THOMAS STEPHENS KONKNNI KENDR B.B. Borkar Road, Alto Porvorim, GOA - 403521 ( (0832) 2415857, 2415864 E-mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] July 30, 2005
Sir, I have sent a report prepared by our librarian Mrs. Preeta Naik on 100 years of Konkani novel. The first Konkani novel was published on 31 July 1905. This year on Sunday 31st July the Konkani novel completes 100 years. The first Konkani novel was written by Eduardo Bruno de Souza. You are free to edit it. In case you find it too lengthy you could omit the first paragraph. Pratap Naik, S.J. Director 100 YEARS OF KONKANI NOVEL KRISTANV GHORABO - Preeta Naik, Librarian, TSKK Alto Porvorim, Goa. The novel is a very important genre of literature in any language. Throughout the world in each language a number of famous writers have written novels. Among the readers too reading novels of well known writers or award winning novels, is a favourite pastime. In our tiny Goa most of the readers nowadays prefer to read English novels. Unfortunately, most of the Goans who pretend to be regular readers of English, ignore their own mother tongue Konkani because they do not appreciate it enough, and do not know that they possess some great Konkani novels about which they can be really proud. Exactly 100 years ago today the first Konkani novel was born, and today we are celebrating the centenary of this Konkani novel. On 31 July 1905 the first Konkani novel Kristanv Ghorabo was published, and Eduardo Jose Bruno de Souza is the writer of this first novel. It should be noted that it was written in the Roman script. This novel has 174 pages consisting 25 chapters. Eduardo in this first Konkani novel speaks of a family living the Christian ideal in their day to day life. When writing Kristanv Ghorabo Eduardo set himself the ideal of using a phonetically correct way of writing Konkani sounds, viz. following the 'one sound one symbol' principle. Therefore in the introduction he provides a key to the symbols he uses for the different Konkani sounds. Thus he makes use of the symbols William Jones used for retroflex sounds like ' t, d, n, l, s' with a dot under the letter, and even 'r' with a dot under the letter, where it is pronounced that way in place of 'dd' at the end of the word and in the middle of a word. For the first letter of the Konkani alphabet he uses a special symbol something like letter 'o' with two dots on it as opposed to 'a' the second letter of the alphabet. Uses ~ (tilde) to mark the nasal sound on a vowel wherever it occurs. He uses the letter 'y' wherever this sound occurs. Thus his system of writing Konkani, which he calls the 'Marian Alphabet' is an improved version compared to the current system of writing Konkani in the Roman script. Eduardo was born in Assonora village on 7th October 1836, in a house called Vhoddlem Ghor. Eduardo mastered Konkani, Portuguese and English and many other Indian languages. He was educated at Rachol for a number of years. He had a youger brother who was a priest and later Vicar General. Eduardo gave up his studies because of misunder-standings. Then he worked in Pune at a photographic firm. Later, he worked in Bombay staying at Dabul, where he died on 5th December 1905. He is also responsible for introducing the Konkani language into the field of Journalism. He regularly contributed to the 'O Heraldo' of Panjim, where he wrote articles on the Konkani Language under the pen name of 'Ejobudeza' meaning Eduardo Jose Bruno de Souza. He was Konkani's first journalist-Editor and the first Konkani journal he started was 'Udentechem Sallok', first printed and published in Poona on 2 February 1889. Eduardo Bruno de Souza was a great devotee of Our Lady, hence the name of the periodical 'Udentechem Sallok' stood for her name. Making use of his periodical, Eduardo began writing a grammar of Bardeshi Konkani in a series of articles. Unfortunately, he could not complete the grammar because the paper folded up in 1894. After Eduardo Jose Bruno De Souza started 'Udentechem Sallok' a chain of Ko nkani periodicals like Konknni Dirvem 1913; 'Dor Mhoineachi Rotti', 1914; 'Ave Maria', 1919; 'The Goa Mail', 1919; 'The Goa Times', 1930; 'Vavraddeancho Ixtt', 1933; 'Raknno' 1938; 'Poinnari' 1940; 'Udentechem Neketr' 1946' 'Konkani Daiz' 1958, etc. 'Monti Saibinnichim anim sabar dusrim Gayonam' (Hymns to Our Lady of the Mount, and several others), 1901; 'Ressurreicao do Concani', (Resurrection of Konkani), series of articles on Konkani in the 'O Heraldo' of Goa, 1905; 'Khuxalponnacho Ghorabo ani Ponchtis Kunvor' (Happy Family and Thirty five princes); 'Sorgacho Tthevo' (Treasure of heaven), 1915. He enriched Konkani literature through his writings. Through his masterpiece 'Eva ani Mori' he attempts to imitate the poetic vein of Camões and Dante. "A piece of poetry I wrote during the free time to rehearse the language which is not polished. The reader will come to know that even in the deplorable state she is in, our language is capable of singing the sublime mysteries of our holy religion in the meter of the great Camões and of the equally great Dante and even by the unskilled pen like mine." The author with his intellectual power, passion for work, skill of writing and, of course, a great love for his mother Konkani, worked to raise its standard, about which he speaks passionately in his introduction to Kristao Ghorabo. During Eduardo's time Konkani was considered to be inferior in society, and fit only for the kitchen, or to be spoken in the household. He wanted to fight for her and deliver her from the shameful state she was in. Because he was ashamed of the condition of Konkani, and the educated looked down upon her, he writes a prayer to Our Lady in his book, 'Eva ani Mori' (Eve and Mary) of 1899. This prolific writer and lover of Konkani and Konkani people contributed a 'Doutrina Christam' (Christian Doctrine) in Konkani, 1897; 'Kristavanchi Dotornn Gõynche bhaxen', (Christian Doctrine in the Goan Language) 1898; 'Piedade Saibinnichim ani sabar Dusrim Gayonam', (Hymns to Our Lady of Piety and several other hymns), 1901; 'Primeira Cartilha do alphabeto mariano' (First book of Marian Alphabet), 1901.
