Prutha Goa

The Deccan Heritage Foundation, a UK registered charity, is responsible for the publication of a new guidebook on the forts of Goa. Portuguese Sea Forts of Goa, with Chaul, Korlai and Vasai is a new publication in a series of books documenting various places in the Deccan region of India. As the first guidebook to describe the forts along the Arabian Sea coast, Portuguese Sea Forts of Goa, with Chaul, Korlai and Vasai aims to inspire the desire to preserve and restore heritage sites, along with providing knowledge about them. It is being hailed for being informative in an engaging manner and devoid of academic jargon. Architectural historian Amita Kanekar has researched and written the guidebook while the photographs are the handiwork of Surendra Kumar. Maps have been added to the book to encourage people to visit the forts and thus to give them an idea about military architecture and the Portuguese influence on it in Goa. These forts are mostly protected but the general public and tou

कोंकणी कोणाची? न्हय म्हजी, न्हय तुजी. कोंकणी न्हय गोयंची, गोयकारांची कोंकणी आसा आदिवासींची Dr Nandkumar M Kamat, Goa University (Ex-Chairman, Task force committee on State Cultural Policy; Member of the committee to prepare an ethnological report (2003) and a white paper (2013) on Dhangar/Goulys of Goa.) When we see the diversity of Konkani recorded by the standard methodology of the *Ethnologue, the questions remain as to which is the original one, which is more ancient and which is more authentic. Konkani has been identified by a single identifier **ISO 639.3. These six forms of Konkani are as follows recognized by a triplet code and population of speakers: ISO 639.3, Konkani, knn, population (P), 242000; ISO 639.3 Konkani, kok, P, 6057440; ISO 639.3 Konkani, Goan, gom, P, 3630000; ISO 639.3 Kukna, kex, P, 111000; ISO 639.3 Gamit, gbl, P, 284000; ISO 639.3 Mawchi, mke, P, 99500 Opening a Pandora’s box of linguistic history Kokna and Gamit are Austric people, which means their arrival

कोंकणी कोणाची? न्हय म्हजी, न्हय तुजी. कोंकणी न्हय  गोयंची, गोयकारांची कोंकणी आसा आदिवासींची Dr Nandkumar M Kamat, Goa University (Ex-Chairman, Task force committee on State Cultural Policy; Member of the committee to prepare an ethnological report (2003) and a white paper (2013) on Dhangar/Goulys of Goa.) This article challenges the popular and officially propagated myth of pre-Portuguese Goa being projected as the mulpeeth or centre of origin of the Konkani language or the proto Konkani language and puts forth the new hypothesis of the tribal origin of the Konkani language. It attempts to incorporate the definite contributions of Kukna and Gamit tribal people, the original Konkani speaking inhabitants of Konkan, as the true architects of the language. Interdisciplinary scientific efforts are advocated for rewriting a realistic history of origin, genesis and evolution of the Konkani language. Due to the complex nature of the linguistic politics of the 20th century, the real tribal arc

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

Professor Lucio Rodrigues is another one in a long line of literary geniuses that Goa has produced. He may have long departed this world but nevertheless his legacy of literature lives on through his writing and his students. An authority on Goan folklore, Prof Lucio Rodrigues was not only a visiting professor of folklore at the Indiana University, USA in 1969; his essays in English, as well as those translated from Konkani, were published as Of Soil and Soul and Konkani Folktales after his death in 1973. It was the revised edition of this compilation, renamed Abolim , which was released at the commemoration of this exceptional son of Goa’s birth centenary (15th April, 2015) at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim. Professor Lucio Rodrigues was exactly the type of teacher students would recall with awe and affection for the profound impact he had on their lives. He had a an expansive career as a professor of English literature at Ramnarain Ruia College, Siddharth College

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

Rajgor’s Coin Festival from 7th to 10th December (2014), had numismatists, students and history buffs coming in droves to see the history of this tiny state Goa revealed through its coinage. Among the coins on display was a copper coin dating back to 1 AD from the Satavahana Empire, which shows the name of Queen Naganika as Nagamnikaya in a Brahmi legend in the centre. It is the earliest evidence of special coins being issued in the name of a queen and certainly denotes the political power she may have wielded in an era that promulgated the dominance of men. The Kadambas were a powerful dynasty in Goa, beginning their long rule in 10th century with Shashtadeva I. Their gold coins bear the Sinha Lanchana or ‘lion crest’ and in some instances have the name of their family god Saptakotishwar (Shiva) inscribed on them. These coins were made of pure gold and were called Bhairava- gadyanakas or Saptakotisha-gadyanakas (76-86 grains). The smallest gold coins were called panas (6 grains). Duri