If *Gomantak Times* (April 19) correctly reported its page 1 anchor story, ASI tight-lipped on historic tomb, then the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is obviously trying to drum up hype by claiming what actually is a nearly TWO decade-long excavation project. By claiming it to be some kind of Top Secret.
Nothing is *secret* about the project, except why it has taken the ASI close to 20 years to find the tomb of a Georgian Queen -- Ketavana, if I remember the name correctly -- within the ruins of the St. Augustine Church at Old Goa! It was in the mid-1980s, when late Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India that he received an unusual request from the then U.S.S.R., then headed by Mikael Gorbachov. Gorbachov's Foreign Minister was Edward Schevardnatze (if my spelling of those Russian names is correct), a Georgian, who went on to become the first President of the Republic of Georgia after the Soviet Union's collapse. Archival researchers in Georgia (not the ASI's in Goa, as claimed) had stumbled upon a record that indicated the missing Georgian queen's remains lay buried at the St. Augustine church complex at Old Goa. The story goes that the beautiful looking Queen, on a long sight-seeing journey, was captured by a Persian king, who wanted to marry her. The Christian queen refused to marry the Moor. She was done to death. A group of Catholic missionaries who happened to be sailing from Portugal to Goa and had anchored at the Persian port for bunkering, brought the body and laid it to rest in the St. Augustine Church complex. When Rajiv Gandhi received the Soviet request, all that remained of the church complex was part of one of its belfry (the *St. Augustine Tower*) and mountains of debris. The ASI was ordered to search the Georgian queen's grave. Work had started immediately and news of the same was carried by local newspapers. So where's the need to be *tight-lipped,* what's the secret? Regards/Valmiki ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
