Lourenço
de Noronha
(Sontos
Chodnakar)
The traditional, now classified as
classical, deknnis, dulpods and mandos were composed
between about 1830, the time when European ballroom dancing was introduced into
+
Ganv is
derived from the Sanskrit grama, stands for “aggregate”
and may be interpreted as “village”. Ganvkar is its freeholder, a
descendant of the founder cultivators. Vangod stands for “clan”. Ganvkari
is the village association. Those who are members of the commune are known as zonkar,
zon being the share of the net-income of the ganvkari. Rights and
privileges were inherited by the male descendants, women were excluded[3].
Mahajan[4]
is a title used by members of a religious association in
The mazanias are associations of a
religious nature while the gauncarias are the agricultural and welfare
associations of the ganvkars and embody the concept of joint possession.
Village affairs were managed by a group of
people´s representatives, each of whom was called ganvkar or gramapurusha.
The council of ganvkars was called ganvkari or ganvpon (in
Portuguese gauncaria). Each councillor represented a vangod. The
village was divided into vaddos (wards, in Portuguese bairros).
The person who headed a council was honoured on feast days with a betel-leaf
presented to him and dancers starting the festival dance at his door steps. His
field was ploughed first and harvested first. The meetings of the council were
held either in a hall (chauddi) or under a banyan[6]
tree which is sacred in Goan traditional culture. Such age-old trees are
still to be seen on the precincts of some Roman Catholic churches such as St.
Bartholomeu´s Church in Chorão, Tiswadi (Ilhas), which was built in 1569 and
rebuilt during 1641-1649. One may presume that a Hindu temple existed there
prior to the building of that church. The tax collector was called potecar.
The clerk, who was usually a Brahmin, was called kulkarni or, later on, escrivão
in Portuguese. He drew up deeds (namoxims), kept all the records and
accounts and did all the written work. The village records of the 15th
and 16th centuries were kept in Kannada (Canerese), Konkani or
Marathi[7].
All the employees, including the temple-dancers, were mostly compensated by
lease of land.
The ghor-batt (land adjacent to a house)
existed within the framework of the village organisations, the bhattkar[8]
being the landowner on whose landed property the mundkar[9]
lived. This feudal aspect which is contrary to the traditional joint ownership
system must have been introduced by the Saraswat Brahmins[10]
when they entered Goa probably in the 8th to 10th century
A.D. In exchange for the offer of residence, the mundkar and his whole
family had to guard the bhatt and to serve its owner in agricultural as
well as domestic matters. Since the mundkars, many of them were kunnbis,
were denied a political forum against exploitation by the landlord, and against
the libidinous approaches of his sons towards the mundkar´s daughters,
the Konkani poets and composers voiced their grievances in song, as for example
Agô chedua, Fulu anv jardinintulem, Fulola fulancho mollo
and Sanquale paddunc guelear. A Royal Decree for Goa dated August 25th, 1901, aimed at
protecting the mundkar from the arbitary excesses of the bhattkar[11].
A resolution of the Portuguese Government
in Goa dated 5th July, 1649, declared the State to be the owner of
all community lands and the village councils as tenants.[12]
The ganvkari were in fact
co-operatives entrusted with the task of providing for the needs of their
members, such as the opening and maintaining of public roads, setting up places
of common use, and wards for artisans. Destitute persons and beggars – if any –
were a concern of the ganvkari. The recent phenomena of “street”
children, for example in Panaji, begging in public was then simply out of
question. The ganvkari also maintained the chief Hindu temples which
were places of worship and teaching. These temples were also centres of culture
where music and natok (dance drama) depicting scenes from the Indian
sacred scriptures was taught and performed. At the time of the arrival of the
Portuguese in Goa in 1510, Ilhas had about 116 such temples, Bardez 176, and
Salcete 264.[13]
These ganvkari permitted the Syro-Malabar Christians, who lived in India
since about the 3rd century, and also Buddhists, Jains and Muslims
to freely practice their faith and even offered the same opportunity to the
Roman Catholics from Portugal when they arrived in Goa in 1510[14].
Afonso de Albuquerque (1453-1515) did not
disturb the religious harmony that prevailed in Goa. The Portuguese Government
in Goa, whose primary interest was to establish and maintain trade relations in
Asia, promoted the services of Hindus and Muslims in the context of its own
commercial interests.
Christian Europe, however, believed that
it had attained the plenitude of universality. That probably accounts for the
traumatism when it faced the ancient and living cultures and civilizations in
Asia, which led to an attempt to impose European structures on the existing
societies in Asia in all spheres of activity. European superiority, however,
lay principally in firearms.
The Portuguese
Government in Goa got under pressure of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal
and Goa itself which had immense influence in the then sacral state.[15]
The First (Roman Catholic) Provincial Council of Goa, held under the
chairmanship of the then Archbishop of Goa, Gaspar de Leão Pereira in 1567,
declared that Christians in Goa should not be permitted to use their former
Indian names, thus initiating a process of alienation. These Christians had to
adopt the family names of their Portuguese godparents at baptism. The same
Council also decreed the demolition of “all idols, temples, trees and sites of
Hindu worship”. Diogo Fernandes, the Captain of the Fort of Rachol, destroyed
280 Hindu temples in Salcete alone.[16]
One of the few pimpoll-trees (ficus religiosa), the Hindu sacred
tree par excellence, which escaped the attention of these destructive forces, stands
in the vicinity of the church in Benaulim (1596)[17].
This aspect of alienation through
missionary pressure is documented in Konkani folk songs from the Island of
Chorão. In about 1550 a Jesuit Brother was appointed to teach the Christian
doctrine to the inhabitants of this island and to protect the converts from
returning to their former Hindu communities. “ … some of the folksongs sing the
exploits of the Brother who was considered St. Bartholomeu himself”[18].
This policy forced faithful Hindus, who did
not want to abandon the “faith of their fathers”, to flee from Bardez, Ilhas
and Salcete, to Ponda, Satari, and other areas beyond the jurisdiction of the
Portuguese. Centuries later Christian Goans living in the christianized
districts looked across the River Zuari and composed their nostalgic deknnis.
The Inquistion of Goa was established in
1560 and abolished in 1812. On this former location stands today the Tourism
Office in Old Goa faced by a green meadow. The Arch through which the innocent
victims had to pass invoking the blessing of the Blessed Virgin Mary on their
way to their execution – an apotheosis of irony - still stands near the Church
of St. Cajetan opposite the Sé Cathedral. Except for a crucifix of Jesus with
open eyes and an upright head which was kept in the chapel of the Adil Khan
Palace (now the Secretariat) in Panaji and then transferred to the Chapel of
Saint Sebastian in Fontainhas, Panaji in 1918,[19]
and the Inquisition Table in the Institute Menezes Bragança in Panaji (verbal
information received), no trace of this Inquistion is now existing. After a
long phase of anti-Hindu legislation[20]
which started in 1567 (whose roots, however, go back to 1540), the Bando
of August 6th, 1763, gave instructions to respect the practices and
customs of the people of Goa. The Carta Regia of 15th
January, 1774, interpreted by that of February 16th, 1774,
recommended that the Hindus should not be disturbed in the practice of their
rights, in their individual liberty, and in the possession of their property.[21]
The formal education which existed in Goa
before 1510 had been reserved to males of the upper strata of the
caste-oriented Goan society[22]. The institution for Primary Education known
as patasala or parisha provided instructions in reading, writing,
and arithmetic in the local language. Higher Education was given in an
institution known as agrahara, brahmapur, gurukula or matha.
The medium of instruction was Sanskrit[23].
In addition to Vedic studies, other subjects such as astrology, medicine, mathemetics,
phonetics and grammar were taught. Girls, except the temple dancers (devadasi
and kolvont), were excluded from formal education.
An agrahara is a community of
learned Hindu Brahmins, a brahmapur is a settlement of learned Hindu
Brahmins but not a corporate body, a matha is a Hindu monastery. All
such institutions were financed by the former Hindu rulers in Goa, especially
by the Kadambas. The Muslims in Goa had, as in other parts of the world, their
own educational institutions. The maktaba cared for primary education
and the madarasa for higher education. These institutions restricted
themselves to teaching tafsir (exegesis of the Holy Koran), hadis
(tradition) and sharia (Islamic law).
+
The Portuguese entered Goa (first time:
February-March 1510) on November 25th, 1510, and left on 19th
of December, 1961. The States of the Republic of India being linguistic units,
Goa had to provide a linguistic identity. The Sahitya Akademi, the
National Academy of Letters, declared on February 26th, 1975, “As
Konkani fulfils the criteria formulated by the Akademi for recognition
of a language it is recognized as an independent literary language of India.”[24]
The origins of Konkani, the southernmost
of the modern Indo-Aryan languages, are described by José Pereira as follows:
“Into a non-Aryan country came the Sarasvat (Saraswat) Brahmins and the Tsa-ddi
(Chadde) bearing with them a Northern Indian speech. In their trek southwards
they took over some of the Nagari Prakrit of Western India and more of the
Maharashtri of the Northern Deccan – ancient India´s song-language. By the
eight century they were already in the Konkan. The amalgam of the Prakrits had,
two centuries afterwards, given rise to Konkani.[25]
Research and teaching of the Konkani language was started in St. Paul´s College
in Old Goa in 1541 onwards, in the Jesuit Seminary in Maddel, Chorão[26],
Ilhas in 1565, and in Rachol Seminary in 1576. Recent institutions which
promote Konkani are the Konkani Bhasha Mandal (1939), the Konkani
Sahitya Samiti (1944), Stephan Kendar and others. The Goa Konkani
Akademi was established on March 4th, 1986.[27]
Use of the Roman script for Konkani was
introduced by the Portuguese along with the types of the printing press
installed in Goa in 1556, with a phonetic form of writing based on the
Portuguese phonology of those times, with diacritical marks added. Since the
early missionaries discouraged the converts from learning the Devanagari script
in which the Hindu sacred scriptures were written, the Goan Roman Catholics
adopted the Old Standard Konkani script known as Porni Praman for their
liturgical texts and also for their printed media and for daily use. This is
also the version used by André Xett in a modified form in his collection of dulpods
and mandos published as Album Cantarancho. The Rachol Convention
way of writing Konkani in Roman script since April 1957 is generally followed
by Goan writers at present[28].
José Pereira has used a modified version of it taking the Devanagri into consideration
for his publication Song of Goa. Mandos of Yearning. The orthography of
the texts in Album Cantarancho and in my data bank of over 400 deknnis,
dulpods and mandos is not uniform, since I have retained the
spelling as it appears in the published literature and unpublished manuscripts
in order to avoid any conflict with the written music.[29]
+
On May 30th, 1987, the former Estado
da India Portuguesa became a State within the Indian Union. Goa has
an area of 3.701 km2
[30],
443 villages (ganv), 11 counties
(talukas) and a population of about 1.500.000 at present (1991:
1.168.622) with a literacy of over 85%, and about 97% of the children of the
native (zonkar) Goans attending school in the 1990s. The question of
those children who are not attending school arose in the context of migrant
labour and immigrants from other states.
Schools attached to churches were first
established in Goa under the Viceroy Dom João de Castro in 1545, by an Order of
King João III of Portugal[31],
a de facto compulsory education. The children, both boys and girls, were
taught Portuguese, European music, and Christian doctrine, with Konkani being
the medium of instruction. The salaries of the teachers were paid by the
village comunidades. The College of St. Paul in Old Goa, the University
of Goa, was founded under a former name on April 24th, 1541. It was
handed over to the Jesuits in 1548,[32]
and from 1578 onwards it was entitled to issue degrees up to the Doctorate in
theology, philosophy, language and literature. It had a curriculum of studies
based on that of the University of Sorbonne in Paris.[33]
This relationship with the Sorbonne was probably due to the Spanish Jesuit
Francis Xavier who arrived in Goa on May 6th, 1542 and had been a
former student of that University. A regular study of medicine began in 1692
with Manuel Rodrigues de Souza as Dean of the Faculty. It was attached to the
Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 1764.[34]
The Conclusiones Philosophicae, a thesis defended by Franciscus Cabral of
St. Paul´s (Jesuit) College in Old Goa, was printed in the same college in 1556[35].
It was the first book to be printed in India. The Gazeta de Goa, the
offical bulletin of Goa, first appeared on December 22nd, 1821. The
printing press Tipografia Rangel in Bastorá was founded in 1886 and was able to
print music (staff notation) in the European manner.
The Historical Archives of Goa were
founded in Old Goa by a Royal Decree of February 25th, 1595,[36]
the Central Library of Goa in Panaji was established in 1827, the Escola Médica
Cirúrgica de Nova Goa in 1842, and the Liceu Nacional de Nova Goa in 1854. The
present University of Goa was founded on June 30th, 1985. The Kala[37]
Akademi in Panaji promotes art, song and dance.
The present State of Goa evolved in the
course of several centuries. It has been conjectured that the kunnbis were
the earliest colonizers of the land of Goa. They came with their cattle, which
perhaps led the country to be called Goparashtra. Parts of the present
territory were ruled by the Mauryas, Satvahanas, Bhojas, Chalukyas and
Silaharas. The Kadamba kings, whose seal was a lion with a curled tail, ruled
Goa from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries A.D. Their original kingdom
consisted of the area south of Tiswadi (Ilhas) with Chandrapuri, the present
Chandor, as their capital. It was later on shifted to Govapuri, now Goa Velha
or Vodlem Goem, on the north bank of the River Zuari in about 1052[38].
The Kadambas used Kannada, also called Canarese (the State Language of the
present Karnataka), as their official language[39].
An influence of the Kannada language still continues in some Goan folk songs.[40]
Some village names like Benaulim, Bambolim, Carambolim, Chicalim, Panelim,
Talaulim, Navelim, Zambaulim have the Portuguese modification of the Kannada
word halli as their suffix in the form of –alim, -olim,
and –elim. Halli in Kannada means “village”, kadu means
“forest” and kona a “bison”. Canacona may refer to a forest with bisons.[41] In 1378[42]
Goa, then named Konkanya Rajya, was included in the Vijayanagara Empire
with Govapuri as its capital. In about 1403, a Goan, Mai Sinai Waglo was
appointed as the Vijayanagara Governor of Goa.[43]
They, like the Kadambas, encouraged
Vedic worship and promoted international trade. The official language continued
to be Kannada.[44]
The Konkanya Rajya of Vijayanagara lasted about a hundred years,
1378-1469 (1472), and was followed by the Bahamani Muslim rule. Mahmud Gawan
captured Goa in 1472[45]
and established his capital in Ela (Velha Goa, Old Goa).
The Adil Shah Dynasty of Bijapur ruled Goa
for a short period, from 1488 to 1510, after the Bahamanis. Their palace in Old
Goa stood in the present compound of St. Cajetan´s Church. They employed
Turkish and Persian craftsmen and artisans. I suggest the hypothesis that the
Persian-type dome of St. Cajetan´s Church, built in 1665, could be a replica of
Gol Gumbaz of Bijapur, built in 1626-1656. The Turks and the Persians
must also have had some influence on Konkani song and music. The quatrain with
eight syllables in a line, as is common in the mando, is also known in
the Kiswahili Utenzi, which may be of Arabic origin. Words of
Arabic/Persian origin have found their way into Konkani, some of them being in
daily use like bondir (Ribandar), caido, khobor, zabab. Arab resp.
Persian rule is also partly the reason for the presence of women from these
lands in Old Goa, whose beauty and charm found the favour of the Portuguese
when they conquered that area. Afonso de Albuquerque (1453-1515), supported by
the local population[46],
defeated the rulers from Bijapur, Ismail Adil Shah on November the 25th,
1510, and claimed Ilhas[47]
for the Crown of Portugal. Bardez and Salcete followed in 1543[48].
The Portuguese further extended their rule to Bicholim, Cancona, Pernem, Ponda,
Quepem, Sanguem and Satari between 1763 and 1788,[49]
thus drawing the boundaries of the present State of Goa and laying its
foundations.
Old Goa, also known as Goa Dourado (Golden
Goa), had about 200.000 inhabaitants in 1543 which made it the largest city in
the Portuguese Empire of that period. It, however, gradually lost its financial
resources when the supremacy of the Portuguese in the Far East Trade was
challenged by other Europeaan nations. The Jesuits were suppressed in 1759 and
expelled from Goa. All the other religious Orders and Congregations met the
same fate in 1833-1835. Their convents and institutions were deserted. The
liberal Portuguese Government in Goa destroyed many convents and churches in
Old Goa, for example St. Domingo (completed in 1550) which stood behind St.
Cajetan´s Church, S. Paolo dos Arcos (built in 1560-1572) and Nossa Senhora da
Graça (built in 1597-1602). The two
epidemic attacks in 1543 and 1672 forced the Portuguese to move their capital
from Old Goa (Velha Goa) to Panaji. By a Royal Decree dated 22nd
March, 1834, Panaji was raised to a city with the denomination Nova Goa.
Subsequently Old Goa became deserted and fell into ruins.
+
“Goa can be acclaimed as an example of
communal harmony”[50]
The Portuguese were not only navigators
and traders. They also conceived the vision of a new society with an “expressão
Portuguesa”, which for them meant the Portuguese language and culture, and
Catholicism as its essential features.
Goans are eclectic by nature. They accept
a new way of life and assimilate it into their own traditions. The syncretic
dimensions of theogony, visible particularly in the
Santeri-Shantadurga-Milagres devotion, must be examined at cross-cultural
meeting points. The traditional Goan Shakti-Pitha image continues in the
Catholic devotion to the Saibin Mãi (lit. Lady Mother. This is a term
used in Goa for the Mother of Jesus). The Goans became Christians, but remained
Hindus by culture, they spoke Portuguese but sang in Konkani. The Portuguese
presence in Goa gave the people an opportunity to be exposed to new ideas.
Obviously on account of this, there has been a marked impact on at least one of
the aspects of Goan society, the status of women for nearly 450 years. Formal
education at all levels for women, the right of inheritance, remarriage of
widows, access to almost all jobs and offices, and freedom of movement in
society, gives them a sence of security and self-respect. Goan women are not
proud, but they have a pride.
“Goa is probably the only State in India
which does not have any scheduled tribe.”[51]
The Goans, in general, classified their society according to the existing
Indian varna and jati (Caste)-System. They, however, restrict
themselves to three groups: the Brahmins (Chitpavan, Daivadnya,
Karhade and Saraswat), the Chadde (Kashtriya and Kayastha),
and Sudras (Dhobi, Sutar, Bhandari, Pagui, Mahar,
Chambar, etc.). The fisher-folk who are mostly Catholic are called Kharvi.
The three essential criteria for the choice of a partner in marriage were,
therefore, amchi jati (our caste), amchi bhas (our language) and amchem
dhormon (our religion). Hindus and Catholics accept monogamy as a norm and
avoid divorce. The Goan Sunni-Muslims[52]
speak Urdu and Konkani and follow their own traditions. They have, however, adapted
themselves to local customs including monogamy. All marriages in Goa are
registered under the Civil Code.
It is sheer anachronism to speak of castes
in the 21st century. However, I have to do so in this essay since
the traditional mando in Konkani was mainly the creation of the Goan
Brahmin aristocracy of Salcete, one of the exceptions being António João Dias
of Benaulim in Salcete, who composed the mando Sangato Moga Tuzo.
He was the son of a carpenter. The Konkani of the mandos is therefore jati-specific.
The Portuguese stratified society in Goa
in their own pigmentocracy terms. The reinos were the aristocratic
Portuguese officials who returned to Portugal after their term of service. The
upper strata of the reinos were known as fidalgos and the lower
as nobres. The casados were married Portuguese nationals. The
offspring of the casados were known as castiços, if both the
parents were of Portuguese origin, and mestiços, the Konkani word being sankirna
jati[53],
if one of the parents was of Indian origin. These Indians were mostly Muslim
girls of Persian and Turkish origin[54].
Afonso Albuquerque had captured and killed a number of Muslims in March-May
1510. However, he had spared the lives of the good looking young wives and
daughters of the slain Muslims, to marry them to the Portuguese nationals who
were willing to settle down in Goa. This was repeated in November of the same
year[55].
These Muslim women were all baptized before getting them married[56].
Mulatos were the offspring of Portuguese men and African girls, mainly
from Mozambique, bought at the Praça de Leilão on the Rua Direita
(still called so) which started at the Arch of the Viceroys (near the ferry to
the Divar Island), passed the Sé Cathedral and ran for over a mile. The naturaes
were the natives of Goa, subdivided in canarins (Christians) and gentios
(Hindus and Muslims). The slaves stood socially at the lowest level.
The Marquês de Pombal, who introduced
liberal ideas into Portugal, promulgated the Act of 1761, whereby all
Portuguese subjects born in India or in the Portuguese Asian possessions, who
were Christians and not suffering from
any legal disability, were to enjoy the same honours, privileges and
prerogatives as enjoyed by those born in Portugal, without any discrimination
whatsoever[57].
+
“The scenic beauty of Goa is arresting and
matches with the Goan´s love for music, dance and religious tolerance.”[58]
The traditional Goan musical instruments
are dholak, also called the mridanga, gumot, madlem,
sarangi, tambura and veena. Dholak or mridanga is a wooden cylinder covered at both ends
with a goat skin. The gumott is an earthen-ware pot-like vessel made by
Goan potters with openings on the two opposite sides, one large and the other
small in diameter, with the middle portion much bulging outwards. On the larger
opening with the edge conveniently moulded for the fitting, a wet skin of a
lizard (lacerda ocelata), known in Konkani as sap or ghar,
is fully stretched to cover the whole surface of the opening. When accompanying
a song or dance the gumott is usually placed on the left thigh, while
the player sits comfortably on a chair.[59]
The gumott is essential for a mando performance. A madlem
is a cylindrical earthen vessel covered at both ends with the skin of a lizard.
A sarangi is a string instrument similar to a European harp. A tambura
is a stringed instrument like the veena but with only one string. The veena
is a stringed instrument made of two gourds which are connected by a piece of
wood. Strings of brass and steel are passed over it. There is a hole bored in
one of the gourds.
The Portuguese brought the piano, the
mandolin and the violin to Goa.
Konkani Song may be classified in four
groups: One which draws on the mere pristine form in music and verse, as in the
fugddi or the dhalo; the second which blends western and native
music but retains the native language as in the deknnis; the third which
blends native and western music as well as the language as in the dulpod;
and the fourth which has a marked influence of western music and intrusive
Portuguese words as in the mando.
As many as 35[60]
types of Konkani Song have been classified. These include banvarh, deknni,
dhalo, dulpod, duvalo, fell song, fughri, kunnbi
song, launimm, mando, ovi, palnnam, talghari,
theatre song, zagor song and zoti. The Christian and Hindu
religious song is also a type of its own.
Banvarh
is a mourning song, usually sung on the day of cremation by Hindus. Deknni is
a song which originated in Bardez, Ilhas and Salcete, imitating a traditional
Indian music of Goa and dealing mainly with Hindu life across the River Zuari. Dhalo
is a wedding song. Dulpod is a dance song with quick rhythm and themes
from everyday Goan life. Duvallo is a pregnancy song. Fell is
folk drama with themes from Indian epics or Indian history. It is performed by
wandering artists usually after the rains, which start in June and end in
August or September. The fell song is a dance song. Fughri is a
dance song performed on religious occasions, particularly in honour of the
deity Ganesha. The Kunnbi, who are probably together with the Gaudde the oldest
inhabitants of Goa, still belong to the socially neglected peasant strata. The kunnbi
song is a dance song in the fughri style depicting their own life, but
also protesting against exploitation and social discrimination in a subtle
manner. The pseudo-kunnbi song, now so popular, was probably first
written for the stage and popularised by João Agostinho Fernandes (1871-1947)[61].
Launim is a song dealing with religious and legendary themes. Mando
is a dance song whose major theme is love, the minor ones being historical
narratives, grievance against exploitation and social injustice, and political
resistance during the Portuguese presence in Goa. Ovi, which the
Portuguese termed as versos,[62]
is a song with nuptial themes. It has the Sanskrit root vri which
means “to choose, to select”. The ovi has three rhymed lines and one
unrhymed. The former contain each three or four words and the fourth line one,
two, and exceptionally three words. The number of syllables is nine for the
rhymed lines and four or five for the last line. The early Portuguese Christian
missionaries adopted the ovi-form for liturgical and devotional hymns. Palnnam
is a cradle song, a lullaby. Talgarhi is a song of the Gaudde. The theatr
song is sung during the stage play, mainly performed by wandering artists
during the dry season. They entertain the public while touching on daily life,
but also sing subtle satires on local politics and the shortcomings of Goans. Zagor
means “watch”. The zagor song is sung in kunnbi folk plays
depicting their own life. They are usually staged at night. Zoti is sung
at nuptials.
The Christian and Hindu song for the
liturgy and popular devotions is an essential part of Goan daily life.
One of the earliest researchers of Konkani
Song was the Goan scholar Miguel Vicente de Abreu (1827-1884), who published
his anthology of songs from Goa, in the Ramalhetinho de alguns hynos
(1886-1870) which consisted mostly of ovis and dulpods. He had a
valuable private library in the ward of Sao Thome in Panaji[63]
One of the earliest mandos is Empregadu zaunchako by Frederico de
Melo (1834-1888). The earliest mando dance of which there is a record is
an occasion when António Sergio de Souza, Governor of Goa (1877-1878),
witnessed a mando dance to the singing of Paolo Milagres de Silva
(1855-1931) and Arnaldo de Menezes (1863-1917)[64].
The sari and the kapodd are
the traditional garments of Goan women. During the era of the classical mando
Goan women, however, preferred the torhop-baz. Some claim that
ladies from Malacca, who were married to Portuguese men, introduced this
garment into Goa.[65]
This hypothesis could be possible, since a similar type of garment is still worn
in South-East Asia. In the Philippines it is associated with Muslim women.
Others say that it is a borrowing from Muslim Bijapur.[66]
The word torhop is probably derived from the Kanerese, which was the
official language of Goa during the Kadamba rule, tarhapu meaning an
“apron”.[67]
The torhop-baz consists of three items: the torhop or sarong like
loin cloth, the baz or bodice, and the tuvalo, a shawl. The torhop
has a horizontal border along the lower edge of the cloth, and a vertical one
in the middle of the body, from the waist to the feet. There were prescribed
colours for mourning and for festivities, for married women and for widows. The
ceremonial torhop-baz worn during the mando dance was of velvet
or silk, red, blue or green in colour, embroided with gold (rarely with silver)
threads. A white or blue shawl was worn. The socks had to be white and the
slippers ornamented. This was all graced with a fan, which enhanced the lady´s
mood with a secret charm during the dance. The Portuguese word for torhop-baz
is fota Quimão.
The term deknni seems to have
existed already in the 16th century in Goa. The Third Provincial
Council (of the Archdiocese of Goa), held in 1585, decreed that women should
not learn dancing, play or sing deqhanins …[68]
The deknni is a dance song. The
subject matter of the contemporary deknnis is usually life in the Hindu
areas, presumed to be “on the other side of the river”, termed polltoli (peltorhi).
The river Zuari separates Ponda from Salcete. This symbolical distance, with
the river Zuari as a dividing element, stirs up the imagination of the song
writer and composer with a nostalgia for the lost Hindu culture which survived
in those areas where the Portuguese Catholic missionaries did not interfere
with. These areas were known as the New Conquests. Missionary work concentrated
on Bardez, Ilhas (Tiswadi), and Salcete, known as the Old Conquests. The
nostalgia of the deknnis is the search for the odd and sensual. The
Konkani of the deknnis tends to adopt the Konkani of the New Conquests,
especially that of Ponda.
The deknnis Altorhi (Altolli)
Gonga and Jamnam porobaja are probably a vague reminiscense of the
legendary trek of the Aryan Saraswat Brahmins to the present
Salcete and Ilhas (Tiswadi). Saiba Rayan bandu galila probably makes
reference to a Kadamba king in the popular idiom Kozmu Ray. One of the
earliest deknnis which may be dated around 1869 is Kuxttoba in
which he is called “heir to India and terror of Goa”[69],
implying resistance to Portuguese rule. Kuxttoba was a member of the Salekar
branch of the Rane family[70].
Information about his birth, the reason and the course of his rebellion and the
manner of his end are vague. He did rebel as an individual against the rule of
the Portuguese in Goa but he presented no concept for a free Goa. Neither did
the Ranes do so when they took to arms against the Portuguese Government in
Goa, nor the Sipais (Sepoys) when they mutined. Kuxttoba was shot dead
on June 13th, 1871. The official version is that Constâncio de
Rosário e Miranda of the 4th Division ambushed and killed him. The
popular version is that he was betrayed by his mistress Bulem in exchange for a
bribe. The most popular deknni is Kuxttoba mirasi Indiecho.
Pratima Kamat has published the text but not the music of Aik ge aka[71],
Doriant marun uddi[72]
and Mia re Kuxttoba[73]
and also an elaborated version of Farar far where she replaces the
Bhonsule as mentioned by André Xett with Kuxttoba.
Another historical episode is mentioned in
the deknni Gonnespoti Raya, namely the building of the railway
from Murmugão to Castle Rock which began on 8th April, 1881. In 1878
the Portuguese had signed a treaty with the British administration in India
called the Abkary Act. The Portuguese were to make Goan currency conform to
that of British India and permit the construction of a railway line in addition
to other matters such as the salt monopoly. This treaty was very unpopular with
Goans since it had a devastating effect on the economy of Goa subject to the
control of the Portuguese and the British. It was denounced in 1891. This deknni
ridicules the railway: “The British have built a railway … Unmarried girls are
having the time of their lives accompanying the cooks …[74]”
The deknni Portugala saun also embodies political agitation in
the literary form of ridicule. It tells us of a Portuguese who came to Goa with
eighteen Rupees in his pocket.
The Hindu temple fascinated the deknni composers
not as an object of reverence, but rather as something odd and sensual.
Monday is a devotional day for the Hindus,
when they prostrate in front of a deity, as the deknni Aj somoracho
disu says, “Today on Monday, we prostrate at the feet of God.”[75]
The Hindu priest, however, is not accorded the merit due to his status. The
composer of the deknni Bottu melo sings, “The priest died, and he
became ash. His wife died, and she became mud.”[76]
The kolvont[77]
(bailadeira) who lives on the precints of the temple in Goa, is such a
common theme in the deknnis that it misled Lucio Rodrigues to classify
the deknni as “The Song of the Dancing Girl”. The subject matter of the deknni
is wider.
The Goan kolvont,[78] who was selected from among the prettiest
virgin girls of the Devli caste and was well educated in music, song and dance,
is the descendant of the devadasi, daughter of God, of Ancient India,
the temple dancer, the virgin dedicated to the deity. She fanned the deity,
carried the sacred lamp, sang and danced before him or her in an ecstasy of
adoration. In the deknni Fulo mallunum she sings, “The night does
not end. I will stay awake. I adore you, oh God. I go round the sacred tulsi
[79].”[80]
The Goan kolvont, however, appears
in the deknni as a creation of the composers.[81]
The composers probably confuse her with the bhavini of the same caste.
These girls of lesser education were associated with the temple, but also with
the mahajans and bhattkars to whom illegitimate impregnancies
were attributed. The present Konkani language and the deknnis wrongly
identify the Goan kolvont with the attribute of a fille de joie.
In the deknni Kolvontam-i amim one of the girls sings, “The Big
Man (lit. master) called us and took us with him.”[82]
Her presence lends distinction to social gatherings, as only the rich men, like
the goldsmith (xett) and the village chief (desai) can afford the
luxury of her services. Her performance in the house of a Desai of Ponda is
described as follows in the deknni Fonddecha Desai-geri, “This is
how she dances. This is how she bends (her hips). She lies on the bed. This is
how she rolls.”[83]
In the deknni Aj somaracho disu someone makes an offer to a
Desai, “Which dancing girl do you want?”[84]
One of the dancing girls, Sundorem is her name, says that they are from Siroda.
This village with temples and music is commented upon in the deknni Xirodechim
cheddvam with the attribute, “The girls of Siroda are big flirts.”[85]
The dallying of a kolvont with a prospective lover is dramatized at
least in two deknnis Muzo fulantso porhu and Ge,Ge,Ge,Ge,Ge,
the latter ending with, “A kiss from my cheek, please take it, Sir.”
[86]
The composers of the deknni presume that the Goan kolvont likes
gaudy clothes and fancy names, as for example in Bottu melo. A kolvont
sings, “A sari of silk, a bodice of red calico. I am a dancing girl, and my
name is Peppermint.”[87]
The most popular deknni Anv
Saiba polltoli voitam was published by its composer, Carlos Eugenio
Ferreira, in 1926 and printed by Casa (Tip.) Rangel in Bastorá. It was
introduced at a wedding many years earlier. The credit for popularising this deknni
goes to Mestre Lourenço Henrique Dias, leader of the Banda Nacional de
Salcete, who died at about 1930.[88]
The fascination of the deknni lies
to some extent in the haunting music with the syncopated rhythm of the tabla
and the mridanga and the clang of
the kansollim (cymbals), enhanced by the sound of the anklets of the
dancing girls.
Lucio Rodrigues subtitles the deknni as
“The Song of the Dancing Girl”. I would rather call it “The Song of the Lost
Past”, referring to the rich Hindu culture which the Portuguese tried to
suppress in Bardez, Ilhas and Salcete. “The intensive missionary effort …
produced many converts who, it was believed, needed to be protected from Hindu
cultural influences, which included traditional Indian music. Consequently, the
Third Provincial Council (of the Archdiocese) of Goa, held in 1585, decreed
that women were not to learn to dance, play or sing deqhanins or other
festive dances and courtly songs of native origin.”[89]
The word dulpod is derived probably
from the Sanskrit word “druta-pad” meaning “fast song”.[90]
The dulpod is a folk song, anonymous, freely improvised, and sometimes
lacking in thematic unity as for example in Ghoru nam daru nam. “Dulpod
dorunk” is a Konkani idiom which means “to follow up something” (with a
series of refrains). The dulpod is usually sung in sequence with a mando.
The tunes of the dulpod are usually
in the six-eight measure, though the two-fourths are not uncommon.[91]
The subject matter of the dulpod is
the daily life of the people of Goa. Beggars, as a class of destitute persons,
did not exist in Goa and were not compatible with the village social system.
The beggars in the dulpod Ami bikari are chronic drunkards who
claim, “The beggar gets his food without doing any work.”[92]
The fishermen are mentioned in Arê veller rampon, the carpenter in Moddgonvam
tovoiaguer, the grandmother who reared a piggling, hoping to finance her
snuff in Chicú eôi, the old village belle, who has passed her
prime and still hopes to attract attention with a gaudy red blouse, a
suggestive walk and a fair complexion with rice flour on the face in Mattari
xamãi, and the indispensable nagging mother-in-law in Sassu mãi. An
uninvited guest is mentioned in E´de ratricho. The maid servant, who
also had the status of a bhavini of the battkar, appears in Fulola
fulacho mollo and Fullu anv jardinintulem. The last verse of Ago
chedva needs to be identified in the social context. Except for the
sophisticated girl belonging to the battkar strata, who has enough of
leisure time to sit at the window and display her hair in Arso dantonim
gheunum, the girl of the dulpod is a woman of Goan soil, sensual and
homely.
Fugar zata cazra vocuncheaco is an obvious parody on the quasi-feudal structure of the battkar
(landlord) and mundkar system. Dona Piedade dancing the polka, a status
symbol of the aristocracy, on the dance floor, contrasts with João and Jacquin
(a female name in Konkani), common names among the mundkar (tenants),
enjoying life in their own manner outside that floor, beyond the symbolically
dividing fence.
Farar-far zatai ranantu is one of the best known dulpods, a masterpiece of its genre. It
was composed at a time when even the slightest sign of sympathy with the Ranes
and the Bhonsule would have led to brutal repressions by the Portuguese in Goa.
My opinion is that the simple formular of Portuguese rule in Goa from 1510 to
1961 was: “There is peace if there is no resistance.” The composer of this dulpod
has achieved the sheer impossible in two sentences, without getting into direct
conflict with the rulers: The Rane are equal to the white soldier (in version
No. 2). The composer sings: “The white soldiers are shooting at the Rane. The
Rane are shooting at the white soldiers.”[93]
Version No. 1 shows the plight of the civilians, as the Konkani proverb goes:
“When elephants fight, the grass is trampled.”
The Rane-Clan were Kshatriyas who had
immigrated to Goa. They were the feudal lords of Satari, the province with
seventy villages, known in Konkani as Sattar-vadi. The dense forests
with teak, eucalyptus and ebony, and the hills with pasture land for grazing
the cattle and goats, yielded sufficient revenue for an independent living. The
Rane who lived in conflict with their overlords, the Bhonsule of Sawantwadi,
were utilised by the Portuguese in Goa against the Bhonsule and also against
the Marathas who fought for Independent India. A treaty was signed between the
Portuguese and the Rane on October 21st, 1746, whereby 800 soldiers
of the Portuguese Army in India were to be posted in Satari. The Rane soon
realised that the Portuguese administration permitted them less autonomy than
the Sawants of Wadi. They revolted and overthrew the Portuguese domination in
Satari in 1781. They, however, signed a second treaty on 29th
January, 1788, but rebelled again on at least 14 occasions between 1782 and
1825. The revolt of Bapu Rane in 1845 is characterised by attacks on military
posts, kidnappings and looting of churches and homes. This was followed by the
revolt of Dipu Rane on January 26th, 1852, harassing the Portuguese
in Goa for a period of over three-and-a-half years. The immediate reason for
this revolt were the heavy taxes which the Portuguese administration in Satari
levied, the decrease of feudal rights and privileges, but also the Portuguese
contempt for the customs and religious practices of the people of Satari. They
forbade the tilak (red dot) on the forehead and they did not permit the
people to grow the tulsi (ocinum sanctum), which is sacred to the
Vaishnava Hindus, in their angana (inner courtyards). A law was passed
which forbade men to wear the traditional lower garment called doti or langotti
and forced them to wear pants. Likewise women were compulsorily asked to wear a
choli (blouse) under the sari, which led to atrocities when the
Portuguese administration checked up the implementation. The capture of the
strategic Fort Nanuz by Dipu Rane is sung in a variation of the dulpod Farar
far:
Velha ranantum,
Nanuz khotantum,
Pakle martai Ranneakun,
Rane martai Pakleankun[94].
The support of the people for the Dipu
Rane Revolt is recorded in the song Sath Sattar Gavamadhem of which I
have only the English translation[95]
at the moment. I have neither the original Konkani text nor the staff-notation
avilable.
After a long struggle, Dipu Rane saw his
demands fulfilled and signed a formal treaty of
non-violence with the Portuguese Government in Goa on December 20th,
1855. Dada Rane, however, revolted from 1895-1897, but all resistance from the Rane of Satari came to an
end by 1912.
Lucio Rodrigues,[96]
inspired by a poetic mood, describes the diversity and the irregularities of
the dulpod in a touching manner: “The atmosphere of the dulpod is
that of an open meadow in the countryside where the flowers grow in natural
profusion at their own sweet will, flowers of native hue and scent. The breath
of spring blows cheerfully through the dulpod.”[97]
The mando is a dance song from Goa
in Konkani. Although it is popular among all the social strata of the
Konkani-speaking peoples[98]
and many of the composers have remained anonymous[99],
it should not be classified as a folk song. It is an art song. There have been
many attempts to explain the origin of the word mando. One of them
refers to the mand which was traditionally an open space of about 100
sq.m. where religious ceremonies were held and folk dances performed.[100]
The text form of the mando is based on that of the traditional Konkani
song ovi, which was usually sung at weddings and the form of which was
adopted by the early Christian missionaries for church hymns.
Father Nascimento Mascarenhas (born on
September 8th, 1940) of Saligão whom I interviewed while he was
Chaplain in the Church of Moira in February 1998, spoke of three schools of mandos
which are influenced by the environment: Benaulim, Curtorim and Loutulim.
The sand and the sea, the coconut palms,
the rich vegetation and the blue sky endow the village of Benaulim with a
specific charm which we experience for example in the mando Doriachea
larari. The village of Curtorim lies in a valley. The mandos which
were composed here rise to a certain level and descend as is in the case of Sontos
bogta rê jivaco by Arnaldo de Menezes. The mandos composed in
Loutulim rise in a crescendo and suddenly descend as in Adeus korcho vellu
paulo by Torquato de Figueiredo. Raimund Baretto of Loutulim (1837-1906),
who married Maria Adelina Cecilia de Silvera of San Mathias on Divar Island in
1850, composed the music of one of the most popular Konkani hymns Sam
Fransisku Xaviera.[101]
The period of the traditional mando,
which gained the term “classical”, started in about 1830, and ended up with the
death of Toquato de Figueiredo in 1948. The mando came into existence in
about 1830, after ballroom dancing (ballo nobile) had been introduced
into Goa, the most popular being the minuet (menuet), the contredanse
(contradança), the polka[102],
the quadrinha, lançeiro, valsa clasica, and the valsavina
(Vienna Waltz). The minuet is an open-couple dance in
three-eight time. The contredanse was a choral dance in two-four or
six-eight time with two forms, the circle form and the double file form, where
women and men face one another. This double file was the one which was adopted
for the mando.[103]
The 19th century waltz had a three-four rhythm. The mando
was originally composed and danced by the Brahmin aristocracy of Goa, mainly of
Salcete, whose spacious mansions had one room reserved for playing cards and
one big hall for festive occasions. A memorable moment in the history of the
family was the bridal mando, for example Anju tum arkanju. The mando
reflects the tranquil and leisurely character of this aristocracy, which in
fact is an essential aspect of the Goan way of life at all levels, wherever
they may be, in Goa or in the diaspora.
Marriage in the mando is sacred as
in Bara tera vorsam zalim. The main theme of the mando is love,
love in all its aspects. One of the saddest mandos is Ek dis baguint
anv guelolim, a literary masterpiece in the art of suggestion. A lady
reflects on her youth. One day while walking from the garden to her home with a
few abolim[104]
she met a boy, and, strangely enough, he asked her for the flowers. She
reflected: “Why should he want flowers? Who is there in his house to wear
them?” She understood the message, but could not utter the “two” words he would
have liked to hear from her. She lives now alone and lonely. The mando
is pre-eminently a song of the Goan woman. The emotional life of a man is
rather analytic and less complex than hers. If he does happen to be in love he
looks to the heavens seeking for images to express it. In the mando Anju
tum arkanju, he sings. “You look like a heavenly angel”[105].
If all fails he ends up in a philosophical sigh in the mando Sonvsar
chearuch rê disancho, saying “Life covers a span of just four days”.
Nowhere in any mando does the
belief in destiny, as an adverse power ruling human life, appear. These are
songs of a people whose faith in Devachi Sasai (Divine Providence)
surpasses every obstacle. The wish, “May my birmot come upon you”[106]
does appear in the mando Dônn tin muine zale as a rare deviation
from the norm.
The political tensions of that period,
however, did not pass by unnoticed by the mando composers. This
compilation documents five of them: Farrar-Far (dulpod), Konum
rê khobor-kitem, Luizinha, mojea Luizinha, Setembrachê choudavê
ratri and Setembrachê ekvissavêru.
Apart from the revolts of the Rane, which
are mentioned earlier in this essay, the Portuguese Government in Goa was
confronted with the mutinies of Volvoi and Marcela in 1870-1871. A decree dated
December 2nd, 1869, by the Overseas Minister of Portugal Augusto da
Silva included a clause that sanctioned the transfer of troops to any part of
the Portuguese Empire during times of war and emergency[107].
There were four battalions in Goa at this time. They were stationed in Margão,
Mapusa, Ponda and Bicholim. The two mutinies of March 1st, 1870, and
September 29th, 1871, were non-violent and had no political ambition
of liberating Goa from Portuguese rule. The demands of the mutineers were
granted.
After these two mutinies, the Portuguese
Army in India was reorganized into one unit of Artillery, one of the Police and
one of European Troops. All the units of the garrison of Panaji were made up
exclusively of Maratha Sepoys (Sipais).
The mandos Setembrachê choudavê
ratri, Soglea sonsarak khobor and Eka Setembrachê rati refer
to the Maratha Sepoy Mutiny of 1895. The genesis of this mutiny can be traced
back to the attempt of the Portuguese to extend their rule from the coastal
regions of Mozambique and Angola to the interior, which was controlled by local
African rulers. A company of 480 Maratha Sepoys, organized in two units, was
scheduled to leave Goa for Mozambique on September 30th, 1895. Before these
orders could be implemented, the companies of the infantry battalion with about
298 Maratha Sepoys revolted in the early hours of September 14th, 1895. This
revolt is documented in the mandos Eka Setembrachê rati[108],
Setembrachê choudave ratri, Soglea sonvsarak khobor[109]. These mandos express the sympathies of
the composers for the demands of the Sepoys and the inability of the Portuguese
to deal with them. The Sepoys assembled at the Afonso de Albuquerque Square
(now Azad Maidan) in Panaji, proceeded to the Palácio do Governo and
looted arms and ammunition there. The Portuguese soldiers who were following
them did not shoot at them nor did the Sepoys do so to the Portuguese. The
Sepoys then marched to Fort Nanuz which had been the place of political
encounters between the Rane and the Portuguese. One of the songs in which these
many ecounters were documented is Farar Far (dulpod). The Sepoys
captured the fort which then housed about 540 soldiers, of whom 40 were Hindus,
27 Muslims and 25 Christians[110].
On October 14th, 1895, the joint forces of the Sepoys and the Rane
who had joined them under the command of Dada Rane Advaikar, proceeded to
Panaji marching through Bardez, blowing their cornshells and horns (shinga),
looting and plundering the villages, which is documented in the mando Salea
(Sogle?) Sipai ektain zaun. The Portuguese Administration was forced to
make a compromise, granting the Sepoys their demands and an amnesty which was
signed on May 27th, 1896.[111]
The Conjuração dos Pintos[112]
(The Conspiracy of the Pintos of Candolim) was probably the only intended
militant act of resistance with a political concept. It was initiated by two
Goan priests Caetano Francisco do Couto of Fontainhas, Panaji and José Antonio
Gonçalves of Divar, Professor of Philosophy at the (former Jesuit) College of
Maddel, Chorão. They intended to establish a Republic of Goa independet of
Portugal. The first shot was to be fired on August 10, 1787. The plot was
betrayed to the Archbishop Santa Catarina (of Goa) by the Goan priest Pedro Caetano
José Lobo of Bastora. The final sentence was passed on 9th December,
1788. Fifteen persons were executed, five deported and five sentenced to the
galleys. The executions took place on 13th December, 1788 near the
Divar Ferry behind the Convent of St. Cajetan in Old Goa. Even in 1875 the
gallows made of stone pillars and a wooden beam across the top portion were to
be seen there.
I have still not be able to find any
Konkani song mentioning the historical tragedy.
Political changes in Portugal had an
influence on Konkani Song in Goa. Portugal was ruled as a hereditary monarchy
from 1143 to 1910, when it was declared a republic. After the French Revolution
of 1789, French troops invaded Portugal in 1807-1810. Their presence there had
an influence on the existing political structures. The absolutist monarchy in
Portugal became constitutional in 1821, this continued till 1910, with the
exception of a short period (1833-1834) when the absolutists ruled. Goa was
accorded the right to elect its representative to the Portuguese Parliament.
The first elections were held in Goa on January 14th, 1822. There
was a rivalry between the highly educated Brahmins and Chaddos on one side, and
the mestiços, who neither cared for letters nor arts but only military
service, on the other side. These mestiços, who were stubborn
absolutists, also clashed with the new generation of Portuguese officials who
came to serve in Goa and represented the constitutional aspect. When the Goan
Bernardo Peres da Silva was elected deputy to the Portuguese Parliament in
1822, and was appointed Governor of Goa in 1835, this caused panic among the mestiços
who rebelled, disposed him and started a reign of terror. The Goans replied
with violence. They beat to death the mestiço Captain Joaquim Garces Palha on
November 4th, 1854, in the Church Square of Nossa Senhora da
Piedade in Divar when he went there to campaign for votes, after his
campaign in Merces. This tragedy is documented in the mando Luizinha,
mojea Luizinha. It sounds like a melancholic love song, but the message
conveyed is harsh, the farewell words “… do not cry” spoken by Joaquim to his
wife Luizinha being used by the people of Divar are the very apotheosis of
irony. The melody of this mando and that of Setembrachê ekvissavêru
appear to be similar and one may presume that both may have been composed by
the same person. During the elections of Salcete, the soldiers of Governor
Vasco Guedes, who was in office from 1889 to 1891, fired on an unarmed crowd on
September 21st, 1890 in the Church Square of Espírito Santo
Church[113]
in Margão. Twenty-three civilians were killed. This tragedy is documented in
the mando Setembrachê ekvissavêru. It also praises the Goan
leader of the Partido Indiano Dr. José Inácio de Loyola[114].
The dulpod Undir mojea mama also refers to this incident.
The resentment against the Abkary Act of
1878, which had a devastating effect on the economy of Goa, is documented at
least in four existing mandos[115]
which agitate against this treaty: Trato feringuean kelo (A treaty has
been signed by the foreigners), Soglea sonvsarak khobor (Everybody
knows), Chintunleari kaliz fafsota (Even the thought of it upsets us)
and Chintlem na re konnem (Nobody thought about it). Three separate
events in Goan colonial history of the 19th century are also refered
to in the mando: The dissolution of the army in 1871, the
Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1878, and the demolition of churches and convents in
Old Goa following the suppression of all Religious Orders in Goa in 1834, in
the aftermath of secularism. The common factor linking all these three
incidents was the element of destruction.
This Act also forced many Goans to
emigrate to British India, to British East Africa, to Portuguese East Africa
and to Portugal in search of a living. This aspect of Goan history is
documented in some mandos[116].
+
The Portuguese sometimes termed the
Konkani song ovi as versos. This term has been adopted in Sobit
kens moje manir galtam in the words, “Moje versu cantar cortam”[117].The
usual pattern of the mando consists of three stanzas of four lines each.
Each stanza is held together by the use of one rhyme. Each line of the stanza
usually contains eight syllables.[118]
The refrain consists of two lines with one rhyme. The art of the poetry of the mando
lies in the simplicity of words, phrase and image, e.g.”At-paim zorounu
feliz kortol´ tuka”[119].
The charm of the poetry lies in what remains unsaid, “Monant tôddinch (donu)
uttram goulim, Tedonam ankvar aum aslim.”[120]
The poets make use of a play of vowels and consonants to produce melodious
phrases, e.g. doriachea larari.
The Konkani of the traditional mandos
includes Portuguese words, as were in use at the time they were composed.[121]
[122]
The accent in Konkani is almost always on
the last syllable. The dialect used in the classical mandos is the Bambonn
Saxtti of Salcete, particularly as spoken in the villages of Benaulim,
Curtorim, Loutulim and Raia, where most of them originated. It is the most
musical of the Konkani dialects with its consistent use of elisions. One of the
characteristics of this dialect is that words are stretched out in
pronunciation with the addition of an extra vowel sound either in the middle of
the words or at the end. Thus the word dista is lengthened to disota
and sanddlear into sanddilear. The suffixes –i and –o are
commonly used to add an extra syllable to a line. Thus larar becomes larari
and neketr becomes neketro[123].
The full sound -o- is softened in this dialect. Thus roddonk becomes roddunk,
mozo becomes muzo. The possessive pronouns in the mando
have the Salcete form, as tugel´lem for tujem, mugel´lem
for mujem or mojem. Shorter forms are derived when the music
needs to cut off a syllable, e.g. tuj´ kodden (koddem) instead of
tuje koddem and mak´ naka instead of maka naka. Not only
the phonetics correspond to the Salcete dialect but also words like masoli (masli)
for “fish” instead of nishtem, e.g. “Dongrari fulo nam, doriant masli
pun nam”[124].
The Brahmins address a girl or a woman with “rê” instead of “gô”
and use the pronoun “ti” instead of “tem”. This has been retained
by the “classical” mandos, but to some extent eliminated by André Xett,
since it has a discriminating effect today. André Xett has also partly adapted
the Salcete dialect to that of Ilhas, his own home district, in this
compilation, e.g. Papach’ licens as´ rê maka has become Papachem
licenço assa rê maca.
The mando is mostly a monologue, in
the first person singular or plural, except for the historical narratives. In
some mandos, however, one person addresses another, who in turn replies.
As a dance the mando is a square
type, men facing the women. When the partners come face to face in the centre,
they retreat to the starting point, then move forward again crossing to the
opposite side. The men then flick their handkerchiefs while the women open
their fans. All in all, it is a stately and leisurely dance. The melody of the mando
is slow in movement, with a soft and languishing atmosphere.
The music of the mando is studied
in some detail by José Pereira and Micael Martins.[125]
+
Paradoxically, the Konkani song gained
depth, balance and repose during this turbulent period of Goan history with the
elections of 1854, the military mutinies of 1870-1871, the Rane revolts and guerrilla
warfare.[126]
One of the significant moments in Goan
history was November 25th, 1510. During the four and half centuries of
Portuguese presence, the Goans maintained their Indian identity while they
shared with the Portuguese their language and culture. The Goans became
Christians, but remained Hindus by culture. They spoke Portuguese, but sang in
Konkani.
The deknnis, dulpods and mandos
which reflect the serenity of the human mind have not lost their charm even
in this fast changing world. While at home or in the diaspora, Goans shed a
hidden tear when they sing Doriachea larari and bid one another farewell
with Adeus korcho vellu paulo (Forsan adeus tumcam kortam).
Goans created the mando, Goa´s
message of sucegado,[127]
to a world in a hurry.
Xevott / End
[1] I wrote this essay for Armando de
Figueiredo, A.R.I.B.A., a direct descendant of the Brahmin aristocracy of
Salcete, Goa, who visiting Vienna in 2001 said, “I thought all Konkani songs
were mandos”, while tasting an Apfelstrudel in Café Aida at Stephansplatz.
(L. Noronha).
[2] The composer of the mando Adeus
Korcho Vellu Paulo. (L. Noronha).
[3] This was compensated by the dowry.
(L. Noronha).
[4] Mahajan means “an honourable person”. (L. Noronha).
[5] Souza de, Carmo. “The village communities. A historical and
legal perspective”, in: Borges, Charles J. 2000: 112 and Velinkar, Joseph.
“Village communities in
[6] Botanical name: ficus
bengalensis (Romano Abreu)
[7] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 178.
[8] Bhatt means “land, fields” and –kar means “having, owner”. (L.
Noronha).
[9] Tentative etymology: munda
means “money” and mundkar refers to the one who receives it. (L.
Noronha).
[10] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P.
(ed.). 1993: 185-189.
[11] Kamat, Pratima. “Peasantry and the
colonial state in
[12] Velinkar, Joseph. “Village
communities in
[13] Pereira, Rui Gomes. 1978 : 6.
[14] Pereira, Rui Gomes. 1978 : 16.
[15] Robinson, Rovena. “The
construction of Goan Interculturality. A historical analysis of the
Inquisitional edict of 1736 as prohibiting (and permitting) syncretic
practices”, in: Borges, Charles J. 2000: 289-315.
[16] Cruz da Fernandes, Caetano. 1997. “Evangelization of the
[17] Verbal information received from
Father Caetano da Cruz Fernandes, Pastoral Centre, Old Goa in December 1999.
(L. Noronha).
[18] Xavier, D.P. 1993: 120.
[19] Menezes de, Antonio. 1978 : 39.
[20] Priolkar, A.K. 1961. The
[21] Pereira, Rui Gomes. 1978: 14.
[22] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 176.
[23] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 176.
[24] Gomes, Olivinho. 1999. Old
Konkani literaure. The
Portuguese role. Panaji. p. 15.
[25] Pereira, José. 1992: 8.
[26] Built between 1558-1560 for the
Patriarch of Ethiopia, it was converted into a novitiate of the Jesuits in
1610, but gradually fell into ruins after the Jesuits were suppressed in
[27] Gomes, Olivinho. 1999. Old
Konkani literature. The Portuguese role. Panaji. p. 20.
[28] Pereira, José. 1992: 62-64.
[29] For example the Konkani word for
the subject-pronoun I is written as aõ, aum and anv. (L.
Noronha).
[30] This area would be close to that of
the province Burgenland in
[31] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 192.
[32]It once had over 3000 students from
all over Asia but fell into ruins after the Jesuits were suppressed in
[33] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 181.
[34] Menezes de, António. 1978: 103-104.
[35]Barros de, Joseph. 1989: 9-10. Refer also to Priolkar,
A.K. 1958. The Printing Press in
[36] Menezes de, Antonio. 1978 : 46.
[37] Kala means “art, culture”.
[38] Rajagopalan, S. 1975. Old
[39] Xavier, P.D. 1993: 29.
[40] Khedekar, Vinayak. Religion in
Goan Folk Songs. A paper read on 24.03.1985 at the Local History Seminar
organized by the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim,
[41] Xavier, P.D. 1993 : 4.
[42] Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 21.
[43] Kamat, Pratima. 1999 : 21.
[44] Pereira, Jose/ Martins, Micael. 1984. “
[45] Kamat, Pratima. 1999 : 22.
[46] Barros de, Joseph. 1984. “Local collaborators of
[47] At that time
[48] Xavier, P.D. 1992: 121.
[49] Xavier, P.D. 1992: 7.
[50] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P.
(ed.). 1993: XVII.
[51] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P.
(ed.). 1993: XXIV.
[52] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P. (ed).
1993: 167-170.
[53] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P.
(ed.). 1993: XIV.
[54] Rodrigues, L.A. 1975. “The Indo-European miscegenation”, in: Boletim
do Instituto Menezes Bragança. Panaji, Goa: Tip. Rangel, Bastorá. No. 108,
pp. 21-37.
[55] His son writes: „ (...) Afonso
Daalboquerque told the captains to reconnoitre the whole of the island and to put
to the sword all the Moors, men, women and children, that should be found, and
to give no quarter to any of them; for his determination was to leave no seed
of this race throughout the whole of the island. (…) And for four days
continuously they poured out the blood of the Moors who were found therein; and
it was ascertained that of men, women, and children, the number exceeded six
thousand.” Albuquerque, Braz. 1877. Commentaires of the Great Afonso
Daalboquerque, Vol. II (Tr. By W. de G. Birch).
[56] Xavier, P.D. 1992 : 30.
[57] Menezes Rodrigues de, Pia. 2000. “ Emergence of a Goan elite of
intellectuals “, in : Borges, Charles J. 2000: 197.
[58] Singh, K.S. / Shirodkar, P.P.
(ed.). 1993: XXII.
[59] Miranda de, Agapito: 48-56.
[60] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 1984: Nr. 145, p. 62. Refer also to
Rodrigues, Manuel C. 1957. “Folk Songs of
[61] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 1988: Nr. 156, p. 34.
[62] This term appears in the mando
Sobit Kens Moje Manir Galtam. (L. Noronha).
[63] Pereira, José. 1992: 17 and Menezes de,
António. 1978: 33.
[64] Pereira, José / Martins, Micael. 2000: 47.
[65] Miranda de, Agapito: 44.
[66] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000:
76-78.
[67] Pereira, José. 1967: 32.
[68] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000: 20.
[69] “Miraxi Indiecho, Terroru Goincho …”
[70] Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 183.
[71] Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 188-189.
[72] Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 190.
[73] Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 183 and 190.
[74] Inglezanim bandili reilvei … ankvar
cheddvani garhamorhi, botler bonvtai barabori.”
[75] “Aj somaracho disu, Deva y at-panyem
pot-ttai-i.”
[76] “Bottu melo. Bott´gobor zalo. Bottiny
meli. Botinim mati zali.”
[77] The word kolvont or kalavant
is derived from “kala” meaning “art”. (L. Noronha).
[78] Singh K.S./ Shirodkar, P.P. (ed.).
1993: 76-80.
[79] The tulsi, with the
botanical name ocinum sanctum, is sacred to the Vaishnava Hindus in
[80] “Soronam rati, ravonom zagem. Nomskar
kortam, Deva, tolloxi bountem.”
[81] Refer to Mitragotri, V. 1999. “Life
and women in the Pre-Portuguese Period”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute
Menezes Bragança. Vol 1. Nr. 3, pp. 13-16.
[82] “Maxtorra baban y amkam apounum
velim.”
[83] “Ox´m ox´m nachota, … ox´m ox´m
moddota, … Polngari nideta,
.. ox´m ox´m lollota.”
[84] “Tuka kolvont fuinchem zai-i?”
[85] “Xirodechim cheddvam mottinch
pamprelam.”
[86] “E muja poleacho beiju, ge ga Saiba.”
[87] “Seda´ kapoddo, cholie tambddem chito.
Kolvonto nanv mujem Pipirmitto.”
[88] Pereira, José. 1967: 8.
[89] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000: 20
[90] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000: 9.
[91] Rodrigues, Lucio. 1959: 48.
[92] “Bikareanko jevon meuta aitem.”
[93] “Pakle mat´tai ranneank(u). Ranne mat´tai
pakleank(u).
[94] In the old forest, in the Nanuz
Fort, the Portuguese are killing the Ranes, the Ranes are killing the
Portuguese. (Kamat, Pratima. 1999: 169 and 187).
[95] Who is the man of might and
prowess, in the sixty-seventy villages? Who is the man of might and prowess, in
the line of the Ranes, Dipu is the man! He gathered sixty and three hundred
muskets, and only with sixty and three hundred muskets, took the Sankle Fort!
Who is the man of might and prowess? The white soldiers fled for their lives.
O, they fled for their lives! The white soldiers heaved a sigh, as they fled
and jumped into their boats! Who is the man of might and prowess? (Sukhthanker,
V.S. 1974. Tales and Tellers of
[96] Lucio Rodrigues, M.A. (1915-1973). Professor: Department of English,
[97] Rodrigues, Lucio. 1959: 26.
[98] By „peoples“ I mean Konkani
speakers in Goa, Mangalore and in other parts of
[99] Some of them were mestre
(church musicians) and Roman Catholic priests. (L. Noronha).
[100] Khedkar, Vinayak. 1983. “Rhythm and
revelry: the folk dance performances”, in:
[101] Mascarenhas, Nascimento. 1995 (Feb.). “Sam Fransisku Xaviera. Songitacho sad”, in: Arso. Khorlim, Goa: Sahyadri Printers. pp. 28-31.
[102] Refer to the footnote of Fugar zata kazra vochuncheaco.
[103] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000: 72-76.
[104] Botanical name: Crossandra undulaefolia. It is a quasi-national flower of
[105] “Chouncheac distai sorguincho
anjo”.
[106] “Moji birmot futtum tuka”. The term
birmot which may be translated as “curse”, contains the inevitability of
nemesis. This term is rare in common language use. (L. Noronha).
[107] Kamat, Pratima. 1999. “Mutiny in
the Portuguese Army”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute Menezes Bragança.
Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 73.
[108] Kamat, Pratima. 1999. “Mutiny in
the Portuguese Army”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute Menezes Bragança. Vol. 2, No. 2. p. 95.
[109] Kamat, Pratima. 1999. “Mutiny in
the Portuguese Army”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute Menezes Bragança. Vol. 2, No. 2. p. 89.
[110] Kamat, Pratima. 1999. “Mutiny
in the Portuguese Army”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute Menezes
Bragança. Vol. 2, No.
2. p. 86.
[111] Kamat, Pratima. 1999. “Mutiny in
the Portuguese Army”, in: Govapuri. Panaji: Institute Menezes Bragança. Vol. 2, No. 2. pp. 71-102.
[112] Refer to : Barros de, Joseph.
1993. ”The Clergy and the Revolt in Portuguese Goa “, in : Boletim
do Instituto Menezes Bragança, Panaji. No. 169.
Borges,
Charles (ed.). 1996
(1985).
Noronha de,
Carmo (ed.). 1994
(1933). “The Conspiracy of 1787 in
[113] The church was first built in 1564,
the present structure dates from 1675. (L. Noronha).
[114] Refer to: Borges, Charles J. (ed.).
Goa´s foremost nationalist: José Inácio Candido de Loyola (The man and his
writings).
[115] Kamat, Pratima. 2000. “Peasantry
and the colonial state of
[116] Adeus kortso vellu pauta, Aurora
Sobina mojem naum, Chinchoneachea Xaurla suka, Donn-tin muinem
zaletre passar, Donum orsam zalim, Garantalim bair aum sorlim,
Eko vorso maizo zalem, Ugddas dôtan, Vorsam sabar sarlea
uprant pordesant and Xitol chondrimanchê ratri. (L. Noronha).
[117] “I am singing my song.”
[118] This form is found in popular
Portuguese poetry and also in the utenzi in Kiswahili. (L. Noronha).
[119] “I will (work and even) rub hands
and feet sore to make you happy.”
[120] “Some (two words) went through my
mind. I was then a maiden.”
[121] Sardessai, Manohar L.
1978. “Portuguese influence on the Konkani language”, in: International
Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History. Mumbai: St. Xavier´s College.
[122] For the present way of writing
Konkani in the Roman script refer to: Pereira, José. 1992: 62-64.
[123] In words like amizado, amigo,
neketro etc. the –o is pronounced as -u in b-u-sh.
[124] “On the hill there is no flower,
not even fish in the sea.” (Refer to the mando: Retrato Anjea-rê
Sarkeacho.).
[125] Pereira, José/ Martins, Micael. 2000: 53-61 and Boletim do
Instituto Menezes Bragança, Nr. 153, pp. 89-98.
[126] 1845 Bapu Rane Revolt, 1852-1855
Dipu Rane Revolt, 1869-1871 Kuxttoba Uprising, 1895-1897 Dada Rane Revolt, 1901
Revolt.
[127] A Portuguese word meaning “calm,
tranquillity”. (L. Noronha).