GOAN SURNAMES - 2 By Valmiki Faleiro.

GOAN SURNAMES-2.

By Valmiki Faleiro.

If Goan Catholic surnames are sometimes confusing, Hindu counterparts are truly confounding! Hindu surnames were rooted in India’s ancient four-Varna caste system, which was based on people’s traditional occupations. Some, however, believe that the Indo-Aryan caste stratification was founded not on occupations but on one’s skin colour – ‘Varna’, in Sanskrit, literally means colour. Of the four Varnas (castes), the ‘top’ three – Brahman (learned), Kshatriya (nobleman)and Vaishya (farmer/trader) – comprised of fairer-skinned Indo-Aryans, while the fourth,Sudra (serf, ordained to serve the other three) was of non-Aryan, darker-skinned locals. A fifth, Avarna, of classless people like tribals and ‘untouchables,’ was added later. We find old Goan surnames in 16th century Portuguese records. Cited here, largely, is a sampling from Salcete.

The most common generic Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) surnames were Nayak/Naik, Pai/Poy, Prabhu/Porob and Xennai/Shenvi/Sinai. Naik (spelt ‘Naique’ by the Portuguese), as we shall see in the sequel next Sunday, is an egalitarian surname that traverses not just Hindu castes but goes beyond creeds. Xennai/Shenvi revolves around the legend that Lord Parshuram settled 96 (‘xennai’ in Konknni) families in the land he reclaimed from the sea – 66 (‘sashast’) in Salcete and the balance 30 (‘tis’) in Tiswadi. This legend, as we know, is just that – a legend.

By the way, the mystic ‘96’ is not a monopoly of Goans or of GSBs. Maharashtra’sprincipal Kshatriya clans collectively are also known as ‘Xannav Kuli’ (96 families). Interestingly, Goa’s Sattari/Bicholim self-regarded ‘superior’ Kshatriyas (as againstnative Kshatriyas) – the Ranes/Dessais/Sardesais – claim to be part of the ‘XannavKuli’ – even if no ‘Panchang’ (Hindu almanac) would list them among the 96, nor anyMaharashtrian aristocrat would admit them as such. But since our Pratapsing Rauji Rane Sardessai was free Goa’s longest serving Chief Minister, who knows, they might now be regarded as part of Maharashtra’s Kshatriya ‘Xannav’ … as much as a Goan Vani, one of Goa’s leading business family today, is believed to have been ‘admitted’into the GSB caste by an earlier Swamiji/Pontiff.

Sardesais and some Prabhudesais,though, are original Kshatriyas, taken into the GSB fold after a long ritual. The stand-alone original surnames, Prabhu/Porob, Pai/Poy and Shenvi/Sinai, came to be used as prefixes to later-day Goan GSB family names, as in Poy Raiturcar. Some of those who settled in coastal Kanara at the height of Portuguese persecution changed the Xennai/Shenvi surname to Shanbhag. But any Xennai/Shanbhag in Karnataka’s coastal region would be, without doubt, a thorough bred Konknni. Who proudly uses his original language and reveres his ancient deities in Goa. Even if, honouring a promise at the time of the exodus, he refrained from replicating the deity’s temple in his newland of domicile, though he could well afford to do it.

Other coastal Karnataka Konknnis changed the Xennoi/Shenvi surname prefix usage to, of all things, the largely Kshatriya ‘Rao’ – as in Vassantrao or Vaikunthrao Dempo. (I once jokingly started calling myself ‘Valmikirao’ Faleiro. Like the Dempos, I was also a south returned ‘Sulcho’ … but stopped doing that when I met a future friend,‘Radharao’ Gracias!) There are rare and known GSB surnames in early Portuguese records, like: Barbu,Bhandari, Botto (Bhat), Camotim (Kamat), Dalvi, Dangi, Egdo (Hegde), Quenim (Keni),Mazo (Mauzo), Mahale (some who migrated from Benaulim to South Kanara later changed it to Mallya), Pariar (Padiyar), Sardesai, Shama – as in Krishnadas Shama,the learned man from Quelossim-Cortalim, perhaps Konknni’s greatest man of letters, who lived around the time Afonso de Albuquerque conquered, and then re-conquered, Goa in the year 1510.

GSB surnames were also associated with occupation. Shenvis, like their counterparts Nadkarnis at the district level, usually worked as village accountants. As did Dubashis. Dalvis were commanders. A learned person was Pandit. Physicians were Vaidyas. GSBs – remember the term includes only those Indo-Aryan Brahmins who resettled in Goa and, from here, dispersed to various parts of the Konkan coast and elsewhere for diverse reasons (like economic opportunity, plagues or religious persecution) and at varied points of time in history – thus largely bore exclusive caste/occupation basedsurnames. This, over time, came to be challenged by members of ‘lower’ castes, who began to ape GSB surnames to hide their social identity. A once proud GSB Lotlikar from Loutulim could now also mean a goldsmith. A pure ‘Varde Borkar’ GSB originallyfrom Borim village in Ponda taluka, could now be mistaken for a non-GSB villager whoassumed the village name as a surname. With their backs to the wall, GSBs quietlyfought back. Let’s peep into that rather interesting story of how caste identities came to be blurred, if not mixed up, via the dynamics of caste-based Goan Hindu surnames – and a bit more– next Sunday. (ENDS.)

The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column.

RESPONSE TO "RANADE & KHASAB".

Re: Fwd: Ranade & Khasab.

Posted by: "AAssoc4994@aol.com" AAssoc4994@aol.com goancauses

Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:05 pm (PST)

Dear Veronica,

Very good information, your pen can be as sharp as a sword, keep god information coming. I can only say thankful in my modest way.

Warm regards.

Happy New Year 2009.

Agnelo Gomes.
The Goancauses.

In a message dated 12/31/2008 12:45:55 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, A. Veronica writes: Mohan Ranade was a non-Goan Ghantti, a Marathi teacher teaching at Verem Bardez in Marathi Xalla. He was anti-Portuguese and working clandestinely against Portuguese interest in Goa. Being a "Ghantti" he had no right to interfere in our affairs yet he did. He wanted to drive Portuguese out from Goa and hand over on silver platter our Goa to Bharat. With the help of few of his supporters, somewhere in 1957 Ranade carried out an armed attack on Betim Police Station in which one or two Police personnel were shot dead, I think one of them was a Portuguese Paklo. There was casualty on the other side too. But Mohan Ranade was caught alive inspite of suffering from the gun shot wounds from one of the Goan Hindu Policemen from Betim Police Station. When he was caught alive by Goan and Portuguese policemen, Ranade was about to breathe his last but to prevent him from dying, immediately he was rushed to Panjim Medical College Hospital where he was given VIP treatment to save his life and finally his life was saved. His life was very precious for Portuguese Government of Goa to get all the necessary information of the working of Ranade and his group and also to know where it was originated. After getting important clues and information, many such persons in the garb of freedom fighters were arrested. Mohan Ranade was finally sentenced for long term prison and deported to Portugal to serve his sentence in Portugal.

CONDOLENCE TO TIATRIST IRENE VAZ.

CONDOLENCE TO TIATRIST IRENE VAZ.

On the sad demise of her mother Cieza Constatina Cardoso in Chinchinim, Goa on 25th December 2008, Rosary Ferns and his troupe convey their heartfelt symphaties to Irene Vaz, her husband Sylvester Vaz and all their family members at home in Goa, at Bamadao, Chinchinim, Goa, India.


May the soul of Cieza Constatina Cardoso rest in peace.


Rosary Ferns and his troupe of Tiatro "KUWAIT SODDUN VETANA".