It was somewhere in
1956/57 when I was a small boy, I saw
first time in my life the Manddo sung and danced at the palatial residence of a Pinto family popularly known as
Serva Bhattkar, situated next to the
Candolim Tinto. History tells one of the
persons involved in Pinto’s Revolt against the Portuguese rule was the son of
this house. The occasion was the celebration of the Wedding of one of the young
family members of Pinto family. I was at
that very young age deeply impressed by
the way they sang the Manddos and Dulpods and simultaneously danced with
perfect geometrical type of steps and also with rhythmic timing backed by the rich
costumes of males and females, the latter wearing maxi dress and matching Hats. From their looks, presentation and accent of
the language one could easily notice that they belonged to the upper segment of
Goan society – feudality. Incidentally,
one the musicians playing Violin for
this item was my maternal uncle Dioginho Vaz a proletarian who was very close
relative of the great Mandoist the late Cruz Noronha.
Both of them had vast experience of Manddo who on some occasions shared
this knowledge with me later on.
The word “Manddo” was
derived from the Konkani word “Mandd” which
means a group of persons. Manddo song is always associated with a “Dulpod”
which actually is the “Dor-re-pod” in Konkani but it was ignorantly converted into the “Dulpod”
from the Dor-re-pod which is on fast pace while Manddo is on slow pace.
The first Manddo
Festival in Goa was held immediately after the invasion of Goa by Bharat under
the Nehru’s Congress government against the wishes of Goans. For this reason
Congress was kicked out by Goans in the first general election and similarly
Congress will be kicked out in 2017 election if old guards and defeatead
candidates are not denied election tickets.
During the early stages
of Mando festivals held in Panjim, Dr. Willie and Bernardo Fernandes (father of
Remo Fernandes) played a pivotal role in the promotion of Manddos in Goa. I started going to watch this festival from
1970 when I was a College student and when the ticket charges were Rupees Seven,
rather a big amount at that time and from my village if I am not mistaken, I
was the only person from the proletarian segment to attend this grand
festival which otherwise was the firm monopoly of higher echelon of Goan
society. During those days for most of the attendees of this festival means a
sort of honour while for many it was a display of their social status since
Manddo was considered as the monopoly of the elite Goan community and for
persons like me it was just to quench our thirst of watching something richness
of our folklore.
The attendees during
those days used to wear rich dress like men either Suit or at least a Neck
Tie. Early Manddos were composed by high
caste Brahmins Bhattkars as well as by the non-Brahmins Bhttkars which can be
easily noticed by the terminology used in such Manddos and Dulpods against
Brahmin Bhattkars. One closer example to
justify this statement is of my Uncle Mr. Vaz who was an expert in Manddos and
Cruz Noronha but they were proletarian Munddkars.
TO BE CONCLUDED.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
