Prutha Goa

Goa is a historian’s delight with so much of its history still being unravelled. The legacy of the Portuguese rule has been a heritage of unique standing. The Tertiary Carmelites, not to be confused with the Discalced Carmelites reformed by St Teresa of Avila, are an integral part of Goa’s past. Today, the ruins of the monuments connected with this order lie open to desecration and looting with impunity. Much less regard is offered in terms of a study and preservation of this significant historical site. The Tertiary Carmelites are in fact one of two indigenous priestly orders that welcomed Goan vocations to the priesthood. The Jesuits and other religious orders did not display a favourable attitude towards Goans, which led to the requirement of congregations that would be open to the natives of Goa. The Oratorians of Philip Neri, which came into existence in the 1680s and was recognised by the Vatican in 1707, was the first Goan priestly congregation in Estado de India. However, the

For centuries, the Portuguese managed to hold sway over their colonies including Goa. These colonies were difficult to govern for a variety of reasons. Goa presented its own challenges in terms of the limited Portuguese demography present in the region to govern the area and the cultural and religious divide. The Portuguese brought with them the Jewish model of conversion to Christianity to allow for integration, at least theoretically (In 1496, the Jews and Muslims in Portugal had been forced to convert to Christianity or be expelled from the country; however conversion to Christianity did not diminish the discriminatory attitude towards them).  We know that similar attitudes were held towards the Goans/Indians. In his book written between 1512 and 1515, Duarte Barbosa makes use of the word casta to represent the combination of endogamy and occupation in India that reflected a similar system upheld in Portugal. But to refer to social groups, Barbosa used the term ley de gente (type

Goa Cruti is a new addition to Victor Hugo Gomes’ increasing number of museums showcasing Goa’s history. Earlier there was Goa Chakra, highlighting the wheel and its significance in Goan culture and history. The future looks to another museum in Betul celebrating boats and the fishing community of Goa. Victor has long been driven by his passion to salvage Goan heritage and relics of the past. He believes this is essential to create and develop a sense of responsibility among the Goan youth and to whet their thirst for knowledge of the past. Goa Cruti Museum is a totally different concept from his previous endeavours and focuses entirely on the different professions of Goa’s colonial past. ‘Cruti’ means ‘work’ and some of the areas covered are medicine and law. There is ornamental furniture, exquisite crockery, bottles, priests’ vestments, musical instruments, guns and other weapons, cameras and so on. Why are the professions of medicine and law of consequence? The reason is that they w

After the first official Goan newspaper Gazeta de Goa (1822) was stopped in 1826, Bernardo Francisco da Costa, impressed by the power of the press in Europe, launched the first private newspaper in 1859 called O Ultramar . He achieved much good through the newspaper by reducing taxes and doing away with the health tax. Since the paper was the voice of Partido Ultramarino,the party da Costa belonged to, O Partido Indiano, the opposing party, began A India Portuguesa . The mid nineteenth and early twentieth century was the era of migrations to British India. Bombay became home to many Goans at this time and consequently there rose the strong presence of the Goan press in the city. From 1831 to 1861 there appeared newspapers such as O Investigador Portuguez em Bombaim , O Indio Impartial , O Observador , A Abelha de Bombaim and others to keep the Goan immigrants abreast of political happenings, fire up nationalistic zeal and feed the need for constitutionalism. One of the longest runnin

Amita Kanekar, an architectural historian who teaches at the Goa College of Architecture, is also known for her historical novel Spoke in the Wheel . The novel deals with the Buddha and early Buddhism. Raised as an atheist, her interest in Buddhism is far from a spiritual search but an exercise in unveiling revolutionary movements and their implications. Amita Kanekar elucidated her topic "Buddhism: The Beginning" at Xavier Centre for Historical Research. Citing her sources as Romila Thappar, Nalin Swaris, BR Ambedkar, Debiprasad Chathopadhya, Uma Chavravati and others, Kanekar admitted to relying on secondary sources as she is not a scholar of Pali, which would enable her to translate primary sources. The birth of Buddhism was the outcome of the second urbanisation that took place in 6th century BCE in South Asia. South Nepal, Bihar Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand were the areas that rapidly underwent a transformation during the time of the Buddha. This was a time when the conce

He talks of a ‘madness’ that has driven him for years to salvage the cultural history of this verdant land called Goa. Its versatile heritage has been curated by Victor Hugo Gomes with painstaking perseverance and attention to detail. With his degrees in art and conservation, Victor has moved from village to village documenting trades that have disappeared or are slowly vanishing and has been curating a vast storehouse of Goa’s past in various symbols of her culture. It all began with excursions into forbidden areas. Always a curious child with a questioning mind, Victor would explore attics, storerooms and even the dark rooms used to punish him for misbehaviour, to find strange and intriguing items of interest like different types of clay pots, baskets, tools, old altars and wooden chests filled with clothes belonging to a bygone era. This childhood fascination for gleaning commonplace items, which have shaped Goa’s cultural history, and a questioning mind, nurtured by his grandmother

The names ascribed to Goa of the ancient times are myriad, and suitably signify the lush greenery one naturally identifies with the tiny state. Gomanta, Gomanchala, Goparashtra, Govapuri and Gomantak are a few which occur in the Mahabharata, Skanda and other Puranas. The syllable ‘Go’ that occurs consistently in all the names is Sanskrit for cow. The Mahabharata also refers to Goa as Govarashtra and Goparashtra. Both mean ‘the district of cowherds or nomadic tribes’ and indicate the pastoral life led by the Aryans who first settled here. Gopakapattana and Gopakapuri can be found in Harivansa and the Skanda Purana, ancient Hindu texts. Ptolemy mentions that in the third century B.C. Goa was known as Aparanta. Epigraphical evidence points to Goa’s trade relations with the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks. Goa may be the Gubi mentioned in the records of Gudea (2143-2124 B.C.), the ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Lagesh. In the Middle Ages, Goa was called Kuve or Kuwa by Arab