THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS
The medical team at the Hinduja Hospital-Mumbai have positive news of Jose Rod’s surgery and has declared that he is responding well.
The family of Jose Rod thank the Almighty God and graciously acknowledge with great affection, love and gratitude to all friends and well-wishers for your continued prayers.
May the Almighty GOD shower on you all His Choicest Blessings. Praise be to the Almighty God. Thank you all.
Cajetan de Sanvordem
Kuwait
April 30, 2009
April 26, 2009
G'BYE GOA: THE MHARS by Valmiki Faleiro.
G’BYE GOA: THE MHARS.
By Valmiki Faleiro.
None of what is believed about the first human settlements in Goa is based on scientificevidence. Most of what we know is rooted in lore or based on conjecture. For whateverits worth, let’s recount what we know of how Goa got populated – with her tribals and,millennia later, her Indo-Aryans, in all 41 kinship groups.
The theory that human settlements began in Goa from about 10,000 BC does not stand the test of reason. Available vegetation wouldn’t sustain life in the early Neolithic period. Human settlements would more credibly have begun circa 4,000 BC or 3,000 BC. Joao de Barros (1496-1590), arguably the greatest chronicler of the Portuguese in India, even if he never stepped here, wrote the first three ‘Decadas,’ covering the period from1498, when Vasco da Gama arrived, to 1526. In the second Decada (Vol. I, Chapter 1),Barros says Goa’s first settlers were “poor people who came from beyond the land ofCanara.” These Proto-Australoids, who inhabited South India and Sri Lanka, arebelieved to have come from coastal Karnataka/north Kerala. They were the Mhars.
However, Arthur Crawford in ‘Legends of the Konkan’ (1909) cites an ancient account of a Chitpavan Brahmin, that ‘Dhangars’ first discovered the beautiful Konkan. Hearing this, Mhars crossed the Ghats and settled on the Konkan coast. (The earliest known Dhangar settlements in Karnataka date 2,900 BC. Assuming the belief to be true that Dhangars arrived in Goa about 1,000 years after the Mhars, Goa’s earliest human settlements could not be before 4,000 BC.) Latter day tribes that migrated to Goa called the originals ‘Maraung’ (“elder family” in theMundari language) before the word got corrupted to Mhar. Even the last to arrive, the Indo-Aryans, acknowledged Mhars – through various religious and social customs – as the original owners of Goa. The head Mhar was called ‘Vatandar Mhar.’ Mhars, today a scheduled tribe, sacrificed buffaloes to propitiate spirits of their ancestors and their demon deities. They ate the flesh, even bones, hence regarded ‘untouchable’ –just as cobblers, who worked on the hides of cattle. So much that Mhars were not allowed to even cross the shadow of the ‘higher’ castes that followed them into Goa! If a latter-day Brahmin even inadvertently stepped on the shadow of a Mhar – clad infootwear made from the hide of a cow – he would return home to undergo a purificationritual.
It’s a different matter that Brahmins ate beef in the Vedic age and guests were called ‘Goghna’ (“slayer of the calf”) … for whom the calf was cooked into a meal. Mhars worshipped the devil-god ‘Maru.’ Maru lived on hilltops and treetops. Hence the small shrines around the base of trees, where Maru was placated with offerings of miniature clay horses. Such trees were never cut down. Over time, Maru came to be known as Ketrapal (Sheshtrapal.) Mhars also worshipped the wild ‘Kel’ tree (the deityKelbai.) Mhars lived by hunting and gathering fruits and edible vegetation and roots. Mhars were believed to possess powers of exorcism. Even though latter-day Gawda,Kumbhar, Gurav and Bhagats were known for sorcery, none compared to a Mhar –when it came to chasing away evil eye, spirits, and even cobras! These powers activatedSundays and Wednesdays, when the rituals were performed. Even converts to Christianity were believed to have retained these powers.
Christian Mhars were summoned to Hindu households to exorcise evil eye, much as the“corrupted” one would participate in temple rituals of honour and receive the first share of the crop as his Hindu ancestors did. Mhars worked as undertakers, preparing funeral pyres and conducting cremations(some converted ones worked as church sextons), and later acquired skills at bamboo weaving. A ‘Mhar-vaddo’ welcomed entry to most Goan villages (“Ganv asa thuim marodd asa”), to protect it from evil spirits and invaders! Though pioneers, Goan Mhars are at the bottom-most rung of the social pecking order.Every successive tribe that settled in Goa was stronger, and subjugated the earlier settlers.Another reason why Mhars were at the lowest slot of the societal hierarchy. (ENDS.)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column.
By Valmiki Faleiro.
None of what is believed about the first human settlements in Goa is based on scientificevidence. Most of what we know is rooted in lore or based on conjecture. For whateverits worth, let’s recount what we know of how Goa got populated – with her tribals and,millennia later, her Indo-Aryans, in all 41 kinship groups.
The theory that human settlements began in Goa from about 10,000 BC does not stand the test of reason. Available vegetation wouldn’t sustain life in the early Neolithic period. Human settlements would more credibly have begun circa 4,000 BC or 3,000 BC. Joao de Barros (1496-1590), arguably the greatest chronicler of the Portuguese in India, even if he never stepped here, wrote the first three ‘Decadas,’ covering the period from1498, when Vasco da Gama arrived, to 1526. In the second Decada (Vol. I, Chapter 1),Barros says Goa’s first settlers were “poor people who came from beyond the land ofCanara.” These Proto-Australoids, who inhabited South India and Sri Lanka, arebelieved to have come from coastal Karnataka/north Kerala. They were the Mhars.
However, Arthur Crawford in ‘Legends of the Konkan’ (1909) cites an ancient account of a Chitpavan Brahmin, that ‘Dhangars’ first discovered the beautiful Konkan. Hearing this, Mhars crossed the Ghats and settled on the Konkan coast. (The earliest known Dhangar settlements in Karnataka date 2,900 BC. Assuming the belief to be true that Dhangars arrived in Goa about 1,000 years after the Mhars, Goa’s earliest human settlements could not be before 4,000 BC.) Latter day tribes that migrated to Goa called the originals ‘Maraung’ (“elder family” in theMundari language) before the word got corrupted to Mhar. Even the last to arrive, the Indo-Aryans, acknowledged Mhars – through various religious and social customs – as the original owners of Goa. The head Mhar was called ‘Vatandar Mhar.’ Mhars, today a scheduled tribe, sacrificed buffaloes to propitiate spirits of their ancestors and their demon deities. They ate the flesh, even bones, hence regarded ‘untouchable’ –just as cobblers, who worked on the hides of cattle. So much that Mhars were not allowed to even cross the shadow of the ‘higher’ castes that followed them into Goa! If a latter-day Brahmin even inadvertently stepped on the shadow of a Mhar – clad infootwear made from the hide of a cow – he would return home to undergo a purificationritual.
It’s a different matter that Brahmins ate beef in the Vedic age and guests were called ‘Goghna’ (“slayer of the calf”) … for whom the calf was cooked into a meal. Mhars worshipped the devil-god ‘Maru.’ Maru lived on hilltops and treetops. Hence the small shrines around the base of trees, where Maru was placated with offerings of miniature clay horses. Such trees were never cut down. Over time, Maru came to be known as Ketrapal (Sheshtrapal.) Mhars also worshipped the wild ‘Kel’ tree (the deityKelbai.) Mhars lived by hunting and gathering fruits and edible vegetation and roots. Mhars were believed to possess powers of exorcism. Even though latter-day Gawda,Kumbhar, Gurav and Bhagats were known for sorcery, none compared to a Mhar –when it came to chasing away evil eye, spirits, and even cobras! These powers activatedSundays and Wednesdays, when the rituals were performed. Even converts to Christianity were believed to have retained these powers.
Christian Mhars were summoned to Hindu households to exorcise evil eye, much as the“corrupted” one would participate in temple rituals of honour and receive the first share of the crop as his Hindu ancestors did. Mhars worked as undertakers, preparing funeral pyres and conducting cremations(some converted ones worked as church sextons), and later acquired skills at bamboo weaving. A ‘Mhar-vaddo’ welcomed entry to most Goan villages (“Ganv asa thuim marodd asa”), to protect it from evil spirits and invaders! Though pioneers, Goan Mhars are at the bottom-most rung of the social pecking order.Every successive tribe that settled in Goa was stronger, and subjugated the earlier settlers.Another reason why Mhars were at the lowest slot of the societal hierarchy. (ENDS.)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column.
April 23, 2009
YES FOR MONEY BUT NO FOR VOTES - Response.
Hi Veronica,
Dev boro diss tumkam.
Article is well written, appreciate very much. Well said, UGDP is worth nothing but trouble creators, name is sacred but Leaders are worst than back stabbers. You said appropriately, it is really like a launch pad rather than a party. No one remained faithful to that party after they got elected. The Leaders themselves are having ulterior motives, they only cheat Christians and bluff them and Christian like simpletons believing them but only to be deceived later.
Mind you Matanhy did not join BJP but supported them and rubbed his innocent shoulders with them only out of hatred to the Congress culture and dishonesty. Matany would make a great leader and keep his name immaculate had he never supported BJP but there was perhaps no alternative to him then to show his disgust on Congress treachery. And I think BJP will gain a lot out of this fight in the south.
It is good Congress did not give ticket to Valanka. Churchill looks like selling his daughter to Politics, may be I am mistaken! But I have never heard her name in any social causes of Goa, have not even heard of any support, she has not been even the least social nor popular, Just like we go to Posro and buy a toy Churchill was trying his utmost with even blackmailing to get a (toy like a) ticket for his daughter. What is so sweet in politics he found to induct his non-aligned daughter in this dirty “Rebod” politics?.
Those who enter in politics are doing lot of grass root level work and with popularity they win the hearts of the People who out of love and trust chose one amongst them to lead them, She should create first such opportunities win the hearts of the people and rise up, and not because her father wants her in politics to swallow the sweets from Public treasury undeservingly and dishonestly. Churchill should not impose his daughter on public, no matter how good she is. It her who should earn the public liking to be a leader and to get elected. Churchill should stop force creating empires for his family. It is left up to public to choose any one on their merits and not because some one is force imposing on them someone unheard in the political & social arena.
BTW, is she practicing the law? You must have read so many young Kuwaiti lawyers fighting their cases and publishing very proudly of their achievements.
Take care.
Best regards.
EK KUWAITCHO GOYKAR.
(Name with held on request).
Dev boro diss tumkam.
Article is well written, appreciate very much. Well said, UGDP is worth nothing but trouble creators, name is sacred but Leaders are worst than back stabbers. You said appropriately, it is really like a launch pad rather than a party. No one remained faithful to that party after they got elected. The Leaders themselves are having ulterior motives, they only cheat Christians and bluff them and Christian like simpletons believing them but only to be deceived later.
Mind you Matanhy did not join BJP but supported them and rubbed his innocent shoulders with them only out of hatred to the Congress culture and dishonesty. Matany would make a great leader and keep his name immaculate had he never supported BJP but there was perhaps no alternative to him then to show his disgust on Congress treachery. And I think BJP will gain a lot out of this fight in the south.
It is good Congress did not give ticket to Valanka. Churchill looks like selling his daughter to Politics, may be I am mistaken! But I have never heard her name in any social causes of Goa, have not even heard of any support, she has not been even the least social nor popular, Just like we go to Posro and buy a toy Churchill was trying his utmost with even blackmailing to get a (toy like a) ticket for his daughter. What is so sweet in politics he found to induct his non-aligned daughter in this dirty “Rebod” politics?.
Those who enter in politics are doing lot of grass root level work and with popularity they win the hearts of the People who out of love and trust chose one amongst them to lead them, She should create first such opportunities win the hearts of the people and rise up, and not because her father wants her in politics to swallow the sweets from Public treasury undeservingly and dishonestly. Churchill should not impose his daughter on public, no matter how good she is. It her who should earn the public liking to be a leader and to get elected. Churchill should stop force creating empires for his family. It is left up to public to choose any one on their merits and not because some one is force imposing on them someone unheard in the political & social arena.
BTW, is she practicing the law? You must have read so many young Kuwaiti lawyers fighting their cases and publishing very proudly of their achievements.
Take care.
Best regards.
EK KUWAITCHO GOYKAR.
(Name with held on request).
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