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Book Release: Goanetter Valmiki Faleiro's "Patriotism in Action"
Dec 18, 2010 (Sat) at 5.30 pm at Goa Chitra, Benaulim, Goa
Copies available at: Hotel Mandovi or Broadway (Panjim), OIB (Mapusa),
Sainik Co-Op (Porvorim), Literati (Calangute), David & Co, Confidante
(Margao) David & Co Mumbai, Mumbai Catholic Gymkhana; Manney's and
Popular (Pune), Narayan (Bangalore), Ritana Books (Delhi).
Online: http://goa1556.notlong.com
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Goa is also about its Konkani heritage
The state of Goa has been ruled by many dynasties and foreign rulers, but it
has sustained its indigenous Vedic socio-religious fabric against cultural
invasion.
"The first Konkani Ramayana was found in the folk traditions of Goa in the form
of 'fugddis' (folk songs accompanied with dances). They were performed by
kudmis (tribals) 1000-1200 years back. It was also sung as a lullaby. The
earliest form of written Ramayana was Godde Ramayana composed by Koles and
Mundaris (early Goan settlers)," says Uday Bhembre, a senior Konkani Scholar.
He adds that the Godde Ramayana was given further finesse by 16th century
Konkani scholars, which even today is accepted as the 'original Goan Konkani
Ramayana'.
The Goa Konkani Academy has created a special chair for studying the Konkani
Ramayana and Mahabharata. The academy's president Shivadas says, "Goa's culture
and language was too strong for any alien invaders to shake. Our studies have
revealed that the Godde Ramayana was one of the variants of Ramayana that has
as wide acceptance an as the Valmiki Ramayana or Ramacharitmanas in the world
of Ramayana scholars"
Jayanti Naik, senior research fellow of the Goa Konkani Academy says, "Konkani
Ramayana has many variations. If we compare the Godde Ramayana to Valmiki
Ramayana or Ramacharitmanas, in Godde Ramayana, King Dashrath had only two
wives Kouslaya and Kaikayi. The third wife Sumithra is non existent.
Eighty-year-old Inocio Fernandez of Vasco-da-Gama, who was the first to give
the Hindu scriptures to the Goan government in 1969, says, "My ancestors who
had been in the service of the Portuguese government in early 20th century,
spoke of the Portuguese banning Konkani language and the reading of Konkani
Ramayana in 1684 in an effort to break traditional Konkani society. But even
after 450 years of rule, the Portuguese could not achieve that."
"It was the Konkani Ramayana which held Goan society together. After Goa's
liberation, Hindu families did bring out their old copies of literature, hidden
in their homes to protect them from the Portuguese rulers," says Ramdas Nayak,
a native.
"In that sense, the natives have put in as much effort as scholars, who hid
books in Nalanda and Takshashila, when alien marauders and pillagers set fire
to these centres of learning," says Bhembre. "Let us not look at Goa as a
centre of pleasure and tourism alone but as a centre of ancient studies of
epics," he urges.
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_goa-is-also-about-its-konkani-heritage_1474257
~Avelino
