G’BYE GOA: ‘MORADORES’ & MUSLIMS.
By Valmiki Faleiro.
The new Goan order, complete by the 13th century AD, was dominated by Indo-Aryans:Saraswats, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. Original tribal settlers were totally subjugated. Goa settled into era of tranquillity. As civilization advanced and life improved, the benefits of labour specialization, and resultant economies of scale, dawned on Goa’s village republics, the ‘Ganvkaris.’ That’s when another, and a substantial, wave of in-migration gradually occurred.
Specialised labour in large numbers – Bogar/Valar/Kannknakar (glass bangle makers),Chambar (cobblers), Gawandi/Gonvddi (masons), Kansar (coppersmiths), Lohar/Kamar(ironsmiths), Nhavi/Nabhik/Mhale (barbers), Parit/Moddvoll (washermen), Shimpi/Shinvpi(tailors), Sonar/Shet (goldsmiths), Sthapatis/Shilpis (sculptors), Sutar/Chari (carpenters,ironsmiths), Teli (oil extractors) and the like – lest we forget, also Bhangis (sanitationworkers) – were imported into Goa’s villages. This migration drastically altered the demographic profile of Goa. In most villages, the new migrants outnumbered the dominant caste – either Saraswat or Kshatriya, rarely a combination of the two (in Salcete, Saraswats settled in Kshatriya villages, and viceversa, only during the Portuguese period.) Being ‘owners’ of the village, Saraswats/Kshatriyas maintained their dominant position.(There was no democracy and numbers didn’t count, except in war.)
While owners of the village were ‘Ganvkars,’ imported settlers were labelled as socially lower “Moradores.” In big villages like Margao, the new arrivals were ghettoed into localities known as‘Kamaranvaddo,’ ‘Moll’llanvaddo,’ ‘Mestavaddo,’ ‘Chao dos Alpalqueiros’ (cobbler’sland.) This cosy Goan society was at peace, but not for long, in the time-scale of history. Goa fell to the Muslims in 1312. Mallik Kafur, Bengal Sultan, Allauddin Khilji’s general, took the Deccan from the Yadavas, then marched into Goa’s capital, Govapuri. Then rulers,the Kadambas, fled to their old capital, Chandor. Various Muslim sultanates thereafter ruled over Goa – the worst being the Bahamani, Ghazni Mohammed, who was particularly cruel on Hindu Goa. He destroyed temples and generally wrought havoc. A digression. There’s a pattern in the destruction of places of religious worship in Goa.Best illustrated by the case of Bom Jesus Basilica in Old Goa. Originally, a Buddhist monastery stood on the site. Latter-day Hindus destroyed it and built a temple to Shivain its place. Ghazni Mohammed destroyed the temple between 1358 and 1366 and builta mosque. When the Portuguese arrived, they destroyed the mosque and built theBasilica.
Goans appealed against the repressive Muslims to the kingdom of Vijayanagar. In1366/7, it sent its general, Madhav Mantri, a Kashmiri Pandit by stock, who evicted the Muslims. Goa had peace for the next 103 years. In 1469, the Bahamani general, Kwaja Muhammad Gawan, attacked Goa from land and sea. With an armada of 120 ships and a huge marching force, Gawan easily took Goa. Goans were again subjugated. When the 13th and last Bahamani king died in 1482, his five generals dismembered the empire between themselves in 1489 and Goa cameunder Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur. (Though some put the year as 1498, Dr. Pandurang S.Pissurlenkar records that Adilshah occupied Goa in 1489 itself.) The rulers extracted confiscatory taxes but were tolerant of the Hindu faith. But, MuslimNavaiyats (Turks settled in Bhatkal, to conduct their lucrative trade in Persian/Arabianhorses to South Indian warlords), who fled to Goa after they were attacked in Bhatkal, were the root of harassment of Goans.
Hindu rulers of South India were cross with Navaiyats because while the latter profited at their cost, Navaiyats slyly gave the best horses to Muslim kings. Every time Vijayanagar’s four naval captains led by Thimayya Nayak of Honavar, commandeered Navaiyati horse laden ships to the Vijayanagari ports in south Konkan, Navaiyats retaliated by persecuting Goan Hindus – through Yusuf Gurgi, the Adilshahi governor in Goa, whose 200 fellow-Turks punished locals and protected Navaiyats.
Incensed locals, under Mhala (Mhada, Madhav?) Pai, the Sardesai (headman) of Verna, retaliated by capturing and imprisoning some Navaiyats. Gurgi’s 200 Turks rescued the Navaiyats and intensified the persecution of local Hindus. Mhala Pai sought deliverance from the Portuguese, then at the Malabar Coast, through Thimayya. A local yogi had prophesized that people from a foreign land would save Goa. Mhala Paiperhaps knew it had to be the Portuguese…
PS: Some internet trivia: July 8, at five minutes and six seconds past 4am, the time/datewill be 04:05:06 07/08/09. It will never again happen in our lifetime! (ENDS.)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column.
The cast from Goa are: Comedy Queen Jannet and her husband Filipe, Miss Shruti, Miss Bushka, Pascoal Rodrigues, Comedian Ambe, Marcus Vaz, C. D'Silva, Satyavan Tari & Tony de Ribandar.
