Prutha Goa

(The conference titled ‘Challenges for the Preservation of the Diverse Goan Religious Heritages’ was held at Fundação Oriente India in Panjim on the 18th of March 2018. Joaquim R Santos [University of Lisbon], Vishvesh Kandolkar [Goa College of Architecture], Amita Kanekar [Al-Zulaij Collective], and Gulafshan Khan [Deccan College of Pune] presented perspectives on the heritage of various religions in Goa.) Gulafshan Khan, who is pursuing her master’s degree in Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology at Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, expounded her lecture topic ‘Turning Visible the (In)Visible: The Muslim Heritage in Goa and its Preservation’. The Muslim minority in Goa is interwoven into the fabric of Goan society. This is a reflection of the ability of this land to integrate varied religions in a productive manner. The architecture of Goa is a good example of the merging of the styles of different religious communities. Let us consider how the Mus

  (The conference titled ‘Challenges for the Preservation of the Diverse Goan Religious Heritages’ was held at Fundação Oriente India in Panjim on the 18th of March 2018. Joaquim R Santos (University of Lisbon), Vishvesh Kandolkar [Goa College of Architecture], Amita Kanekar [Al-Zulaij Collective], and Gulafshan Khan [Deccan College of Pune] presented perspectives on the heritage of various religions in Goa.) Amita Kanekar, independent researcher in architectural history and member of the Al-Zulaij Collective spoke on her topic 'The Origins of the Goan Temple and the Challenges for their Preservation'. The problems that challenge the preservation of Goan temple architecture are: the style in which they are built is not really recognised as a specific type of architecture; the style is quickly disappearing; those who know the history of these temples are not inclined in the least to extricate them from a tangle of myth and legend by presenting their true history and origins; a

Vince Costa is a singer and songwriter, and now documentary filmmaker from Goa who has put Curtorim on the world map, specifically its rice fields. His documentary Saxtticho Koddo-The Granary of Salcete has won Best Short Documentary at the Asia Independent Film Award 2018 and has been shown at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Film Festival in Bristol in March 2019 as well as the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris in April 2019. The founder of Red Mackerel communications company, Vince Costa is driven to research and document stories of Goa that encapsulate its culture and distinct identity and that are threatened into oblivion by development and indifference. Saxtticho Koddo is the commendable result of the efforts of Red Mackerel. Curtorim is a primarily agrarian village that is famous for its rice cultivation, a feature that defines its intrinsic character. This definition is extended to the rest of Goa while the documentary weighs the socio-economic implications of rice farming