NO TO CHRISTIANS BUT YES TO CHRISTIAN FEASTS.
On Monday 27th April I attended the feast of Milagre Saibinn at Mapusa Church. After attending the Mass, I went around the annual “Feri” where I saw innumerable people mainly the Catholic devotees purchasing different items from the Stalls. With the exception of "Cheuris Pao" almost all the Stalls were put up and owned by non-Catholics many of them anti-Christians and some of them non-Goans, the latest descendents from "Ghantti" land having no respect for Christians and no reverence for Christian relics and their values. Even in the que one could see only the Ghantti beggars without uttering a single word of Konkani prayer like “Baba tumcher bessaum poddonk re, bai tumchem borem zaum go, Milagre Sabinnin tumcher besavam ghalunk”. Their only motto is to make money. This money they collect from Goan Catholics devotees. It was very hurting to know that the very people who hate Christians are promoting their businesses only thru Christian patronage and our Church leaders are not giving any guidance for us to challenge this trend and take control of our affairs.
We have so many jobless Catholics, Church leaders in every village for the Church feasts must encourage these jobless Christians to put up their own stalls for the Church “Feri” instead of using these boys and girls for running the Church “Kermes”. Even if monetary assistance is required, Church leaders should come forward to assist and if necessary even business guidance like entrepreneurial skills should be thought to our Christians. Churches are making lot of money thru organising Kermes, thru Sunday Collections and by organising Shows and Tiatros. During Milagre Saibinn Fest, one Tiatro of Prince Jacob was scheduled for which very hefty tickets were sold namely first class for Rs. 500/- followed by Rs. 300/- Rs. 200/- etc. This is big money Church is making and such money extortion in the name of Church was imposed on Catholic devotees only. It is not Mapusa Church alone, all the Churches in Goa must come out with some ideas to involve Goan Christians into business first especially where Church is involved. Goa Church must stop begging and instead start financing and guiding our people for entrepreneurial skills. Goa Church is not a beggar, it has got good wealth to support the faithfuls and their projects.
Currently I have noticed that due to degoanisation process in Goa and denying Catholics and other Christians of their privileges and rights, the importance of Christians is getting down and thru this process the influence of Catholic Church controlled from Panjim Altinho is waning. I noticed during the recent Lokh Sabab Election the influence of non-Goan Ghanttis and non-Christians was shining like Bethlehem Star. Our problem lies in the weak and inefficient leadership we get from our Church. Our Church and priests and even nuns are become over money conscious. At moment it looks that Priesthood is become a money making profession and not a vocation. In order to grab money, many of our priests are sprinting in all directions like our politicians. Some years back for the greed of money the then Pe. Vigar of our village Church sold inside premises of our Church to Amitab Bacchan to make his film, of course shamelessly. Our Church leaders and priests are least interested in the protection of our rights and privileges. It is they who sold rampantly Confraria Lands to non-Goans, non-Christians and the enemies of Christians. In time to come, we will survive as a strong community only if our Church and priests give us strong support, strong leadership and suitable guidance otherwise we will get drowned in the big ocean of Non-Goans continuously pouring in Goa and Non-Christians who will utilise each and every opportunity available in Goa for them. The downfall of Christians in general and Catholics in particular in Goa will be the making of our Church leadership. We don’t want the Church preaching empty sermons and giving nonsensical instructions. Those days are over. The days of opposition and challenges from our enemies are looming over our heads. Our Church leadership must rise and rise immediately.
A. Veronica Fernandes.
April 30, 2009
JOSE ROD SUCCESSFULLY OPERATED
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
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 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.
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