From: "Gilbert Lawrence" <[email protected]>
<<Recently I have been reading a number of regurgitated historical facts
about
early Portuguese history in Goa. In interest of full disclosure, I have
myself reproduced some of these statistics in my writing. But here is a very
short list of recent Goanet posts with 'accurately' regurgitated facts and
figures of Goa.
Adv. (former MLA) Uday Bhembre
Fr. Ivo De Souza
Benedito Ferrao
So how accurate is reported historical data?
My analysis of putting the pieces of the puzzle, of early Portuguese
history in
Goa hopefully will show that the various facts do not add-up and
regurgitating
the same old ... old same ... really reflects the "limitations of our
inquiring
mind".
***
Dear Dr.Gilbert,
Thanks for your intervention. I am glad that you too are discussing issues
related to Goan history. We "regurgitate" the data with which we feed
ourselves. As a young student, I learnt that history is based on documents
(historical, sociological studies, travelogues) and monuments (including
exhibits, like copper plates and inscriptions). Regarding Goa, we have
several data.
Now coming to the matter in view of "connecting the dots", we could sum up
your historical problems through the following question: "If Salsete was
ceded to the Portuguese in only 1542", how could "temples in Mardol and
other villages in Salsete be reported to have been destroyed in 1517-1522"?
Although it is a blunder to ask whether Mardol-Verna is in the Islands of
Goa (Ilhas de Goa), it is your logical "intelligent error" to ask it, since
according to you "Salsete was ceded to the Portuguese in only 1542", how
could the Portuguese march towards Verna-Mardol, in Salsete, by the years
1519 and "destroy temples in Mardol and other villages in Salsete in
1517-1522"?
I shall be glad to hear from the Goanetters about accurate and critical
historical data. I am open to correction. My article was published some
years back on Indian Church History Review. I am giving here only a few data
on Evangelization of Salsete-Raia-Rachol.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
For my answer, I give you historical facts with its relevant details, as
found in historical books and articles accessible to me.
As a short answer, I have to state that Portuguese were in Salsete by the
years 1519-1521, but the temple of Mhalsadevi in the ward of Mardol, Verna,
Salsete, was destroyed later in 1567.
1. Afonso d'Albuquerque landed in the city of Goa on November 25, Feast of
St.Catherine, in 1510, and hoisted his glorious flag after defeating the
powerful Adil-khan (corrupted by the Portuguese to Idal-Khan, Idalcão). From
Old Goa the Portuguese troops marched, little by little, to the ward Mardol,
in Vernã/Varunapur or "cold village"), and wanted to settle there. In that
place, Portuguese missionaries celebrated the first Eucharist by the years
1519 in Salsete (Francisco de Sousa uses the word in plural: "anos"
("years"), implying that it is around those years, although in the
inscription the year 1519 is written. But the troops continued till Rachol
and built there the first Fort in Salsete, with a Chapel (A Ermida do
Castelo), which had a military Chaplain, with his mission only to the
troops, not to the people around.
2. Krishna-deva-raya (1509-1529), the most outstanding Rajah of Vijayanagar,
after a tough fight on May 19, 1520, captured the "city of Raichur", which
was Moorish stronghold, from the clutches of the Sultan of Bijapur, Ismail
Adil-khan, and gifted the Fort, together with Salsete and Bardez, to the
Portuguese King Dom Manuel, in the year 1521, during the tenure of the
Viceroy, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1518-1522). (See the description of
Raichur, given by Portuguese horse traders, Fernao Nunes and Domingo Paes:
palaces, temples, with their gilded copper roofs; pavilions, idols,
fashioned of stone and metal; its high gate towers; its steep pyramids;
palatial quarters of the King with his apartments for his queens, his 500
wives, his countless concubines, and his 4,000 female servants; his army of
6,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and numerous war elephants, the feasts of
the gods with their processions. Cf.Georg SCHURHAMMER, SJ, Francis
Xavier.His Life, His Times, vol.2, trans.M.Joseph Costelloe, SJ, The Jesuit
Historical Institute, Rome, 1977, p.192).
3. But the Portuguese troops could not retain Salsete and failed in their
attempt to settle in the ward of Mardol (Vernã/Varunapur of Salsete)--there
was the temple of Mhalsadevi in that place--, for a Muslim captain sent by
Ismail Adil-shah through Pondá/Antruz, with more than five thousand
soldiers, besieged Fernão Anes do Souto-Maior in the ward Mardol of Vernã,
which had the shape of a fort. Fernão Anes fought, but lost Salsete. Only in
the year 1543 Ibrahim Adil-Khan offered perpetually the provinces
(tanadarias) of Salsete and Bardez to the Portuguese Crown, during the
government of Martim Afonso de Souza (1542-1545). In spite of repeated
attacks by Ibrahim Adil-Khan subsequently to Dom João de Castro (1545-1548),
the provinces remained with the Portuguese, until Dom Garcia de Sá
(1548-1549) concluded a treaty of peace with Ibrahim Adil-Khan and confirmed
the gift of Salsete and Bardez. On December 12, 1570, Ali Adil-Khan
assaulted Goa again, but Dom Luís de Ataìde (1568-1571) reinforced the
troops and defeated the enemies. His victory ended with a treaty of peace in
the year 1571, whereby Ali Adil-Shah guaranted to the Portuguese the
possession of Salsete and Bardez, which they kept in their hands till
December 19, 1961 (Cf.Padre M.J.Gabriel DE SALDANHA, Historia de Goa,
pp.51,53,68,79,91,92,123,126).
4. For the first time, from the College of St.Paul in Old Goa, the sons of
St. Ignatius, Fr.Pero Mascarenhas with his colleague Brother Manuel Gomes,
came to Salsete on July 25, Feast of Saint James, 1560, by order of the
Provincial, Fr. António de Quadros, at the request of the Viceroy, Dom
Constantino de Bragança (1558-1561), during the tenure of the first
Archbishop of Goa, D.Gaspar de Leão Pereira de Ornelas (1560-1567), and
celebrated, in the morning, the first Eucharist in Cortalim in a temporary
shed, the roof and sides of which were covered over with palm-leaves
(Francisco de Sousa, Oriente Conquistado, Vol.1, C.1, Div.2, no.59, p.105:
"ramada". The church of Cortalim was subsequently dedicated to Sts.Philip
and James, whose feast is celebrated on May 1).
From there, Fr.Pero Mascarenhas walked to the Fort of Rachol, where there
was a Chapel (A Ermida do Castelo), where the Portuguese troops and some of
the Christians, hailing from the Island of Goa and working in the Fort,
would take part in the Eucharist. The Jesuit missionary took possession of
the Chapel, which had a Chaplain of the garrison, and evangelized some
Gentiles till the end of the year 1561. The first baptized by him in a
general baptism was a Brahmin Cortaló (Escrivão da Câmara Geral de Salsete,
Margão), whom the priest called with his own name, Pero (Pedro) Francisco
Mascarenhas, as a corner-stone of the mission.
5. At the request of the King Dom João II, Paul III sent the Jesuits to
India and thus inaugurated the "Mission of the Jesuits in the East", with
four Provinces: Goa, Malabar, Japan and China. From 1542 till 1759 the
Jesuits were, almost for two centuries in India, and evangelized the people:
conversions, churches, colleges, catechumenate, hospitals and printing
press. We cannot forget the foundational work of St.Francis Xavier who came
to Goa on May 6, 1542, and died in the island of Sangchwan (Sanchão) on
December 2, 1552. The work of evangelization of Goa was divided in 1555 by
the Viceroy, Dom Pedro Mascarenhas (1554-1555): Bardez was allotted to the
Franciscans, Island of Goa/Tiswadi/Tissuary to the Dominicans, and Salsete,
together with fifteen south-eastern villages of Tiswadi, including Chorão
and Divar, to the Jesuits.
6. Since 1521 there were European Catholics there and perhaps some prisoners
from the Island of Goa, but no one from the locality before 1560, according
to Francisco de Sousa (Cf.Francisco DE SOUSA, Oriente Conquistado, no.59,
p.105: "antes de 1561 não havia em todo o Salsete nem um paisano
baptizado"). Salsete was assigned to Jesuits for evangelization in 1555. In
the first years they could do very little in that territory, since they were
busy with the Christianisation of Tiswadi in Goa. We know, however, that
Fr.Pedro de Almeida, S.J., visited Salsete for a few days in May 1558 and,
while returning, he took with him a few people to Old Goa for baptism
(Documenta Indica, hereafter DI IV, pp.214-215; letter of Fr.Pero da Almeida
in December 1558). There were also some Christians in the jail of Rachol. At
that time there were less than a thousand Christians out of an estimated
population of fifty or sixty thousand. Since these few Christians lived
scattered among the Hindus, and since there was no one to look after them,
they did not differ much from the Hindus. It was because of the desire of
the Jesuits to remedy this situation that they decided to send two of their
members to take up residence at Rachol, where the Captain of Salsete had his
headquarters (DI IV, p.742., letter of Brother L.Fróis, S.J., from Goa in
December 1560; also Alessandro Valignano, Historia, and Thekkedah, op.cit.).
7. The Jesuits built in 1566 a small Residence, where the present church
of Rachol is; they celebrated the Eucharist in the small chapel of the Praça
of Rachol. There were three chapels: i)A Ermida do Castelo, founded in 1521,
situated to the left of the entrance to the actual parish residence. The
Chapel was dedicated to St.John the Baptist, since the fortress was known as
fortress of St.John the Baptist, or to Our Lady of Grace, the patroness of
the church. There was the house of the Captain of the Fort. ii)A Capela dos
Quartéis, dedicated to St.Anthony, founded in 1580 by Dona Jerónima de
Castro, wife of Damião de Sousa, Captain of the Fort of Rachol; and iii)the
Chapel of the Jail (A Capela da Cadeia), situated near the church, to the
south. The jail was closed on April 14, 1833, when the prisoners were
shifted to the new jail of Panjim and to Reis Magos. There was also a
chapel, outside the walls of the Fort, which was probably the Chapel of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, filial to the church of Rachol, "where there
were daily six to seven masses and doctrine was taught to the boys and girls
of less age". ( Cf.Fco. de SOUSA, Oriente Conquistado, Vol.1, C.1, Div.2,
no.59, pp.105-106; see Pe.Sebastiam GONCALVES, ed.José Wicki, SJ, História
da Companhia de Jesus no Oriente (1560-1570), vol.3, Atlantida-Coimbra,
1962, p.90: "E porquanto a freguesia he grande se fez huma capella na aldea
de Raya onde aos domingos e dias santos se dizia missa".
8. Fr.Pero Colaço was residing in Rachol since 1558, he was the first
chaplain only of the Fort. He baptized in years 1558-63 Pero Colaço, from
Rachol, who later on moved to Margao, and is an ancestor of the Bishop
Blasco Colaço. This will be the first Christian in Rachol-Margao (where he
moved). The family of Pero Colaço, Manoel Colaço, had given a place for the
Hospital of Holy Angels ("Hospital da Porciuncula") to the Franciscans and
for the Chapel of Our Lady of Angels. His family founded the Chapel of Our
Lady of Angels.
It was in 1560 that the Vice-Roy Dom Constantino de Bragança (1558-1561)
asked the Provincial Fr.António Quadros to start evangelization of Salsete.
As we have mentioned, two missionaries were sent: Fr.Pero Mascarenhas and
Brother Manuel Gomes. The first fruit of his missionary activity was the
conversion of a Brahmin Cortaló, working as the secretary of the General
Assembly of Salsete (Câmara of Margão), who willingly decided to accept the
Christian faith. He was the most important person from among all his clan.
His family and other relatives or people of his clan decided to join him.
Consequently, on the day of the Feast of Our Lady of Snows, 140 people
solemnly received Baptism in the presence of the Jesuit Provincial,
Fr.António Quadros. This was the first general baptism of Raia-Rachol in the
year 1560 in the church of Our Lady of Snows at Rachol. At baptism he took
the name of Pero Mascarenhas in honour of him who baptized him. Though we do
not know the number for the two following years, in 1563 and 1564 there were
700 and 500 baptisms, respectively.
*In his Annual Letter of November 30, 1591, the Provincial Fr.Pedro Martins
wrote that in the church of Rachol there are 2,200 Christians and 44
catechumens, and that here twenty were baptized.
*In his Annual Letter of November 29, 1595, the Provincial Fr.Francisco
Cabral, wrote to the Jesuits in Europe, on November 29, 1595 that there are
in Rachol 2,500 Christians, 1,180 catechumens.
*In his Annual Letter of December 16, 1596, the same Fr.Francisco Cabral,
wrote that in the parish of Rachol there are 2,320 Christians, 562 boys for
teaching doctrine. That year almost 700 persons have been baptized. He
remarked that the body of the new church of Rachol was completed, "the best
of all in Salsete". In the College of Rachol there were 15 priests and 4
brothers catering to the villages around (Cf.no.88, in: Documenta Indica, 17
(1595-1597), ed.Joseph WICKI, SI, 1988, p.390; . Ibidem, no.40, p.663. See
J.THEKKEDATH, History of Christianity in India, vol.2, Bangalore, 1988,
p.340: At the end of 1597, there were in Salsete 35,000 Christians. See
Livro das Provisoes, II, fl.17, cited by Leopoldo DA ROCHA, As Confrarias de
Goa).).
@@@In this church (of Rachol) there is an inscription of the martyrs of
Cuncolim, slain on July 15, 1583 and buried on July 18: Frs.Rudolfo
Acquaviva, Alonso Pacheco, Pietro Berno, António Francisco and their
architect, Brother Francisco Aranha. (Although these five religious have
been canonized, there were 15 more: one was Portuguese soldier, and 14
Indians, among them).
**The last Jesuit parish-priest of Rachol was Fr.Manuel Dias (from May 1758
till September 1759). He was jailed in 1759 under Marquis de Pombal,
Minister of the King Dom José I, Sebastião José Carvalho, in the College of
Rachol, then in the Convent of the Cross of Miracles, where he was from
November 17 till February 28, 1760, and subsequently in the College de
Populo, Old Goa, finally taken to Portugal and jailed in S.Julião da Barra,
where he died on July 20, 1765. At this stage, when the Jesuits left Rachol,
the church of Rachol was entrusted to secular clergy: Fr. José Rafael
Madeira, from Margão, by Prov.o October 1, 1759, where he was till his
death, January 1800.
9. The earliest case of the destruction of temples in Salcete took place in
1564, on the occasion of an attack against a Jesuit priest. When the assault
by the Hindus of the village was juridically proved, the Viceroy ordered
that as a punishment the temples of the village should be demolished (DI VI,
pp.358-359; Thekedath, op.cit., p. 332). It was Rachol because of the
conversion of Anta Poi on his death bed). A similar case also occurred in
another village, when a Jesuit brother was attacked (Ibidem, pp.617-618;
Thekkedath, op.cit., p.332). Diogo Rodrigues, known as "O do Forte", the
Captain of Salsete, ordered the destruction of the temples of Assolna,
Ambelim, Velim, Veroda, Cuncolim and Talvorda, when the villagers failed to
obey some of his orders. Since the work of destruction proceeded only slowly
in this way, at the insistence of the Jesuits, Viceroy Antão de Noronha
(1564-1568) issued a Decree in December 1565 forbidding the erection of new
temples and the repairs of the existing ones.
Finally, in 1567, at the request of the Archbishop and the Jesuits, the
Viceroy gave his consent to the destruction of all the temples of Salsete.
The first to be destroyed was the most venerated temple of the peninsula,
viz.that of Mahalsa Devi at Mardol near Verna, with its adjoining house of
devadasis and widows. This was followed by the destruction of the rest.
Captain Diogo Rodrigues, was responsible for most of the work. About 280
temples perished in this way. Besides, a much larger number of deomestic
shrines also were destroyed. The property and income of the temples were
given to the churches (DI VIII, pp.4-6; Thekedath, op.cit., 333;
Fr.Nascimento Mascarenhas, Follow Me.Parish Priests of the Parishes of
Salcete and Mormugão, 2010, p.2). Two little mosques too shared the same
fate, one in the village of Mormugão and the other in the south of Salcete
(DI VII, pp.388-392; Thekkedath, op.cit., p.333).
10. But Goa was constantly assaulted by the Marathas: Sambhaji, son and
successor of Shivaji, attacked the island of Sto.Estevão (Juem) on November
24, 1683, and reached Tivim, Chaporá, Rachol and Margão; on January 23,
1739, the Maratha General Venkata Rao came through Sanguém and entered
Salsete, seized the fort of the Mount of Margão and that of Cuncolim, and
surrounded the fort of Rachol; on February 21, 1741. Bounsules plundered the
churches and burnt houses. Expelled from Salsete, they continued to harass
Goa till the treaty of definitive peace in 1759. Yet they continued their
aggression till 1797.
11. There were some temples in this village of Rachol-Raia, but the central
temple was that of goddess Kamakshi, brought over from Assam by Brahmin
devotees. It became the patron deity of that locality. A Brahman,
Agni-Mukka, came to Raykshetra and became a devotee of Kamakshi.(Cf.Vinayak
Shenvi DUME, Devabhumi Gomantak (Goa, Abode of God), All India Saraswat
Foundation, Mahim, Mumbai, 1988, pp.152-153. For the clarification of
several details, I am grateful to Prof.Prajal Sakhardande, Professor of
History at Dhempe College, Miramar, Panjim). According to temple records,
the Portuguese destroyed it. The image of the deity was shifted in the 16th
century to the tolerant Ismail Adilshah's territory of Pondá/Antruz. The
contribution to the temple came from Raia, and later on, from Rachol and
Camorlim. There is a plot, "Divullbhatt" with a tank, "Divulltolloi", where
the temple was thought to be. On the hill, not far off, there is a ramp with
carved stairs used in the days of yore by the dancers (devidasis, kolvont,
bailadeiras) of the adjoining temples (devalaias/pagodes) came to bathe in
the waters. There were also more temples, dedicated to Rayeshvor, Bhagvati,
Lakshimi-Naraian and Vattambi (Cf.Rui GOMES PEREIRA, Hindu Temples and
Deities, vol.1, 1978, no.116, p.105). The images of the deities Kamakshi,
Rayeshvor and Lakshimi-Narayan were transferred to Ray-Shiroda, in the year
1560.
12. There was also a hospital of the Porciúncula ("Hospice of Holy Angels"),
run by the Reformed Franciscan Fathers of the Convent of Mother of God in
1757. There were two priests and one brother (Cf.Achilles Meersman, OFM,
"The Goa Archives and the History of the Franciscans in India", Indica,
vol.1, September 1964, pp.171-185,cf.p.181). There was the chapel of Our
Lady of Angels, known as "Jubilevanchem Kopel", annexed to the Hospital,
where there was Mass on Sundays and days of obligation. It was founded by
the ancestors of Agostinho João Inácio Colaço, from Margão, Manoel Colaço,
descendant of Pero Colaço, the first convert of Rachol through the ministry
of Father Pero Colaço, the first Chaplain of the Fort, around 1558-1562. In
this Hospital was buried the hero of Ponda, Henrique Carlos Henriques, and
his son Henrique Henriques.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
