Posting by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas on history of Don Vaddo I for the Saligaonet.
Daniel
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HISTORY OF DON-VADDO.
At the outset, one must confess inability to do full justice to the subject
‘ History of Donvaddo’, the reason being paucity of written records. Whatever
available material is at hand, is been utilized. The remaining has been the word of
the mouth of the folks by their forefathers as well as what they themselves have
witnessed.
Konkanakhayan composed in 1751 says “ Kashyapa Vatsa Brahmins lived in Saligao( Vide
p. 23, stanza 15). Ravindra Patkar in “Gaud Saraswat Samaz Parichay Grant” makes
mention of the two’ gotras’(clans), already mentioned above and adds there are also
other gotras or clans like Bharadwaja, Kaundinya and Kutsa and their main deity is
Shri Vetal- Xervani. The temple, around an ant-hill and deities were located in wards
Salmona ( Sevi Shervani) and Mollebhatt( Shri Vetal) at Sallganv or Saligao. At the
time of conversion to Christianity in the XVI century, the hindu brethren moved on to
Advalpalle, near Assonora in Salganv-vaddo and fixed themselves there with their
images. They constructed temple and located the deities therein .The Boletim Oficial (
Official Gazette) of the year 1931 Number 96, Wednesday, 2nd October, gives the rules
and regulations of the Temple of Xervani-Vetal of Advalpalle as well as the names of
the Mahajans as Porob Salgaokar, Naique Salgaokar, Sinai Salgaokar and Dond Salgaokar
and also from where they came from in the XVI century .The list of the 4 mahajans is
also repeated in the Official Gazette of 3rd November, 1966 wherein besides the above
four mahajans it also mentions non brahmins Petcar Salganvkar as members of the
temple( Vide, B.O. Article 2 of chapter 1, p. 387). Patkar mentions two types of
Dhondds, namely Dondd(Ghole) belonging to the Kashyap gotra(clan), Bardezkar(
Sub-division) having Vetal-Xervani as Deity, Place Advalpale .The other Dondd with
their deity as Vetal –Xervani in Advalpale, Kudalldeshkar( sub-division) belonging to
Kashyapa Gotra .Their kula-deva( family deity) is Brahman to which Vanadevi is added,
Vetal-Xervani being Gram-devi, village Goddess, common to all.
An interesting discovery was made recently while studying the 11th Vangodd of the
Saligao Communidade of the Year 1796 wherein in the list there is a surname of one ‘
de Souza’( of 11th vangodd or voto) that give the name of a person and adds into
bracket Dondd. He is Mr. Luis de Souza and orphans of Luis de Souza. In this vangod
there are other surnames like Carneiro, de Mello, Mascarenhas, Cunha,Trindade, besides
de Souza. Were these brothers in Hinduism? and acquired in the course of
administration of baptisms different surnames, according to god-father, or baptizing
Priest or Governor, Bishop , Viceroy and so on as we see in some scattered historical
notes?. Who is this first Dondd Salgaokar. What was his first name ?. As we are short
of this documentation of the conversion time, we cannot give the correct name. But one
thing is certain that the” de Souza’ even till now of 11th vangodd is a Dhondd as it
is clearly shown in the above mentioned document. The `de Souza’ who is registered(
matriculado) for the zonn in 2004 is a DHONDD, May be he and the descendants of his
clan do not know till now about their former name “ Dhondd”.
Canon F.X.Vaz in Oriente Portugues( 1916) and (1920), says DON[ O]-VADDO means village
of Dhonds=tax collectors or DHAN-VADDO=rich ward( Vide, Etimos da Aldeias ; also Vide,
COSTA, J.A.L.da, ‘ A History of Goa, Mapuca , Goa, 1982, p.337)
Continuing our history of Dondd, the term Donvaddo is derived from Dondd or Don,
meaning tax-gatherer who obviously resided here. The zeal of the Portuguese and the
European priests to convert the locals to Christianity made the Dhondds to flee to the
lands under the Head of Sawantvaddi, though history has it that one Dhond family
converted. The other reference to the presence of Dhondd is the ‘Donnachi Baim’( the
Dhondd’s well) situated in the center of the ward.
If one walks around` the vaddo’, one can see quite a number of large and spacious
houses which have seen better days, the obvious inference here being the existence of
rich people in Donvaddo………. To be continud.
By Mr. OrlandoVaz, with Mrs. Emmie Sequeira, Mr.Franklin D’Souza and Fr. Nascimento
Mascarenhas.
*Sources: Souvenir of St. Anne’s Chapel 1993; Livro de Comunidade,de Saligao, 1795-
1796; Boletim Official of 1923, 1931 and 1936 and those mentioned above.
