I also admire our 'kazans' imensely and feel the more pain seeing them lie
fallow or, far...far
worse painful, to see them converted/canibalised for industrial, etc use.
Legend has it that they were executed by the original Dravidian inhabitants of
Goa, the Gawdis,
Kunbis.
Their planning, the uniformity, the sluicing is, indeed, as you point out,
unique, an awesome feat
of engineering elevated to most enviable perfection.
With all our advanced engineering acumen it would pose a daunting challenge in
our day: Even the
collapsed 'bandhs/bunds' are left untended and the field they enclose get,
inexorably, reverted to
the river.
In olden times, even up to our younger days, the 'comunidades' maintained a
system of levees, inherited
from the very acient times, on a 24/7 basis, whereby, at the slightes sign of a
'bandh'-colapse, teams
of labourers, permanently on stand-by in a well organized calendar of rotation,
would rush to the spot
and contain the damage.
It is all the more awesome when/if we realize that the 'kazans' actually lie
below the rivers'-level, more so
at hightides, and is reclaimed, filled in land that is protected by the
'bandhs'
This levelling also provides Goa with its hyper delectable and nutritious
harvest of river-fish.
I, with Augusto Monteiro, led the very first protest, in mid-sixties, when the
Loutulim communidade, had
agreed to sell one 'kazan' to the Chwgules for their pellet plant opposite
Borim.
Amidst much local accrimony & shameless quislingism as well as many enticing
temptations dangled before
us by the buyers, we succeeded in overturning the prospective deal but were
compelled to compromise with
sale of a minuscule patch because the Chowgules had already purchased a private
"kantor", (a mini-'kazan'),
from the Copró Fernandes and needed an access road.
However, we made Chowgules buy it @ cubic meter, not sq meter, because we
pointed out that our
ancestors had filled up this land & thus its cubic estimate essentially
obtained.
Writing this with the hope that it may be used as useful precedent for dealing
with current & future such
marauders of which there will, certainly, be a horde however much you, Miguel,
I devoutly wish they go to
the hotest regions of hell!
The system very highly merits an in depth dedicated research.
Alfred de Tavares,
Stockholm, 2008-08-13
> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:34:58 +0530> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To:
> [email protected]> Subject: [Goanet] History: Those un-earthly paddy
> fields of Goa> > I feel, when talking of history, one should first lay down
> ones own status> on the table, so all can gauge ones bias.> I am not a Goan,
> but trace my ancestry to Goa - to Goltim - part of present> day Sao Matias
> village in the river island of Devar. I am a GSB, an> agnostic. I beleve in
> free markets, but when it comes to history, I lean a> bit towards Marxist
> views.> Compare Goan paddy fields to that of any other in India: Say Tamil
> Nadu,> Karnataka or UP, they seem like they are from another planet.> Go to
> google earth and watch them - they have their severest form around> Verna in
> south Goa.> They are so perfectly geometric - they are of equal sizes.> Some
> field bunds run in a straight line for more than 2000 feet!> I did a bit of
> ameture search on the net on their history - with no results.> I know a
> little about communidado and goan history.> Who made those paddy fields in
> such organized manner?> How old are they?> What was the structure of the
> ancient socity which could plan in such a> massive scale and execute it?> Any
> comments?> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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