in other words.
With the emergence of Vajrayana, Buddhism lost its pristine purity. Its esoteric practices were regarded as immoral, and it went down in the eyes of the elite. Far worse with the inclusion of the Hindu gods in its pantheon it began to lose its identity. And before long a situation was reached in which the gods were the same and only the priests were different. The supersessions of the Buddha by Maitreya, Amitaba, Avalokiteshvra a misfortune. They lacked the character and personality of Sakyamuni.
With Sankara and Ramanuja, many saints and their disciples, Saivism and Vaishnivism, acquired an active priesthood. And while the forceful energies of Buddhism were declining the Brahman-Hinduist religion enjoyed a sort of revival. Hinduism and Jainism fame to be in the ascendant, obtaining greater patronage from the royalty and the people. It should be noted however, that Brahmans of the times were not of the same extraction as the present Brahmans of Goa. the Sarasvats, their gotras being different. The appearance of the Sarasvats in the Konkan for the first time is in the records of the Shilaharas (800 -1200) - holding eminent positions of ministers and the like. They suffer an eclipse during the Kadamba rule and subsequent period, but are seen as occupying a premier place in society during Portuguese rule with the epithet 'honrado' applied to them in the Jesuit letters. The advent of the Chaddos seems to have been coterminous with that of the Sarasvats, seeing that the village communities are for the most part shared by these two classes. Shenvi: the honorific of the Sarasvats, analysis of which had long remained a mystery,is now revealed by the discovery of two of their records. It corresponds to the epithets Dvivedi, Trivedi, and Chaturvedi usually borne by Brahmans, and means 'versed in the six vidyas'.(13)
There is some truth in the statement that all that is good and great in the East has gone into the building of temples. To this task of temple building the Shilahara and the Kadamba contribution was considerable. According to a missionary estimate of the seventeenth century, there were three hundred temples in Bardez alone, each village boasting five shrines dedicated to deities collectively known as Pamchadevata.(14) These shrines are all fallen prey to the ravages of time and vandal, but two temples managing to escape, each reveals a style developed under the respective aegis of the two dynasties that brought Goa under their rule during the pre- Portuguese period - the Shilaharas and the Kadambas.
It was reported recently that the Archeological Section of the Historical Archives of Goa had found the ruins of a temple at Kudnem village, and I was thrilled to read the further detail laconic though it was, that there is the curvilinear tower, rising above the edifice. The Shikhara crowning the Garbhagriha. the sanctum, is a distinguishing feature of the Shilahara temples, as exemplified by the beau ideal of the Shilahara temple architecture, the Saiva temple, built by King Mammuni in 1060 A.D. at Ambarnath, now a suburb of Bombay on the Central Railway beyond Kalyan. As behoving the Bombay region, the historic meeting place of nations, the temple is a harmonious blending of what distinguishes the Northern from the Southern styles, the curvilinear tower, the Shikhara of the Northern temple and the Mukhamandapa, the elongated porch surmounted by the vimana, a tube-like horizontal roof of the Southern ones, in whose shade, the Sukhanasi, the weary worshipper could stretch his legs after his orations.
The sanctum, a sunken square chamber, is reached by a flight of steps. In the middle of this chamber is a Linga, which is the cult object. Dr. H.D. Sankalia and Mr. A.V. Naik, who have written a learned article on this temple, find something unique in the image of Mahishasuramardini. She is generally represented in the Tribhanga pose (pose on three bends in the dance and in art). But here at Ambarnath "her Tribhanga form is dancing, vibrant with spirited action. and graceful with beautiful curves of the neck, back, arms and legs".(15)
I was so taken up by this splendid monument, a proud testimonial to the high watermark to which our art had attained during this period, that I thought it was worthy of a monograph. like those on the European Cathedrals, expatiating on its glories. I could not attempt the task myself. It was beyond me to solve the problems it set, specially the dance depicted in the frieze running round its walls, for the identification of which a knowledge of the folklore, which may still be surviving in the locality, is essential. It was also outside my province to form an estimate of the engineering skill of the builders. The prospective monograph, therefore, could only be cooperative work since these problems still remain to be solved, pace Dr. Sankalia's learned article, which appeared about this time (1939-40), the period of my interest in the temple.
The temple at Surla is typical of the Kadamba style in every detail. I have devoted a whole chapter in my Kadambakula to the evolution of the Kadamba style of temple architecture, contrasting it with the Pallava and the Chaluka architectures on the one hand and the Hoysala architecture on the other. The distinguishing feature of the Kadamba style is the tapering terraced tower, a perfect pyramid, the vigorous and purposeful line of each of these terraces attracting the eye even from a long distance. The Kadamba style would seem to have reached its perfection in the Sri Kamala Narayana Temple at Degamve (Northern Karnataka). It is a typical example of a temple built in this style which had come under the Hoysala influence. It was constructed by Tippoja, the architect of God Bankesvara at the command of Kamala Devi, the queen of the Goa Kadamba King Sivachitta, in the middle of the 12th century.
The temple is rectangular in shape and consists of three cells with the pillared hall running from North to South in front of the shrines on the west side. Each of these shrines is divided into two parts, the Garbhagriha and the Sukhanasi. The frames of the doorways of the Sukhanasi are carved with creepers. The pieced stone windows which surround the doorways are more ornamental than in any other Kadamba temple. The Garbhagihas have, as in other Kadamba temples, the dedicatory block with the image of Gaja-Lakshmi.
The first cell contains the image of Narayana. The second cell has the icon of Lakshmi-Narayana with Lakshmi seated on the lap of Vishnu. Garuda and Maruti are standing on either side of this image. The third cell bears the image of Kamala with two attendants on either side. The walls of the temple are adorned with niche having plasters surmounted by terraced pyramidal towers in the Kadamba style crowned with a Kalasha. On the parapets surrounding the Mukhamandapa. the following friezes are sculptured from top to bottom: 1) pillars with roaring lions between them 2) pyramidal towers surmounting these pillars and having dancing girls in various poses between them and 3) beautiful scroll work on top.
The ceiling has pendant lotuses - all of them artistic pieces of workmanship remarkable for richness of ornamentation and elaboration of details. (16)
The Surla temple is a poor specimen of the Kadamba style. It is however significant that it betrays Yadava influence, as pointed out by a devoted circle of students and scholars in a recent issue of Purabhilekh-Puratahra (Vol. IV, No. 1). The Yadavas were Marathas and their influence on the traditional temple-building is an instance in point of the rapid Marathisation of territory during their rule.
We are so far familiar with the curvilinear and pyramidal towers of our temples. The arch with the key stone, which had revolutionized architecture in the West, was introduced into India by the Muslims; and with the conquest of Goa by the Bahmanis and the Adilshahis, our architects learnt their use. The mosques that were built in Goa must have been modelled on their prototypes in Bijapur with all their distinctive features: the dome deposited on the lotus with pointed arches high above the prayer chambers, supporting it.
The ruling powers, the Shilaharas and the Kadambas, not to speak of the Mauryas and the Bhojas, adhered to an ideal summed up in the phrase dushta - nigraha - nigraha -sishta-paripalanam i.e. to restrain the evil and protect the good. People dwelt in harmony. without bickerings arising from religious differences, as the kings followed the policy of universal protection and took care not to pamper the denomination to which they themselves belonged or champion the cause of any new-fangled doctrine. There were persons professing Islam and Christianity in one or other of the Kadamba Kingdoms whose way of life must have been totally different from that of the Hindus. These were not only left free to worship in their mosques and tarasas, meaning churches, but they even rose high in government service. Ibn Batuta who passed through Goa in or about 342 testifies to the Christian presence in Goa, while a record of the Goa Kadamba King pays eloquent tribute to his Muslim governor of the city - Sadan -(Chhadama) to whose wise administration it owed a substantial part of its prosperity.
These Muslims, who were mostly Arabs, were mainly engaged in trade; and they enjoyed a high position in society thanks to the prosperity they brought to the state. In the inscriptions, for instance, of the Shilaharas of North Konkan, the nakhara or trade guild of these merchants called anjuman which appears in these records in its sanscritized form of Hanjumana - is ranked with the three vargas, namely the three higher orders of Hindu society. They are among the privileged ones - ministers, high government officers and heads of mathas - to be informed of an agreement entered into by certain merchants with Rattaraja, the Southern Shilaraha monarch. The Muslims enlisted themselves in the Goa Kadamba armies and when the latter invaded the north Shilahara kingdom they are said to hew taken active part in the devastation of the Shilahara territory.(17). They would thus appear to have built for themselves an almost impregnable position on the West Coast.
Some of these Muslims were owners of merchant fleets and it is not unlikely that the Goa Kadambas availed themselves of their expertise in navigation to build for themselves a powerful navy. Wood was plentiful in our mountain region and vessels of whatever kind could be easily constructed with the desirable material. They were thus able not only to hold their own in their kingdom but lord it over the neighbouring states 11 well. A maritime power, the Kadambas of Goa gave impetus to coastal as well as overseas shipping. With Goan ships bound for inland and foreign posts and ships from far and near visiting Goa, the latter became the entreport of the West Coast. The Kadambas who proudly styled themselves Paschima samudradhisvaras richly deserve this title. The Arab ascendancy in the art of navigation continued till the early years of the 16th century when it passed to the Portuguese. It is a happy coincidence that Vasco da Gama, the greatest seaman of the age, was led into Calicut by the greatest pilot of the times, Ibn Majid, forty-four of whose log books, full of information of the seas he navigated, have so far come to light.
It is one of the glories of the Kadamba monarchs that they all patronized learning with the result that many learned men nourished at their court. This was true even during the regime of the early Kadambas. The Halsi inscription of Harivarma while describing the attributes of his father, Ravivarma. avers that the latter supported holy and learned people "with the wealth he had amassed with just means". The Halsi inscription of the Goa Kadamba king Sivachitta, while speaking of his ancestor Jayakesi, asserts that the streets of his capital were filled with the palanquins of his pundits.918) They are inscription of other rulers, a fact which shows that they were not only patrons of scholars hot ware themselves men of academic distinction. Among the poets who flourished at the Goa Kadamba Court, the roll of honour is filled with the names of Chandrasuri of the Saligramiya gotra. Vyavaharapatra - kavi Vishvarupa, Kavinam Chakravarti Pandya and Raja Guru Padmaya Bhatta, Dharmadhikarana Madhusudhana Suri, Yajnesvara Sur Govindadeva, ddescribed as nirankushamati in kavita, and Annanayya.
What made the rise of these literateurs possible was the sound training imparted in the various educational agencies of the time, viz. agrahara. brahmapuri and matha. The most important of these agencies was the agrahara consisting of a community of learned Brahmans whose profound scholarship attracted students from far and near. Here education of an advanced type was dispensed in all branches of human knowledge. And it was here that people of diverse races and religions assembled. The agaharas may therefore be said to have constituted the real universities of medieval India, the studium generale or schools of universal learning.
The second agency that disseminated learning was the Brahmapuli which was a settlement of learned Brahmans in parts of towns and cities. It differed from the agrahara, for while the latter was a corporate body and formed a unit by itself, the Brahmapuri does not seem to have possessed these characteristics.
The third agency that played an important role in cultural life was the matha. It was a typical Indian monastery with monks, ascetics and students living within its precincts. It also served as a free boarding house.
In order to enable these institutions to carry on their work, they were richly endowed by kings and chieftains and philanthropic and wealthy citizens.(19)
For a long time Sanscrit was used for official purposes in Goa and throughout Konkan and Konkani like Marathi took centuries to develop. The first recorded instance of the former being employed for other than domestic purposes is in the imprecation against the revocation of a grant, the well- known ass curse, occurring in an early grant of the Sitahavas; whereas the first such instance of the latter is as late as the 14th century in the Konkani prayer of a cowgirl, finding expression, strangely enough, in the Marathi poet Namdeo.
It was long believed that there were hardly any writings to speak of in Konkani before the Christian missionaries applied themselves to the task and produced a sizable corpus of literature. But during a sojourn in Portugal, the late Dr. P.S.S. Pissurlencar fame upon several pieces of Hindi hagiograph in Konkani in the public library at Braga.(20) They were written in the Roman script, which would indicate their missionary provenance. For in their own writings, the missioners preferred Roman to the indigenous script current in Goa - Kandevi. This was the running hand of Old Kannada developed during the Kannada period, which was in use throughout Goa till the end of the nineteenth century. These pieces of writing were evidently intended for the use of the missioner. attempting to learn the language, and formed part of the Konkani literature nourishing in Goa since pre-Portuguese days. And indeed if it was necessary for Fr. Thomas Stephens to master Gnaneshvari and other Maathi classics before he could produce his best epic in the language, the Krista Purana, it stands to reason that he had to take similar pains for mastering the extant Konkani literature, to produce his other chef d'oeuve Doutrina Cristao, a compendium of Christian doctrines in Konkani. Pissurlencar however believed that the Konkani works he had discovered at Braga, were translations from Marathi for the use of the Christian missioners. But the latter studied both Marathi and Konkani and were not in need of Konkani translations of Marathi works. It would ether seem that they were meant for the use of the common people who could not read them in the original.
Agriculture was by and large the occupation of the people. Industries were few and far between, being confined to spinning, weaving, masonry, brass works, carpentry, jewelry iron works, basket-making and the extraction of oil. The trade in the country was mainly in the hands of three classes of leaders: indigenous, itinerant and foreign. There was a sprinkling of cities where trade and industry were regulated by guilds, each craft having a guild of its own, and merchants similarly organizing themselves after the commodities sold by them. The guilds acted as local banks and government treasuries and they fulfilled the duties of municipal self-government. For with them were invested the monies that were granted to temples and institutions of public utility by kings and wealthy citizens from the interest whereof they had to fulfill the terms of the grants.
The pre-Portuguese Culture, high though it was, was not without its defects. Society was so static that one born in a lower caste could not change it to improve his fortune. Its treatment of the outcastes was cruel and inhuman. In its eyes the lower orders, as the Manusmriti puts it, existed only "to serve meekly" the other classes, particularly the Brahmans, holding out hopes of promotion to higher ranks in subsequent births. It fails miserably if the treatment of women is made a measure of its excellence. The widows were compelled to burn at the stake of their dead husbands, and escaping were subjected to unheard indignities - shaving of the head and wearing of mean clothes. It denied them m- marriage, which drove a number into prostitution, as the same word standing for widow and prostitute in most Indian languages would show. It is no wonder that A.P Sharma writing on the position of women in a recent issue of the Times of India July 24, 1988) should have been forced to observe: looking back the modern Hindu feels intrigued and hurt, even baffled and shocked when he tries to make out why his great ancestors decided to use the accidents of sex and birth as the sole determinants of one's rank and function in the social system. To put it bluntly, one could say with sufficient justification and continuance of the Aryan patriarchate have been guilty of sexism and racism".
The Pre-Portuguese Era
The first semblance of a Goan identity began to emerge with the Kadamba dynasty (with
ancient history
In Sumerian Times ~ 2200 BC
The first written reference to
Later the seaborne community of Phoenicians became the first extensive settlers of
The Early Vedic Periodic ~ 1000 - 500 BC
In the later Vedic period (c.1000-500 BC) when the Mahabharata epogee was written,
The Mahabharata also makes reference to the brahmanic colonization of
Aryan Conquest ~ 200 BC
Two hundred years before Christ,
Strabo the Greek geographer, whose GEOGRAPHY is the only extant work (during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC -14 AD) makes the first reference to Konkan with the name of KomKvi, and defines it as a province DIFFERENT from
The Greek merchant Kosmas Indikopleustes, in his work TOPOGRAPHIA CHRISTIANA (530-550 AD) describes the city of
Al-Masudi (AD943) an Arab voyager, considered Sindabur as the foremost of the coastal cities of Malabar.
The chronology of the history of
Various dynasties of diverse origins, fought over the control of
o the Chalukyas and the period of the Kadambas, who made Chandrapur (Chandor) their capital (937 AD to 1310 AD).
o Yet the Kadambas were FEUDATORIES of the Hoysalas (1006 - 1346 AD) a dynasty which started in Dorasamudra (modern Halabid).
Dynasties Controlling Goa ~ 1st century BC to 1500 AD
I will not tire the readers about the various dynasties in whose outer fringes
o From the 2nd-4th century AD , the Scytho-parthians,
o then from the 4th to 6th century, the Abhiras, Batpura, Bhojas;
o next theChalukyas of Badami (6th to 8th century AD).
o The Rashtrakutas of Malkhed(8th to 10th Century AD)
o The Kadambas (1006 -1356AD).
o After the Kadambas,
o next the hindu Empire of Vijayanagar (14-15th century AD),
o and later s a part of the Muslim Bahmani Kingdom of Deccan (15th century).
In 1492, the
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