A gentile writes back Alexandre Moniz Barbosa | Apr 15, 2013, 06.25 AM IST The 16th-century epic poem The Lusiads by Luis de Camoes, which sings paens to the Portuguese adventures in the sea and their reign in Goa, has just received a response from a 'gentile'.
Over 500 years after the Portuguese captured Goa and 50 years after the European nation left India's shores, a Goan writer and retired philosophy professor has strung together words and verse in Portuguese to tell Camoes that his fantasy was not without its flaws, and that the 'gentiles' (the word by which the Portuguese of Camoes' era described the Goans) aren't the unlettered people the Portuguese believed them to be. "O vaticinio do swarga... is a literary essay inspired by the colourful mythology of India, with a view to present a construct of the dignity of the erstwhile scorned gentile from Goa, for the sake of a more equitable and enriching Indo/Goan-Portuguese cultural encounter through the medium of literatures of the two peoples," says Ave Cleto Afonso, the author of the manuscript. Afonso, 69, taught philosophy in a Panaji college. He's also dabbled in journalism, compiled a Konkani-Italian dictionary and written books on the succession and inventory laws applicable in Goa. Regarded as Portugal's epic poem, The Lusiads is a fantastical interpretation of Portuguese exploratory voyages that resulted in the discovery of the sea route to India. Camoes did make the sea journey to India in the 16th century, though not with Vasco Da Gama who had discovered the route decades earlier, and spent time in Goa. The poem drew from his experiences in the land and also glorified the Iberian adventurers of the sea. For instance, The Lusiads describes the battles fought by the then Portuguese governor Castro in India as follows: And then, this one in the field shows up, / Strong victor and brave, before the mighty / King of Cambay, and the sight gives him fright / Of the ferocious throng of the four legged. / No less his lands ill defends / The Adil Shah, against the triumphant arm / That goes punishing Dabul on the coast. / Even Ponda in the wilderness escapes him not. Afonso has a different take in O vaticino do swarga, which he says, "may be seen as a reply of the erstwhile 'gentiles' to the glorification of the Portuguese heroes (including the missionaries) whose feats in Goa caused unending misery and injustice, which still remain to be duly owned up and albeit symbolically repaired. This is a modest attempt rooted in firm conviction and utmost sincerity to pay tribute to the memory of ancestors who suffered at the paw of the colonialist adventurers and their fanatical co-religionists and to assert the cultural identity and pride of the oriental race as well." The book tries to follow the same course of events as in The Lusiads, but Afonso has "expanded and extended the ambit and sequence of events with the introduction of a few new historical elements generally meant to bring to the fore the perspective of the victim of colonial and missionary atrocities as the dominant context of the present narrative". While The Lusiads borrows from Greek mythology for its characters, O vaticino do swarga dives into Indian mythology, with the arrival of the gods for the council being described thus: Of the first ones to arrive, Surya was already there / With the aditya that suited him well then / (Thereafter came others as it pleased them), / But Soma, commonly Chandra, himself was delaying. / Parashurama in hurry clouds was leaping. / Since the matter pertained him more. / Rama and Sita escorted by the loyal Hanuman, / Were entering alongside solid Himavan. Besides a preface that is in prose, the book has six chants in nearly 500 stanzas that seek to follow camonian poetic style. Interestingly, the poem begins with a chant to Ganesh. Ohm!Ganneshayah namaha - kind god / Of those who endeavour with letters and pen; / Wise Sarvatman, merciful / To all those who seek your boon; / Hale Vakratunda, brave son / Of noble parents whose valour the worlds fear, / - Grant me of thy skill, of thy art, / Not more than a small part. Afonso hopes that publishers in Portugal and Brazil will be interested in publishing his work so that the people in their countries get a view of 16th-century Goa from a Goan's eyes. For though The Lusiads is a literary work of ingenious poetic history, it is hardly a record of pure history. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/A-gentile-writes-back/articleshow/19552357.cms ~Avelino
