Medieval Goa: A Socio-Economic History

Medieval Goa
A Socio-Economic History
Teotonio R. de Souza
i
By Teotonio R de Souza
First edition: 1979
First Portuguese edition: 1994
Second English edition: co-published in May 2009
(This new edition fills the gap caused by the book being out of print for some
time now, and includes additional features such as an updated bibliography
that covers the past three decades since its first edition.)
Published by
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To my late parents
Maria Julia Fernandes and Luis Caetano de Souza
without whose love and care I would reach neither
Medieval nor Modern nor Contemporary Goa
Contents
Preface (second edition)
Foreword
ix
Preface (first edition)
Acknowledgments
xiv
Maps and diagram
xvi
Abbreviations
xvii
1 Rivals and Neighbours
I Rural Economy and Corporate Life
26
2 The Goan Rural Heritage
27
3 Agrarian Organisation and Praxis
43
4 Rural Social Life
62
II Urban Economy and Municipal Organisation
76
5 Urban Topography and Demography
77
6 Municipal Organisation and Policies
96
iii
7 Urban Economic Life
114
8 Overview and Preview
141
Bibliographical Essay
144
III Appendices
166
Glossary
229
Bibliography
234
Preface (second edition)

M EDIEVAL G OA first appeared three decades ago, it represented a
significant break in the tradition of Indo-Portuguese historiography,
until then markedly Luso-Indian, even when Goan native historians were
the authors.
HEN
The colonial culture and the political climate were not helpful for the promotion of a critical approach. Several Goans produced excellent works, and we
can think of Filipe Nery Xavier, or more recently of Pandurang Pissurlencar.
However, they usually limited their efforts to publish documents.
Filipe Nery Xavier admitted in an introductory note to his Bosquejo Histrico
das Communidades (1852) that he did not have sufficient strength to produce a more critical work. P.S.S. Pissurlencar manifested his true nationalist
sentiments only when the colonial-political climate was about to change.
He then displayed some political courage through his reluctance to collaborate with the Portuguese Government in the Right of Passage case at
the International Court of Justice at The Hague. He is said to have collaborated discreetly with the Indian historians, providing them documentary
information that was decisive to strengthen the legal position of India.
Following the Indian occupation of Goa in 1961, P.S.S. Pissurlencar accepted
an invitation from the University of Poona to deliver a series of lectures in
Marathi on the history of Portuguese-Maratha relations. The Portuguese
historian Alexandre Lobato was preferred by the Portuguese Government to
gather historical documentation for their Right of Passage dispute with
India. This fact may have been particularly irksome and responsible for Pissurlencars resentment. He felt that his competence in handling old Marathi
records had been ignored and that his political loyalty was doubted. Besides
organizing the Historical Archives of Goa very competently, Pissurlencar
had published extensive selections of archival documents, including those
related to the Agentes da Dimplomacia Portuguesa na India (1952). It was
probably his way of proving that Hindus and other non-Christians (Muslims,
Jews and Parsis) had served the Portuguese imperial interests in India with
great dedication and competence.
PREFACE (SECOND EDITION)
vi
There were other Goans who were not serving the Portuguese in Goa, but
produced valuable historical works outside Goa and with significant critical
capacity. D.D. Kosambi, Gerson da Cunha and Braz Fernandes may be cited
among these. All three were able to integrate their research into the wider
context of the history and culture of the Indian subcontinent.
During colonial times, Portuguese studies were concentrated largely on the
history of navigation and expansion of Christianity by the Portuguese in the
East. They do indeed merit attention and their long-term consequences can
hardly be ignored. However, following the end of colonial era, it was necessary to restore the historiographic balance and to question the exaggerated
myths about the Discoveries and Civilizing Mission of Portugal, and the
playing down of, or ignoring, the harmful consequences that accompanied
and followed those feats and mentality.
Medieval Goa represented an effort to question the biases of the colonial
historiography, while avoiding to fall prey to equally questionable triumphs
of nationalism.
It is with great satisfaction that I should record here my close collaboration with the late Fr. John Correia-Afonso, S.J. in initiating the series of
Indo-Portuguese history seminars which, during the past three decades,
contributed significantly to help restoring the historiographic balance that
Medieval Goa had intended. My manifesto at the first seminar of that series
took the form of a research paper entitled Voiceless in Goan Historiography. Despite the apparently populist provocation of the title, it was no
more than a call for serious attention to the native sources, to balance the
colonial documentation.
Medieval Goa covers a period which is generally regarded as early Modern
period in the West. However, we prefer to maintain the earlier designation,
in common with the corresponding periodisation of the Indian historiography. Besides whatever semblance of modernity the Portuguese colonial
regime brought to India, Goa had to wait for it until the 18th century or
almost the 19th century, and largely due to the English intervention in the
economy of Portuguese India through the Anglo-Portuguese treaty, the
setting up of the railway link, and forcing the end of the Inquisition.
This second English edition of Medieval Goa comes out after three decades,
because researchers and general public in Goa and elsewhere worldwide
continue finding it relevant and a useful book of reference with extensive
archival documentation from Goa and abroad. Its focus was on the rural
population, away from the bustling urban and metropolitan politics.
For the believers in the role of colonial elites, or any elites, it may be difficult
to accept that rural folks could have decided the long-term fate of the colony.
A careful analysis of this fact should suffice to question even two very recent
studies published in Portugal.
PREFACE (SECOND EDITION)
vii
Catarina Madeira Santos chose for a title of her M.Phil thesis (1999) a designation which Afonso de Albuquerque attributed to Goa in his correspondence with his king. For the conqueror of Goa, as cited in the concluding
chapter of Medieval Goa, it was the key for the whole of India (Goa a
Chave de toda a ndia) in his imperial strategy. He assured his king that he
could thenceforth order in Goa whatever he willed. Unfortunately, it did not
turn out to be that easy nor true.
A. Barreto Xavier, author of A Inveno de Goa (2008) believes that Goa
is an invention of varying and changing historical agents, and that the
Portuguese imperial hold in Goa during several centuries was not the result
of exclusive imperial hegemonic control, but a result of mutual negotiations
of varying social groups, both White and the natives. Contrary to most
prevailing theories about the determining role of the elites, Medieval Goa
substantiates the reality of Goans who protested with their feet, migrating
from Goa and determining thereby the fate of the colonial masters and their
more or less subservient native elites.
Few may have engaged in negotiations with colonial power while growing
waves of Goan emigrants sought their future away from the colonial domination from the earliest times. No one in India will be easily convinced that
Goans dispersed worldwide to divulge the gains of the Portuguese civilisation. The Inquisitors in Goa were proposing, at the end of the 17th century
as studied here, a series of legislative measures inspired by St. Paul writing
to the Romans, when he advised: noli propter escam destruere opus Dei
do not destroy Gods work for the sake of food! It was more important
for the Inquisitors to put an end to Hindu practices among the converts,
rather than to bother about their complaints and difficulties of livelihood
and survival.
The main actors of Medieval Goa are the ordinary people of the city and
the countryside. Their voice had been little heard, if it was heard at all,
in the prestigious and magisterial works of the well-known historians of
the Portuguese expansion. We need not forget though that the common
people also included many ethnic Portuguese who were just as much victims
of the colonial and imperial adventurism of their metropolitan elites and
authorities as the native Indians. Over time I realised that it is wrong to
adopt the Orwellian classification of enemies. There is much truth in the
old Latin saying inimici hominis domestici ejus, our enemies are from
within our household. In this sense, my research has been for me a process
of personal growth and self-liberation.
The concluding chapter of Medieval Goa defined its modest goal, namely
to set a research trend and to begin a discussion that may help us to cease
to remain medieval. It expressed the hope that the (then, at the time of
its first publication) forthcoming Goa University would be interested in
promoting wider and deeper analysis into the socio-economic past of Goa
in order to help the efforts at socio economic reconstruction of liberated

Goa. Interestingly and within very short span of time, I had the opportunity
of directing the establishment of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research on
behalf of the Goa Province of the Society of Jesus since 1979 and of having it
recognised as Ph.D. research centre of the then newly set-up Goa University,
which had come up in 1986. The collaboration resulted in various joint
projects and in publication of Goa Through the Ages, II : An Economic History
and Essays in Goan History. It is my ardent wish that this collaboration may
grow strong.
I had the opportunity to recently publish, in a brochure commemorating
Portuguese cultural week in Goa, an essay entitled Unwrapping Goan
Identity. The history of Goan society is complex and made up of many
wrappings. Like while peeling an onion, it can make us at times cry over
the ambiguities and conflicting situations it implies. But it is an ongoing
process that must help us to come to terms with our past or to disentangle
from the past and make it a launching pad for the future.
By way of acknowledgment, I have not forgotten the Jesuit sinners to whom
the earlier editions were dedicated. They were part of my onion-peeling
exercise and I continue grateful for that vital component of my medieval
Goa. Had it not been for frequent and varied support I received from the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation over the past three decades, including
distribution worldwide of the first edition of Medieval Goa, much of my
research efforts would not have the impact it has had. I wish to record here
a special note of gratitude to my new alma mater, the Universidade Lusfona in Lisbon, where I found since my settlement in Portugal a congenial
ambiance for my academic sustenance and fulfillment.
I extend my thanks to my wife Elvira who has accompanied me understandingly over the past 15 years in my interests and efforts that were not always
easy to sustain. My grateful thanks to Frederick Noronha, whose interest
in producing this edition is part of a bond that has kept us linked with Goa
before and beyond medieval concerns.
Finally my gratitude to all who have over the past thirty years appreciated
my dedication to the cause of Goas history, and have contributed their own
efforts to make this a collaborative venture and success. Without wanting
to make this book different from what it was, I have only updated relevant
bibliography and added some fresh comments in the bibliographical essay.
Lisboa, 18th February 2009
Foreword
of Western India is a neglected branch of
research. I am happy that a beginning in this direction has been made
by Dr de Souza.
HE SOCIO - ECONOMIC HISTORY
With his Goan background and disciplined Jesuit training, but an unbiased
mind that may be uncharacteristic of both, Dr. Teotonio R. de Souza has
begun a commendable work in the field of Indo-Portuguese history. His
Medieval Goa is a result of painstaking research efforts and makes a remarkable contribution to the existing literature on the socio-economic history of
Medieval India.
He has consulted a large number of Portuguese documents from the Goa
Archives as well as from Lisbon and other places for his study. He has
appended a few of these to his monograph. This has made his study more
authentic, and valuable for further research in this field.
He has given us quite an interesting analysis of the benefits and evils of Portuguese colonialism to the rural economy of Goa, as well as a good picture
of the conflicting interests in the town economy of Goa in a framework of
mercantilist ideology.
Dr de Souzas views have already gained respectful hearing at national and
international levels and do not need my backing, but it makes me proud
to have been association with this promising scholar during his budding
stages.
AR Kulkarni
Department of History,
University of Poona,
PUNE-411 007
14 June 1979
Preface (first edition)

the historical past of Goa, particularly in the
Portuguese language, is abundant. A light survey of such literature
may lead one to the conclusion that spending any more time, energy and
money on the same subject is a near criminal wastage in the context of the
economic strain of our country. However, a more judicious scrutiny of the
relevant bibliography reveals quite the contrary.
ITERATURE RELATING TO
The bulk of this bibliography consists of songs of praise to, or lamentations

about, the Portuguese colonial masters of Goa. There are publications that
can stuff a reader with details regarding the aims, establishment, development and decline of the Portuguese empire in the East, but in all such
accounts attention is always focused upon the colonial masters and their
exploits either to praise them or to deprecate and condemn them.
The re-introduction of popular democratic institutions in Goa after nearly
four and a half centuries of colonial rule perfectly justifies the need of transposing the roles of actors in Indo-Portuguese historiography. The aim of this
present research effort is to get closer to the common mans reality, whether
in his rural or urban setting. It seeks to replace the myth of a Golden Goa
with the reality of the socio-economic pressures as well as opportunities
to which the Goan population was awakened by the Portuguese rule. An
attempt is made to reconstruct the historical scenario of Goa in the seventeenth century and to recapture the sighs and the cries, the joys and the
sorrows of the silent masses of its inhabitants.
The choice of the seventeenth century for the period of study was determined by two factors: First, this is the earliest period for which the Goa
Archives contains the bulk of its documentation. Second, it is assumed
that only a detailed study of the seventeenth century can lead to a fair assessment of the socio-economic change initiated in the previous century
which saw the native population of Goa confronted by a Western-styled
Christianity and colonial capitalism. It was, therefore, decided to study the
socio-economic past of seventeenth century Goa in the light of trends set
in motion by the arrival of the Portuguese and by the political, commercial
PREFACE (FIRST EDITION)
xi
and religious policies pursued by them during the course of the previous
century.
The choice of the seventeenth century also helped in restricting the geographical extent to be covered by this monograph. The Portuguese jurisdiction of Goa during this period was limited to the three talukas or provinces
of Bardez, Tiswadi and Salcete. The latter taluka included the present-day
Mormuganv taluka as well. This original jurisdiction came to be known later
by the designation of Old Conquests in order to distinguish it from the later
addition of seven more provinces which were called the New Conquests.
The methodological approach of the present study is indicated by its subtitle, socio-economic history, which goes to show that the emphasis is on
social and economic aspects of the historical past of Goa. Greater concentration on quantification of data was surely desirable, but our low expertise
in the realm of economics warned us against manhandling figures.
However, numbers have not been entirely ignored wherever they did not
demand too expert a touch. Attention is focused on social and economic
institutions which provided the frame of existence and activity to the rural
and urban population of Goa in the seventeenth century. A survey of the
political history has been included by way of the Introduction, to provide
the indispensable context in which the socio-economic changes in Goa
were taking place.
This approach pre-supposed our conviction that any significant socioeconomic changes at the headquarters of the Portuguese eastern empire
had to be intimately connected with, and need to be assessed in, the wider
context of their overall imperial fortunes. This survey becomes a more integrated element in the general structure of the present monograph due to
its references to the declining trade fortunes of the Portuguese, including
considerations regarding coastal and hinterland exchanges, upon which the
Goan population depended not just for luxury goods but even for essential
food-grains during the major part of the year.
Part One deals with the Rural Economy and Corporate Life and Part Two
covers the salient features of the Urban Economy and Municipal Organisation. These two parts, consisting of three chapters each, form the main
body of this study.
Research in this field has still to establish and clarify basic facts and concepts
and this is largely responsible for a pre-dominantly descriptive presentation
of data. However, this has not been a bar to critical analysis.
The search for data was guided throughout by a determination to seek
answers to a number of problems: What was the prevailing pattern of Goan
economy? How did the growth of money economy influence the agrarian
economy? What was the impact of Christianisation upon Goan society and
its economy? What was the degree of town development and what was the
xii
extent of its interaction with the surrounding villages under its political
control? What were the class interests in the urban and rural economies?
Were there any definite ideological principles guiding the colonial policies
of the Portuguese administration in Goa?
All the problems posed may not have found clearly formulated answers,
but it has surely been possible to arrive at some fresh, though tentative,
conclusions suggested by the critical reading of relevant documentation
available.
Chapter-wise, Part One and Part Two proceed with the study in the following
manner: Chapter Two sums up the written history of the Goan village communities, and thereby serves as an introduction to the two chapters that
follow. This chapter describes the geographical distribution, the historical
origin and the customary legislation of the Goan village communities. It has
been attempted to point out certain misinterpretations and omissions in
the written history.
Chapter Three looks into the details of the working of the agrarian economy:
It covers the village functionaries and their functions, the modes of land
tenure, the assessment and collection of revenue, the distribution of profit
and loss, and some other related topics of interest.
Chapter Four, which concludes Part One, deals with the social aspect or the
corporate life of the village communities, and delves into the administration
of justice, the practice of religion, the promotion of education, and the
organisation of social welfare. Economic implications of these issues have
been highlighted.
Chapter Five opens the study of the urban economy describing the topographic features of the town and introducing its different population groups
with their respective roles in town life. The role played by domestic slavery
has been duly emphasised. The grip of the Hindu minority upon the Goabased Portuguese economy, in spite of the official anti-Hindu stance, has
been analysed.
Chapter Six narrates the history of the establishment of the municipal government, describes its organisation and administrative policies, and analyses the nature of its clashes with the State authorities and some other
conflicting interests in the context of the prevailing mercantilist ideology.
Chapter Seven closes Part Two with the analysis of some salient features
of urban economic life, such as the labour and market organisation, and a
rough estimate of the cost of living.
The original dissertation as submitted to the University of Poona had no
concluding chapter. It was intentionally so, because of my conviction that
the research done was not sufficient to reach definitive conclusions. On
the contrary, it had ended with many more loose ends than it succeeded in
tying up. This present concluding chapter has little to do with conclusions
xiii
as such: it lists what may be some of my personal biases which have found
documentary support, but its main goal is to indicate directions in which
more investigation and analysis are required. Hence, it does not seek to
summarise what this study has achieved, but what is to be pursued by its
author and the readers by way of a follow-up.
Acknowledgments
achievement of a person is generally an outcome, in
varying degrees, of the exploitation of a host of other persons. This
unpleasant feeling is mine on completion of this work. It was consoling,
however, to realise in this process much goodness in persons, such as the
abundance of generosity I had the opportunity to experience in the course
of my research-oriented efforts.
VERY SIGNIFICANT
It is only very inadequately that I can express my gratitude to Prof. A. R.

Kulkarni, whose solicitude in more respects than mere academic guidance
has proved to me that the classical Indian guru-sisya relationship is not just
past history.
The generous cooperation of Dr V. T. Gune, Director of the Goa Archives,
permitted me to draw the staple of my documentation from this repository
of records in the shortest time possible. I am indebted also to his former
assistant, Mr. G. Ghantkar, who first introduced me to the collections of
the Goa Archives and helped in gathering information from the old village
community records written in old Kannada script.
I wish to express my thanks to the authorities of the Post-Graduate Centre
of Instruction and Research (Panaji) for letting me utilise the Pissurlencar
collection housed there. My sincere thanks also to Mr. Hubli, Curator of the
Central Library, Panaji, and to his well-informed young aide Pia Rodrigues. I
am grateful to B. Manerkar, the young and enthusiastic librarian of Athaide
Municipal Library, Mapusa, and to Mr. Mariano Dias from Mapusa for
placing at my disposal his private collection of books and manuscripts,
including the Avelino Soares manuscripts.
My grateful thanks go to J. P. Bacelar e Oliveira, S.J., Rector of the Catholic
University of Lisbon, for sponsoring my visit to Portugal. A. da Rego, Alberto
Iria, A. Teixeira da Mota, as well as the authorities and staffs of various
archives and libraries of Lisbon made it possible for me to add to the value
of this work by bringing into it some of the rich and relevant documentary
evidence that was available in the archives of Portugal. My vote of thanks
also to the authorities of the Madrid National Library, and of the Jesuit
xiv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
xv
Roman Archives. I wish to thank very especially the guidance I received

from Fr. J. Wicki of the Institutum Historicum S.J., Rome.
I am very thankful to J. B. Harrison of S.O.A.S. (London) and Ashin Das Gupta
of Shantiniketan (Calcutta) for their critical appreciation and comments
on my original work submitted to the University of Poona for the doctoral
degree. Much of the improvement in the published version was possible
because of their criticism and suggestions.
I wish to record my gratitude to U.G.C. for its Junior Research Fellowship,
to I.C.H.R. for a publication grant, and to the Gulbenkian Foundation of
Lisbon for its financial assistance during my visit to Europe.
I wish to thank Percival Noronha and Alexandre Pereira for supplying the two
maps prepared by the Land Survey Department of Goa, and Eng. Urbano
Lobo for preparing the diagram.
Finally, I want to thank Vincent DSouza, S.J., the Provincial Superior of the
Order who encouraged my entering the field of historical research. I am no
less obliged to his successor, Romuald DSouza, S.J. for sustaining my research efforts. Here goes also my grateful salute to all my Jesuit companions
and friends whose critical and appreciative comments and attitudes were
an on-going stimulus.
T. R. de Souza
Maps and diagram

Goa and its Neighbours: No boundaries have been marked, because
they were constantly changing in the course of the 17th century.
Old Conquests of Goa: The spelling of place-names has been adjusted
to keep it as close as possible to the spelling found in the records consulted and in the contemporary maps of Manoel Godinho Heredia.
Prices of Rice and Wheat in Goa City: It has been drawn with the
help of information available in the Papers of the Suppressed Convents at HAG. The doted links indicate lack of information for the
corresponding period.
xvi
Abbreviations
ACE Assentos do Conselho do Estado, ed, P.S.S. Pissurlencar.
ACF Assentos do Conselho da Fazenda (Minutes of the State Council)
AHSJ Archivum Historicum Societatis Jesu, Roma.
AHU Arquivo Histrico Ultramarino, Lisboa.
AJIC Anais da Junta das Investigaes Coloniais, Lisboa.
APF Archives of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, Roma.
APO-BP Arquivo Portugus Oriental, ed. A.B. de Bragana Pereira.
APO-CR Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, de J.H. da Cunha Rivara.
AR Archivo do Relao de Goa, ed. I. de Abranches Garcia.
ARSJ Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu, Roma.
BG Boletim do Governo, Nova Goa.
BHC Bosquejo Histrico das Communidades, by F. N. Xavier, Nova Goa, 1852.
BHC-JMS Bosquejo Historico das Communidades, 2nd ed., J. M. de S, Bastor, 1903-7.
BIVG Boletim do Instituto Vasco da Gama, Nova Goa / Bastor.
BNL Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa (National Library of Lisbon)
BNM Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (National Library of Madrid).
CEHU Centro de Estudos Histricos Ultramarinos (Centre of Overseas Historical Studies, Lisbon).
CEO Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, by Fr. Paulo de Trindade.
CT Colleco de Tratados, ed. J.F.J. Biker.
DGHM Descripo Geral e Histrica das Moedas, by A. C. Teixeira de Arago.
DI Documenta Indica, ed. J. Wicki, Roma.
xvii
ABBREVIATIONS
xviii
DMP Documentao para as Misses do Padroado Portugus do Oriente:

India, ed. A. da Rego, Lisboa.
DRI Documentos Remettidos da India, ed Bulho Pato / A. Rego, Lisboa.
DSE The Dutch Seaborne Empire, by C. R. Boxer.
DUP Documentao Ultramarina Portuguesa, ed. Rego, Lisbon.
EFI English Factories in India, ed. W. Foster, Oxford.
GLA Glossrio Luso-Asitico, by S.R. Dalgado.
HAG Historical Archives of Goa, Panaji.
HD History of Dharmashastra, ed. P.V. Kane.
HJ Hobson-Jobson, by Yule and Burnell.
HMD History of Medieval Deccan, ed. H.K. Sherwani and P.M. Joshi.
JBHS Journal of the Bombay Historical Society, Bombay.
JBMS Journal of the Bombay Mythic Society, Bombay.
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.
JRASB Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, Bombay.
JUB Journal of the University of Bombay, Bombay.
MD Molesworths Marathi-English Dictionary.
NCMH New Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge.
NZMW Neue Zeitschrift fr Missionswissenschaft, Schweiz.
OC Oriente Conquistado, by Francisco de Souza.
OP O Oriente Portugus, Nova Goa.
PI The Portuguese in India, by F.C. Danvers.
PO Os Portugueses no Oriente, ed. E.A. de S Nogueira Balsemo.
PSE The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, by C.R. Boxer.
PST Portuguese Society in the Tropics, by C.R. Boxer.
SG Sebastio Gonalves, Primeira Parte da Histria dos Religiosos da Companhia de Jesus, ed. J.Wicki.
TDT Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (National Archives, Lisbon).
WG Wilsons Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms.
Chapter 1
Rivals and Neighbours

century of nearly undisputed mastery over the western
Indian ocean, and after a sufficiently long spell of prosperity, misfortunes began falling thick and fast upon the Portuguese Empire. In 1580
Portugal lost its independence and the crowns of Spain and Portugal were
united in the person of Philip II of Spain, who assumed the title of Philip
I of Portugal. True, Portuguese administration and trade were left in the
hands of Portuguese nationals, but the royal authority in Spain showed little
concern for the growing difficulties of the Portuguese in the East. Portugal
had no foreign policy of its own and the enemies of Spain were turned into
enemies of Portugal. Despite promises to the contrary, Spain also used
financial resources and man-power from Portugal in order to quell Dutch
insurgency against Spanish rule.1
FTER A FIRST
In 1640 the Portuguese regained their independent rule, but it was too late to
repair the damage to the national and imperial economy. The century-old
fabric of the Portuguese eastern empire had been torn apart and appropriated by its North-European rivals. There was also the factor of moral
degeneration at work and we have the following comment about it from
a contemporary Jesuit who was very familiar with the prevailing situation:
From the oldest to the youngest, rare are the persons who perform their
duty. Of zeal for the service of the crown there is little. Portuguese exploits
are scarce. Graft in administration has flourished, the martial spirit has
faded; valour is non-existent and cowardice is rampant. All these are reasons encouraging our enemies.2 These reverses had emboldened native
rules of the neighbourhood to flout the trade restrictions of the Portuguese
and to exploit the competitive market inaugurated by the arrival of the
North-Europeans.3
What follows is a short review of a long-drawn conflict which deprived
the Portuguese of their stronghold over the Asiatic trade. This review is
CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS
indispensable as an introduction to the present study because the place

of importance to which Goa had risen depended entirely on its being the
strategic base of the Portuguese seaborne trade in the East. Hence, it would
be unrealistic to study economic change at Goa merely within the confines
of its geographical boundary.
The Portuguese and their North-European rivals

Neither the English nor the Dutch had been happy with their dependence
upon the Lisbon market for the supplies of eastern spices. It was a humiliating experience to the masters of the carrying trade of the Baltic and of
the rest of the western Europe.4 The merchant-adventurers of both these
countries had, from long back planned and carried successful raids upon
the home-bound wealth-laden vessels of the Iberian empires. Rich prizes
had whetted their appetites and tempted them to probe further into the
weakness of their empires. Following the union of the crowns of Spain and
Portugal, the latter as the weaker partner drew upon itself the fury of the
North-Europeans, who fought for spices under the cloak of nationalism and
the banner of Reformation.
The Portuguese and the English Rivals: The English restricted their use of
force to the minimum and succeeded in wresting concessions from the Portuguese through diplomatic tact. The Anglo-Portuguese relations in India
reflected very much the pattern of the Anglo-Portuguese relations in Europe. More than once in moments of national crises Portugal had turned to
England for help against enemies threatening her independence. However,
England had exploited all such occasions by offering its alliance to further
its business interests in the trade-world of Portugal.5 At the dawn of the
seventeenth century, the involvement of the English in the Asiatic trade compelled the Portuguese to buy their neutrality with concessions. This enabled
a concentration of Portuguese forces against the Dutch aggressiveness.
In the ominous situation created by the Dutch, the Portuguese could not
prevent the English from exploiting their weakness and from strengthening
their foothold in the Surat trade. However, the Portuguese did use whatever
little force they could and tried diplomatic intrigue at the Mughal court to
discourage English trade ambitions. It was only after Captain Thomas Best
had successfully resisted Portuguese attacks off the coast of Surat in 1612,
and after Captain Nicholas Downton had made short work of a Portuguese
fleet commanded personally by the Viceroy of Goa in 1615, that the Mughal
ruler officially sanctioned the trade activities of the English in his lands and
accepted an English ambassador at his court.6
The Thirty Years War (1618-48), pitting European countries against each
other largely on the basis of religious differences, was also responsible for
the English and the Dutch co-religionists joining hands in conquering the
East Indies trade.7 They fought by proxy upholding the grievances of the native princes against the Portuguese. Thus the English assisted the Persians
to drive the Portuguese out of Hurmuz in 1622, thereby depriving the Portuguese of an important strategic outpost as well as trading base. The Dutch
did the same in the Indonesian archipelago and in Ceylon. Fortunately for
the Portuguese, the English fell out with the Dutch over the control of the
Spice Islands. Coen of the Dutch East India Company had not reconciled
himself to the stipulations of the Dutch agreement with the English in 1619
and was of the opinion that Dutch supremacy in the Spice Islands would not
be achieved if conquests were to be undertaken jointly with the English.8
Deteriorating relations culminated with the massacre of some Englishmen
at Amboina in 1623. This incident marked a definite end to negotiations for
cooperation in Asia. This factor, plus the lack of interest shown by the early
Stuarts in offering protection to the Company merchants seemingly caused
the shifting of the English East India Companys interest to the west coast of
India and to the Persian Gulf. It also brought about a change in the staple of
the English trade from spices to textiles.9
As a result of a Portuguese initiative and of the willing response of the
English, Anglo-Portuguese relations entered a new phase with the signing
of the Goa Accord on January 20, 1635, which marked the cessation of
hostilities and inaugurated a phase of mutual assistance.10 While the longterm effect of the truce was restricted to a benevolent neutrality of the
English in favour of the Portuguese, there were immediate benefits derived
by the two signatories. The Portuguese freighted English vessels to supply
provisions to the besieged garrison of Malacca and to fetch copper and
ordnance from Macau to Goa through the straits of Singapore where the
Dutch were lying in wait for the Portuguese ships.11 In the meantime the
English were increasing their profits on the carrying trade, and even a few
coasters were built for them in the Portuguese shipyards of Bassein and
Daman.12 Anglo-Portuguese relations turned tense for a while when the
Accord was being violated by some English interlopers who had come to
draw the benefits of the truce. They belonged to the so-called Courteens
Association. It took the Portuguese some time to be convinced that the
Accord violators were not in league with the English East India Company
based at Surat. 13
Throughout the rest of the seventeenth century the Portuguese and the
English were kept together by their common hostilities towards the Dutch.
While the English fought three wars with the Dutch in Europe, the Portuguese and the Dutch continued locked in their grim duel for the Asiatic trade. The exhaustion of the Portuguese and their inability to contain
the Dutch forced them into a marriage treaty with England in 1661. The
treaty included a secret clause whereby the King of England committed
himself to bring about cessation of hostilities between the Portuguese and
the Dutch, or to fight in favour of the Portuguese in case the Dutch refused
to negotiate.14 In return for this secret promise English merchants were
granted the same privileges of trade at Goa, Cochin and Diu as were enjoyed
by Portuguese subjects, but no more than four English families would be
allowed to reside at one time at any of those places. The marriage treaty
also contained another clause by which the Portuguese crown ceded the
port region of Bombay to the English crown as dowry of the Portuguese
princess.15
The cession of Bombay, which was carried out by the Portuguese authorities
in India with great reluctance after a delay of four years, proved to be a severe
blow to Portuguese trade interests. The English crown transferred the island
to the English East India Company in 1668 for an insignificant annual rental
of ten pounds sterling and the Company proceeded to transform it into an
important trading base in India.16 Bombay began attracting many native
businessmen who until then had invested their capital in Portuguese trade.
Many native traders and artisans found in Bombay a safe refuge against the
intimidations of the Goa Inquisition or against the Portuguese legislation
regarding the orphan-children of the non-Christian families residing in
Portuguese-controlled territories.17
Correspondence between the English and the Portuguese in India during
the remainder of the seventeenth century was charged with accusations
and counter-accusations. Throughout that period the Portuguese tried to
obstruct the growth of English trade at Bombay by levying heavy transit
duties on goods taken from Bassein, Karanja and Thana, and by prohibiting
the transport of timber and food provisions to the island of Bombay.18 The
English responded to this harassment by supplying arms and ammunition
to the Arabs of Muscat, who had been harrassying Portuguese trade and
threatening the Portuguese East African trade centre of Mombasa.19 English
rivalry in India deprived the Portuguese of much of their cloth and indigo
supplies from Gujarat.20 Englishmen had also entered the calico market of
Sind as an useful subsidiary to their main establishment at Surat, and they
had created a new and profitable branch of the silk trade, thereby winning
for themselves an important position in the trade with the Persian Gulf.21
After the acquisition of Bombay the English also challenged the Portuguese
trade in tobacco, which was supplied from Brazil via Lisbon and had become
the best profit-making item of the Asiatic trade of Portugal in the last quarter
of the seventeenth century. At least a part of tobacco which the English sold
at Bombay was purchased at Lisbon itself.22
The Portuguese and the Dutch Rivals: when the Dutch came to the East
Indies, their considerable financial resources and long commercial experience gave them an edge over even the English, and hence, much more over
the Portuguese. Besides, their superior naval organisation and far less organisational hurdles made the Dutch challenge to the Lords of commerce
and navigation a tremendously overawing experience. The Dutch system-
atically harried the Portuguese interport trade of Asia from the Persian Gulf
to Japan, and reduced many of the long chain of Portuguese settlements
picking them off one by one.23
The Dutch had begun their operations in the Indonesian archipelago, which
Linschotens Itinerario had indicated as the least controlled region by the
Portuguese, and as such offering no possibility of a serious clash with them.
It was only after the Dutch had tested the strength of the Portuguese in Asia
that they ventured to broaden their area of confrontation.24 The overbearing
attitude of the Portuguese fort captains and their extortions from the native
merchants of the Spice Islands had won easy allies for the Dutch. With
their support and active collaboration the Dutch restricted the Portuguese
influence to Malacca, which lost its important rapidly and fell into Dutch
hands in 1641. A little earlier the Dutch had already wrested from the
Portuguese their rich monopoly of the Japanese trade, and the straits of
Singapore were no longer safe for Portuguese shipping with Dutch gunboats lying in wait for Portuguese vessels, particularly those engaged in
trade with Macau and Manila.25 The Dutch had stepped up their aggression
in Indian Ocean after the Portuguese had come to an agreement with the
English in 1635 in the form of the Goa Accord. Along with a campaign of
diplomatic intrigues at the Mughal court, the Dutch initiated a practice of
blockading the Goa port every year at the time of the arrival and departure
of the ships of the Carreira da India.26 These regular blockades disrupted
Portuguese Goa-based seaborne trade quite effectively, so much so that
between 1641-1644 not a single carrack could leave Goa for Portugal.27 The
loading and unloading operations of the Carreira ships were then shifted to
the northern ports of Chaul, Bassein and Bombay, though this meant a lot of
extra expenditure in the transport of goods and buillion from the northern
ports to Goa and vice-versa.28
When the Portuguese regained their independence in 1640, the Dutch hailed
the Portuguese revolt as a blow to Spain, but they showed no eagerness
to relieve their pressure upon the Portuguese colonies in the East Indies.
The Dutch did accept a ten-year truce in favour of the Portuguese, but its
ratification was delayed in order to gain time to effect the capture of Malacca.
The blockading of Goa port continued and the tempo of attacks on Ceylon
was intensified. The Dutch did not want the truce to snatch from their hands
what they considered to be a sure catch. In the meantime the Portuguese
were trying frantically to convince the Dutch that they were bound morally
to honour the terms of the truce.29
Before the said truce had come to an end in 1652, the Portuguese had
received a boost in the form of a successful campaign against the Dutch in
Brazil.30 The Portuguese had also succeeded in winning over the ruler of
Macassar in the Spice Islands to resist the Dutch claims and to keep them
distracted there. 31 Portugal had also initiated negotiations with England
in order to ensure English support once the hostilities with the Dutch were
resumed.32 However in spite of all these precautions and counter-measures,

the fury of the Dutch attacks, when these were renewed, was beyond the
Portuguese power to contain. By 1658, the Dutch conquered the Portuguese
settlements in coastal Ceylon, and by 1663 they had rounded off their Asian
conquests with the capture of Cochin and other Portuguese strongholds on
the Malahar coast.33 The Hague treaty of 1661 put an official end to the LusoDutch feud, which the Portuguese had no wish to renew even when the
Anglo-Dutch wars of 1665-7 and 1672-4 presented promising opportunities
for regaining some of the losses.34
The effects of the prolonged Luso-Dutch conflict were disastrous and devastating for the Portuguese. During the conflict Portuguese India was bled
white, both in terms of manpower and financial resources. At the close of the
conflict the gorgeous East was a glory of the Portuguese past. Even though
only fragmentary statistical information is available, it suffices as an indicator of the magnitude of total Portuguese losses. During one decade between
the years 1629-39 the Portuguese lost nearly 6,000 men, 160 ships, and
over 75,00,000 xerafins as booty, mostly to the Dutch.35 More serious losses
followed in the sieges of Malacca, Colombo and the Kanara and Malabar
settlements.
The Portuguese and the neighbouring rulers

In 1570, the Muslim rulers of the Deccan moved concertedly to drive out the
Portuguese who controlled the Indian seaborne trade at gun-point. However, this lone and praise-worthy exception in Indian history ended in a
fiasco. Their defeat can be attributed largely to the determination of the
Portuguese to stay on. It will be no mere figment of the imagination to suppose that in the wake of the extinction of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar
at the hands of the same Muslim coalition, the Hindu population of the
Portuguese dominions and the neighbourhood intervened to sabotage the
Muslim enterprise.36 Sixty years earlier, when the Portuguese captured Goa,
the success of the Portuguese was made possible by the native Hindu population which fought side by side with the Portuguese to defeat their former
Muslim overlords.37
Though the Portuguese emerged unscathed and were successful in reiterating their determination to continue acting as lords of navigation and
commerce, they had not failed to learn their lesson. They had narrowly
escaped being pushed into the sea by the land forces of the neighbouring
princes. The situation had changed for the Portuguese with the arrival of
new European naval forces, whose alliance the native powers were likely
to seek to blunt the edge of Portuguese superiority. This realisation made
the Portuguese more cautious and more restrained in enforcing sea control
and in shaping their course of relationship with their neighbours in the

seventeenth century.38
Portuguese-Mughal Relations (1600-1700): The Portuguese came into

contact with the Mughals when Akbar annexed Gujarat to his empire in
1673. Akbar then tried to win the friendship of the Portuguese in India by
exploiting their proselytizing zeal. His pretensions were so well disguised
that it took the wise Jesuits quite some time to realise that the Mughal
emperor was playing a political game. 39 However, Akbar continued to press
for the presence of the Portuguese Jesuits at his court, left the Portuguese
with Daman in his Gujarat subah, promised not to shelter the Malabar pirates, and agreed to the condition that he would be entitled to only one
passport-free voyage to the Red Sea once a year.40 The Portuguese on their
side were well aware of Akbars might and of the vulnerability of several
of their forts on the western Indian coast. Thus they took pains not to offend the Mughals, and the Jesuits were coaxed to continue residing at the
Mughal court despite their repeated reports expressing the futility of their
continuing there.41 Portuguese interests in Gujarat formed the backbone of
the Portuguese revenue in the East: From their establishments at Bassein,
Daman and Diu they issued cartazes (passes) to all ships leaving the ports
of Gujarat and collected passport fees. Portuguese coastal fleets from Goa
visited the ports of Gujarat every year and carried a large proportion of the
merchandise exported from the province, particularly cloths.42 Indigo also
formed an important item of trade with Gujarat.43 The importance of this
trade can be gauged from a report sent by the Goa municipal council to the
King of Portugal in 1606: The disturbances in Gujarat where the natives
have rebelled against the Mughal have taken a heavy toll of the revenue of
this Portuguese State of India, because the vanias (banianes) were the ones
who patronised most our customs.44
During the rule of Akbars successors Portuguese-Mughal relations were
strained on different occasions. When the Portuguese saw, for instance, that
in spite of the efforts of the Jesuits at the court of Jehangir to dissuade the
emperor he was responding favourably to the approaches of the Englishmen
and had even granted them permission to have a trading establishment at
Surat, the viceroy of Goa ordered the admiral of the Portuguese fleet in the
northern seas to lie in wait for any ship of the Mughals that might return
from Mecca to Surat. A vessel returning from Mecca with large amount
of precious cargo was accordingly captured, sacked and set afire.45 The
hostilities that ensued led to the siege of Daman by land, while the Portuguese retaliated by bombarding the port towns of Broach, Gogala and
Surat. Neither party derived any substantial benefit from the war which
lasted two years until a peace treaty was signed on June 7, 1615. The war
had damaged the economy of both contenders. As reported by the chief
revenue comptroller of the Portuguese State of India on December 25, 1614,
the State of India is in a miserable situation because its customs are without revenues as a result of hostilities with the Mughal and the consequent
disruption of the trade with Gujarat.46
Even though the very first clause of the treaty of 1615 required that the
Mughal emperor should expel the North Europeans from Surat and refuse
entry, protection and replenishments to their ships in any port of the Mughal
empire, it remained a dead letter. The Mughal emperor accepted that very
year at his court as accredited ambassador of the crown of England the
Englishman Sir Thomas Roe. Jehangir was convinced by the events which
he had witnessed that the superiority of the English naval power could be
effectively used to check the insolence of the Portuguese.47
The Portuguese were also aware of the fact that the Mughal could cause
great harm to them by utilizing the naval arm of the English or of the Dutch.
Accordingly, they pretended to ignore the demands of the treaty and their
fulfillment on the part of the Mughal. They also adopted a more flexible
policy of sea control with regard to the Mughal shipping: Mughal ships
were often allowed to leave the ports of Gujarat without cartazes but subject to paying customs duties on the outgoing and incoming goods at the
Portuguese customs house at Daman.48
Soon after Shahjahan took into his hands the reins of the Mughal empire
the Portuguese were subjected to some rough treatment. The emperor had
several grievances against the Portuguese administration in India, as well
as against the Portuguese renegades and adventurers in Bengal. His anger
took the form of a campaign against the Portuguese settlement at Hughly
in Bengal, which he captured and carried several thousands of Portuguese
men, women and children prisoners to Agra, where he converted many to
Islam and reduced others to slavery.49
After Shahjahan annexed the lands of Nizam Shah to his empire in 1636
the Portuguese at Daman lived under a permanent threat from the Mughal
forces. A couple of years later the Mughals succeeded in subduing the ruler
of Ramnagar, known to the Portuguese as Choutea. The Mughals then demanded from the Portuguese a contribution (Chauth) which they had been
paying to the king of Ramnagar. The Portuguese subjects who cultivated
the lands of Daman were thus required to pay not only the usual 17% of the
produce, which they had been paying to Choutea, but an increased rate of
25%. The Mughals refused to pay any heed to the representations of the
Portuguese administration in this matter.50
When Aurangzeb took over the Mughal administration in 1658 the situation
in the Deccan took a serious turn and forced the Portuguese to be on their
guard. Aurangzeb was determined to bring to a successful end the plans
of this forefathers for the subjugation of the Deccan, and perhaps, of the
entire Indian subcontinent. He personally assumed command of the operations and shifted his court from Agra to Daulatabad. However, there was a
new element which Aurangzebs predecessors had not faced: the Marathas.
During the Mughal-Maratha conflict the Portuguese kept themselves at
arms length, praised Shivajis valour as no other contemporaries had done,
and prayed that the duel might last long and save the Portuguese from the
ambitious designs of both their mighty neighbours.51
Portuguese-Ahmadnagar Relations (1600-1636): Until 1600 there had
been constant and serious friction between the Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar in the Deccan and the Portuguese, but after this they shared a
10
community of interests and considerations of mutual safety against the aggressiveness of the Mughals. The Portuguese had their prosperous Province
of the North, 52 and its safety required the preservation of Ahmadnagar as
a buffer State. Time and again the Viceroys in India received instructions
from the king of Portugal to make their own the cause of Malik Ambar, the
able Abyssinian minister of the Nizam, who was straining all military and
diplomatic skill to keep the Nizam Shahi alive.53
In 1604 Malik Ambar granted to the Portuguese the right to collect half the
land revenue in Chaul in recognition of the aid he was receiving to resist the
Mughal pressure. In keeping with their tradition, the Portuguese resorted to
high-handed exactions from the peasants of Chaul. Malik intervened to put
an end to these abuses, but the Portuguese could not bear the idea of being
corrected by a pagan. Both sides resorted to violent hostilities which lasted
for several years until an imminent threat of Mughal forced them to come
to an understanding in 1615 through the mediation of Ibrahim Adil Shah
of Bijapur. A tripartite agreement was then concluded at Nauraspur, near
Bijapur, in 1615.54
In 1625 the Portuguese resumed hostilities in Chaul and the provocation
led to the capture of Dabhol by Malik Ambar. Thereafter some sort of truce
was concluded.55 The following year Malik Ambar died and was succeeded
by his less talented son Fath Khan. The year 1627 saw also the passing
away of Ibrahim Adil Shah II who had been a good friend of Malik Ambar.
The Mughal emperor Jehangir died that same year. The fresh arrangement
of the political chessboard proved fatal to Ahmadnagar. The new rulers
of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur were more divided than ever before, and this
enabled Shahjahan to woo Bijapur and break the backbone of Ahmadnagars
resistance once and for all.56
Shahji Bhosle, a Maratha general, who at different times had served the
rulers of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and the Mughals, made a bid to shore up the
sinking fortunes of Ahmadnagar. In his total isolation he appealed to the
Portuguese for help, but the latter were cautious and did not want to invite
upon themselves the wrath of the combined forces of Shahjahan and Adil
Shah.57 In 1636 Nizam Shahi rule came to an end. A letter of the Portuguese
crown to the viceroy of India refers to the difficulties that resulted from this
fact to the Portuguese in India. The king instructed his viceroy to seek all
means of sowing dissensions between the Mughal and the Dutch, and this
is described as the need of the hour in order to prevent the loss of Bassein,
Chaul, Daman and Diu, to all of which the Mughal claimed right as the new
master of Ahmadnagar.58
Portuguese-Bijapur Relations (1600-1686): The Portuguese relationship
with Bijapur is particularly significant because the capital town of the Portuguese in India had been wrested from Bijapur in 1510. Also its neighbouring provinces of Salcete and Bardez, which formed the jurisdiction of Goa at
11
this time, had belonged to Bijapur and passed into the Portuguese hands in
1543. Until 1579 Adil Shah rulers made repeated attempts to regain these
lost territories. The seventeenth century inaugurated a phase of peaceful
relationship between the Portuguese and Bijapur with the exception of two
breaches in 1654 and 1659.
During the first quarter of the seventeenth century the Portuguese-Bijapur
relations were conspicuously cordial; some minor frictions did not lead
to any serious conflict. The good services of Ibrahim Adil Shah were even
sought by the Portuguese to act as intermediary between them and the
Nizam Shahi Sultan in 1615. As the first quarter of the century was coming
to its end, the relations entered a phase of a long drawn tension resulting
from provocation and retaliation from either side. Already in 1623 the Bijapuris had approached the English seeking a pact with them to expel the
Portuguese, but this request was not taken up by the English with enthusiasm because of Roes go slow policy with regard to getting involved in
hostilities in India.59
The ruler of Bijapur began expressing his grievances openly when the Portuguese captured two vessels belonging to him in the Persian Gulf and killed
their crew in cold blood in 1629. Adil Shah retaliated by detaining a Portuguese vessel with the Portuguese revenue comptroller of Muscat on board
in the port of Rajapur, where the vessel had sought shelter in a tempest after
obtaining permission of the Bijapuri authorities to ender.60 The Portuguese
added more fuel to the flame by seizing yet another vessel of Bijapur.61 To
this the Bijapuris reacted very sharply by withdrawing their ambassador
from Goa, by closing all the ports in Adil Shahs territory to Purtuguese shipping, by stopping the easy flow of food supplies to Goa, and by threatening
to invade the provinces of Bardez and Salcete.62
The Portuguese sensed the gravity of the developments and that they could
ill afford a war with Adil Shah. Unexpected circumstances played into
their hands and provided them with the required opportunity to defuse the
tension.
This happened when the joint forces of the Mughals and Ahmadnagar besieged Bijapur in April 1632 and the Portuguese received a frantic call from
Adil Shah to help him with gunners, powder and ammunition. The Portuguese not only acceded to the request, by even offered to manufacture
gunpowder and ammunition for Adil Shah in Goa if he would care to send
the necessary materials.63
The aid was sent with the utmost secrecy, and while ostensibly it was interpreted as a favour done to Adil Shah, the Portuguese knew better that
a defeat of Bijapur at the hands of the Mughal would be damaging to the
safety of the Portuguese in the heart of their empire.64
After a short interval of respite there followed another bout of tense relations,
which culminated in the large scale invasion of Bardez and Salcete in 1654
12
and another minor incursion of the same provinces five years later. The
renewal of tension was caused by the facilities granted by Adhil Shah to the
English and to the Dutch at Dabhol, Karwar, Rajapur and Vingurla.
The Portuguese felt particularly aggrieved by the concessions made to the
Dutch, whose attacks on Portuguese shipping and whose blockades of the
Goa port had become more intense and regular after they had obtained base
facilities at Vingurla.65 The Dutch had also been instigating Adil Shah to
attack Goa by land while they would intensify their attacks by sea. Adil Shah
appears to have been taken up by the idea, and even the mode of sharing
the booty was apparently settled.
However, more pressing engagements of Adil Shah in Kanara saved the Portuguese at Goa.66 However, in 1654 Adil Shah did not resist the temptation
of capturing the Portuguese territories of Bardez and Salcete.
Apparently, the invasion was effected at the request of a Goan native Brahmin Bishop, Matheus de Castro Mahale, who was residing in the Bijapuri
town of Bicholim. The Bishop had developed a hatred for the Portuguese
colonial rule in his native land and had been instigating the Goans to shake
off the Portuguese yoke.67 The Bijapuris also sought to exploit the administrative confusion that prevailed at Goa following the deposition of the
viceroy Count of Obidos by a rebel group. But the invasion ended in a fiasco,
because the Portuguese had already smelled the subversive plans of the
Bishop and had taken defensive measures against an internal rising, while
the war needs of Bijapur elsewhere demanded immediate withdrawal of its
troops from Goa.68
After 1656, when the Bijapuris had to grapple with both the Mughals and
the Marathas, they had no energy to spare for further conflict with the
Portuguese. However, the latter were not free from embroilment in the
politics of these powers since many of the provincial officials, the desais, had
revolted against their masters and sought frequent refuge in the Portuguese
territory. The Portuguese secretly favoured the guerilla movements of these
desais to keep the powers concerned distracted with campaigns to bring
the rebels to book.69
On the whole Portuguese-Bijapur relations were more cordial than the relations of the Portuguese with any other neighbour of theirs in Western India.
This was a necessity, because the Portuguese in Goa depended heavily on
Bijapur (Balaghat) for their food supplies and many other daily necessities.
Portuguese Goa-based trade depended on Bijapur for the cloth supplies.
Precious stones, which constituted the second most important trade item,
were brought from Golkonda mines in Bijapur.70 Saltpetre for the gunpowder manufactory of Goa was obtained from Bijapur, and so were the sailors
who manned the coastal fleets of the Portuguese.71 All these considerations
compelled the Portuguese to grant a most-favoured treatment to the rulers
of Bijapur. According to the terms of a treaty signed with Bijapur in 1571,
13
and which remained substantially in force throughout the seventeenth century, Adil Shah received annually six free cartazes; was allowed to import
duty-free twenty-five horses every year; could import from Goa duty-free
goods worth 6,000 gold pardaus every year; and was promised half share
of the booty whenever the Portuguese captured any ships in the ports of
Bijapur for not carrying Portuguese cartazes.72
Portuguese-Kanara Relations (1600-1700): The capture of Goa in 1510
was affected by Afonso de Albuquerque on the advice and with the active
collaboration of Timaya, a naval chief of Honavar, a principality of Kanara.73
Thereafter, Goa and most of the scattered settlements of the Portuguese
in Asia were sustained with rice supplies from Kanara, while the pepper
cargoes from Kanara justified the pains taken by the Portuguese in founding
an empire in the East Indies.74 Kanara was also the main supplier of teak
timber for the Goa shipyard.75
Kanara had been a mosaic of petty principalities which enjoyed a large
degree of autonomy, earlier under Vijayanagar until 1565, and later under
Bijapur. The Portuguese dealt with them directly and had treaty agreements
with their rulers. By these treaties these chiefs were to supply to the Portuguese a definite number of rice bales by way of tribute (pareas). They were
also compelled by the terms of the treaties to provide pepper cargoes to the
Portuguese ships of the Carreira at moderate rates. This exploitation by the
Portuguese went unchecked during most of the sixteenth century.76
At the dawn of the seventeenth century, along with other troubles from
different quarters, the Portuguese began facing difficulties in Kanara as well.
The Nayaks of the Keladi ruling family had begun showing expansionist
desires of their own. The sixth ruler of that family, Venkatappa Nayak (15921629), had succeeded in annexing the territory of the queen of Gersoppa,
called the queen of pepper by the Portuguese; he soon turned his attention
towards the lands belonging to the chiefs of Bangher and Mangalore, where
the Portuguese had their settlements and trading posts. The Portuguese
could easily foresee the harm which this unification bid of the Nayak would
bring to their trade interests and the problems it would cause to the Portuguese presence in the East. This is clear from the instructions that were
addressed by the Portuguese crown to its Indian administration, which was
instructed to frustrate the designs of the Nayaks by setting Adil Shah against
him and by welding the other chiefs of Kanara into a confederacy against
Venkatappa Nayak.77
The Portuguese had too many difficulties of their own to be able to provide
any effective assistance to the petty chiefs of Kanara, who were seeking Portuguese protection against Venkatappas imperialist ambitions. They were
absorbed one by one until Venkatappa extended his kingdom to include all
the territories between the rivers Mirjan and Chandragiri. The Portuguese
were left untouched in their forts at Basrur, Honavar, and Mangalore; but
14
their dictates were no longer going to be tolerated. Venkatappa had made

his estimates of the power and wealth of the Portuguese. He made overtures to the English regarding the sale of pepper to them.78 The military
operations against Bangher were also directed against the Portuguese at
Mangalore. The Portuguese saw the new line of attack and chose to disown
the cause of the chief of Bangher. In January 1620 the Portuguese came to
a treaty agreement with the Nayak. It was the first in the series of treaties
which the Nayaks of Ikkeri would dictate to the Portuguese.
Following the death of Venkatappa in November 1629 the Portuguese tried
to exploit the situation caused by the contest for succession in Bidnur. The
Portuguese were inclined to consider Virappa as the rightful heir because he
showed himself more amenable to Portuguese pretensions.79 However, the
Portuguese gains were short-lived as Virappa died a few months after signing
an agreement with the Portuguese, and Virabhadra Nayak rose to power as
the uncontested ruler of Kanara. The new ruler could not immediately win
the submission of the many petty chieftains who had been subjugated by
his Kelady predecessors. The Portuguese aided the rebel chieftains and at
the same time approached Virabhadra with the proposal of their readiness
to mediate between him and the rebels. The proposal was quickly rejected
by Virabhadra, whose campaign to subdue the chieftains was coming to a
successful end. On the contrary, in order to punish the meddlers, Virabhadra
imposed a ban on the purchase of rice by the Portuguese in Basrur.80 As
a result, the Portuguese who could not afford to do without Kanara rice
agreed to come to terms: The Portuguese would retain their position in
Basrur, but they would not fortify the peninsula of Gangolly as they wished
to do. Thus the status quo was maintained regarding the issue which had
become a bone of contention between the Portuguese and the Nayak.81
There were other clauses on which concessions were made by either side:
The Portuguese could take all the timber they wished for the Goa shipyard,
and timber for twenty-four masts would be cut and delivered to them by
the Nayak at the mouth of the Gersoppa and Sangari rivers. The Portuguese
agreed to buy 500 khandis of pepper from Kanara immediately, and another
350 khandis every subsequent year at the rate of 22 pagodas per khandi.
The Nayak was also given right to import twelve horses every year without
paying customs duty to the Portuguese, and to have two duty-free passes
for his ships.82
A year had hardly passed after signing the treaty when Virabhadra required
that the Portuguese to pay him 28 pagodas for a khandi of pepper, claiming
that the English were willing to offer 30 pagodas. He threatened a new ban
on rice purchases if the Portuguese refused to yield to his demand. The Portuguese did refuse the terms and their ship of the Carreira left for Portugal
in 1636 with only 600 to 700 quintal of pepper stocked prior to the blockade. To punish the intransigence of Virabhadra they intensified their naval
control of the Kanara coast to prevent any pepper or rice from being taken
15
out. This tough action brought Virabhadra to his senses and he realised
that supplies of pepper and rice to the Portuguese alone were bringing to
his treasury an average of 500,000 pagodas every year.83 The Portuguese
reciprocated the improved behaviour of Virabhadra by supplying him guns,
powder and ammunition to withstand the attacks of Adil Shah, who had
already captured a number of Kanara forts.84
Shivappa Nayak, who began his rule in 1645, was determined to bring to
completion his expansionist plans initiated by his predecessors. Within a
decade from his coming to power he deprived the Portuguese of all their
establishments in Kanara.85 Shivappas success was due largely to the timeliness of his operations against the Portuguese: The Portuguese were locked
in a desperate campaign with the Dutch in Ceylon, and in Goa preparations
were afoot to resist an impending invasion by Adil Shah. Economically also
the Portuguese faced a hopeless situation: every possible source was tapped
to finance the defence efforts. It was in such a context that Shivappa was
willing to raise the siege of Honavar if the Portuguese would buy from him
1000 khandis of pepper immediately and 500 khandis every subsequent
year at a fixed rate of 28 pagodas.86 The Portuguese were in no position to
buy even 300 khandis for the quoted price.87 They were left with no other alternative but to order the garrison of the Honavar fort, which was surviving
on a diet of rats and cats, to quit the place.88
Following their expulsion from Kanara the Portuguese tried to give vent
to their rage by scouring the coast of Kanara with whatever naval power
they could still command. However, rice supplies from the Northern
Province could never be sufficient and fresh attacks by the neighbours
of that province could not be ruled out. This consideration forced the Portuguese to be restrained in the expression of their rage in Kanara.89
After Shivappa died in 1660, his son Somashker Nayak sent an ambassador to
Goa inviting the Portuguse to re-establish their factories at Basrur, Honavar
and Mangalore. The negotiations ended with a treaty signed on April 30,
1671.90 The treaty remained a dead letter and the Portuguese could not
re-enter Kanara because of the threats of the Dutch, who sent their fleets to
pressurise the ruler of Kanara to give up the idea of taking the Portuguese
back.91 The Portuguese in the meantime continued their favourite pastime
of patrolling the coast.
Somashker Nayak was assassinated in December 1671. An infant grandson,
Basava Nayak, was placed on the throne, but the power was in the hands
of the queen mother and her favourite, Timmaya Nayak.92 The Portuguese
did not like the attitude of the new rulers, who were favouring trade with
the Arabs of Muscat and had granted them permission to have a factory in
Kanara. The purchase of the Kanara rice by the Arabs had led to a sharp rise
in the price of rice from less than eight pagodas to fourteen pagodas for a
score of rice bales.93 The Portuguese, who had re-established factories in
16
Kanara, now closed them down and resorted to gunboat diplomacy once
again. A new feud of succession raised the hopes of the Portuguese for a
time, but it was ultimately with the queen and the prince that the Portuguese
signed a new agreement on December 15, 1678, whereby the Portuguese
obtained a factory in Mangalore and the promise that the Arabs would
not be allowed access to Kanara ports.94 The Arabs, however, continued to
frequent Kanara ports and they even set afire a Portuguese ship-convoy in
Mangalore waters in 1695. The Portuguese wished to withdraw from Kanara
and resume hostilities, but on second thoughts they only expressed their
displeasure to the queen.95
Portuguese-Maratha Relations (1636-1700): Portuguese-Maratha relations are particularly significant to a student of the history of the Goan
people considering the fact that long before Shivaji laid the foundations
of the Maratha State, Goa shared the cultural life of the Maratha region
around it. There is undeniable evidence to prove that the varkari panth,96
which first gave shape to Marathi literature and brought about a cultural
unification of the Marathas, had its devotees in Goa. The Jesuit chronicler,
Sebastio Gonalves, writing in 1565 described some Hindus of Goa singing
invocations of god Vithal of Pandharpur.97 The Marathas, as an ethnic group,
were also an important segment of the Goan population. Apparently, after
conversion they gave rise to the Chardo caste, which vied with the Brahmins
for social equality.98 The ascendancy of the Marathas in the social status in
Goa is attributed to the rule of the Silaharas in this region around seventh
century A.D.99 In addition to the Maratha race and the varkari sect, there
was the Marathi language, which had gained a firm foothold in Goa, as can
be gathered from extant epigraphs and documentary evidence.100 Although
the Portuguese discouraged the development of vernacular language and
literature, recordings of the proceedings of village councils continued to be
done in Marathi until the very end of the second decade of the seventeenth
century.101 It is against this background that the study of the PortugueseMaratha relations becomes more meaningful and significant.
The first contact between the Portuguese and the Marathas on the political
level is recorded in a letter addressed by Shivajis father, Shahji Bhosle, to the
Portuguese captain of Chaul on September 26, 1636. Finding it impossible
to rouse Nizam Shahi against the joint aggressiveness of the Mughal and
Adil Shah, Shahji appealed to the Portuguese for help and requested shelter
for his wife and children. The Portuguese refused military assistance, but
they were willing to offer refuge to his family.102
The earliest reference to Shivaji as Shahjis son occurs in a Portuguese record
of 1657.103 By and large, the Portuguese looked favourably upon the rise
of Maratha power under Shivajis leadership. In the context of the growing
might of the Mughal, the rise of the Marathas was a godsend to the Portuguese, promising to them a more stable balance of power. But as long as
Shivajis activity was confined to the Deccan the Portuguese could safely en-
17
tertain feelings of genuine appreciation of his achievements. During 1657-9

Shivaji added most of the North Konkan to his dominions, thereby making
the Portuguese feel that he meant serious business. Shivajis friction with
the Siddi of Danda, and Shivajis plans to express his sovereignty by building a navy, made the Portuguese intensely aware of his vicinity.104 It was
then that the Portuguese adopted a policy of open friendliness and silent
obstructionism. The policy of obstructionism was aimed at frustrating the
ambitious plans of Shivaji to build maritime forts and a strong fleet. Among
the reasons put forth by the State councillors to justify this policy we read
that if Shivaji succeeded in capturing some Portuguese vessels, the taste
for booty would encourage him to intensify such harmful adventures, and
the Portuguese friendship with him was not firm enough to check such a
development. Besides, Shivaji had proved himself to be a good pay-master
and with his ready cash he had been alluring not only natives but even
Portuguese renegades into his service.105
However, the Portuguese were so deeply involved in their struggle with the
Dutch and with the rulers of Kanara that there was neither the will not the
means to face yet another contender closer at home. Hence, the Portuguese
failed to check the cherished goal of Shivaji: when he raided Basrur and
returned with immense booty, he had 85 vessels, big and small, which took
part in the operations.106 According to a report of the Portuguese viceroy of
India in 1667: I am worried with his growing might in the sea, because he
has built coastal forts, which should have been prevented at the start, and
he has a large number of vessels, although none of them are big.107
The Portuguese kept themselves well informed about the movements of
Shivaji and they were quite impressed by his guerilla tactics marked by
lightning operations against his enemies and collection of fabulous sums of
gold. With their long experience of dealing with the Indian rulers the Portuguese had rightly assessed Shivajis might. Aware of his capacity to cause
them harm, the Portuguese kept the Siddi supplied with food provisions,
money and fighting material, thereby keeping Shivaji distracted as long as
possible.108 The Portuguese also armed and provided asylum to the desais
of Kudal, Pernem and Bicholim along the northern boundary of Goa during
their fight against Shivaji.109 The Portuguese had also given in to the threats
of Mirza Raja Jai Singh, who had been sent by Aurangzeb against Shivaji,
and they had supplied him with some ordnance pieces.110 Shivaji replied to
the mischief-playing Portuguese by invading Bardez in November 1667 and
by looting the region for a couple of days.111
After Shivajis open campaign against the Portuguese in Bardez, he also
tried to capture the very town of Goa by infiltrating his men. This ruse
was detected by the Portuguese in time and his bid to capture Goa was
frustrated.112 In 1679-80 Shivaji had planned an all out war with the Portuguese, who were stubbornly continuing their aid to the Siddi of Janjira and
refusing to satisfy Shivajis demands about the payment of chauth.113 How-
18
ever, unexpected news of Shivajis death brought relief to the Portuguese,

who were tense with expectation of his attack.114
Portuguese-Maratha relations were seriously disturbed during the short rule
of Shivajis son Sambhaji. Anticipating Sambhajis plans to fortify the Anjidiv
island, the Portuguese foiled his bid by quickly taking possession of the
island, a measure which the Portuguese considered vital to safeguard the
grain-carrying vessels plying between Kanara and Goa.115 The Portuguese
had also allowed the Mughal troops to cross the Portuguese province of the
North in their advance against Sambhajis positions.116
Sambhaji reacted strongly by mounting a massive attack on Goa in 1683,
which he was pressing more strongly still against Chaul in the North. This
clever diversionary tactic would have left Goa into Sambhajis hands had
not the Mughal forces of Shah Alam forced Sambhaji to withdraw from Goa
in haste. Incidentally, at that time the helpless Portuguese officials had gathered round the relics of St. Francis Xavier seeking his protection.117 Peace
between the Portuguese and Marathas was restored. Sambhaji could not
trouble the Portuguese thereafter, deeply engaged as he was with the Mughal
forces until his pitiable death at their hands in 1689. Following the death of
Sambhaji, his younger brother Rajaram sought refuge in Ginji; his generals
continued a guerilla war against the Mughal forces which had occupied
almost the entire Maratha territory. Placed in this situation the Portuguese
resorted to a renversement of policy, whereby they began favouring the
Maratha chieftains in their fight against the Mughals.118
Shah Alams demand for a huge fee for having saved Goa from falling into
Sambhajis hands, as well as his plot to seize Goa by treachery had convinced
the Portuguese that it was more convenient for them to have weak Marathas
as their neighbours than a powerful Mughal.119
The Portuguese-Maratha relations had their repercussions upon the local
economy of Goa, as well as upon the Portuguese Goa-based seaborne trade.
The local economy depended on the mainland for the supply of a variety of
essential commodities, such as the ones listed along with the import duties
in a standing order (regimento) issued to Salcete Customs in 1619, and
which were exchanged for copra, palm sugar, arecanuts and salt produced
in Goa.120 When Shivaji established a salt monopoly in his lands and created
salt depots at Manneri and Fatorpa in the neighbourhood of the Portuguese
territory of Goa, it became difficult to find an outlet for the salt which was
the main exchange commodity of the Goan traders.121 By way of retaliation
the Portuguese authorities began compelling the fisherfolk of the Maratha
territory who came to fish in the rivers of Chapora or Aldona to buy all the
salt they required to salt the fish they caught.122
As regards the coastal and the seaborne trade of the Portuguese the navy
of Shivaji never turned out to be a serious menace to the Portuguese naval
superiority; however it became a source of constant irritation because of
19
its interference with the Portuguese coastal trading.123 What harmed Portuguese seaborne trade most were the constant wars waged by the Marathas
in the Deccan and elsewhere. These were a serious obstruction to the supplyline of the trade items. The ships of the Carreira could not leave with the
desired regularity, because while the Dutch were preventing the safe arrival
of the ship convoys bringing cloths from Kutch, the Maratha wars impeded
the arrival of diamond and saltpeter from Balghat.124 Thus, for instance,
when the carrack Bom Jesus do So Domingos left for Portugal in January
1677 it could not take any load of saltpetre and the reason given by the Chief
Revenue Superintendent to justify the lack of saltpetre was that Shivajis
wars had thrown the entire Portuguese trade into disarray.125
In addition to the above long-term consequences, temporary damage of no
less consequence resulted from the Maratha invasion of Goa. Thus, Shivajis
invasion of Bardez in 1667 brought heavy loss in cattle, and Sambhajis
invasion in 1683 destroyed the palm-groves and paddy crops of Bardez and
the salt industry of Salcete.126
R EFERENCES
1. Livermore, A New History of Portugal, 158-72: Ameal, Histria de Portugal,
329-52.
2. MSS of Ajuda (Lisboa): 50-V-38: 28. The quote is from Fr. Manoel
Godinho, S.J. who was sent in 1663 to Portugal overland by the viceroy
Antnio de Melo de Castro to explain to the crown his reasons for refusing
to surrender Bombay to the English as demanded by the marriage treaty.
3. Gangulli, Readings in Indian Economic History, 64 ff.
4. Luzzato, Storia Economica dellEta Moderna e Contemporanea, 212 ff.;
Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb, 11-13.
5. Livermore, op. cit., 176, 182-4.
6. Harrison, Europe and Asia, NCMH, IV, 660-1; Low, History of the Indian
Navy, 1613-1783, 13-15.
7. Harrison, op. cit., 651; Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European
Influence, 196, 202; Moreland, op. cit., 23.
8. Harrison, loc. cit.; Meilink-Roelofsz, loc. cit., 203.
9. Meilink-Roelofsz, op. cit., 203.
10. Biker, CT, II, 50-3; Boxer, The General of the Galleons and the AngloPortuguese Truce Celebrated at Goa in January 1635:, 27 ff.; Pissurlencar,
ACE, II, 3-6.
20
11. HAG: MS 1416 (Livro de Segredo), fls. 6-1; 11, 66-7, ACF, IV, fls. 16v-161, V,
fls. 59, 59-59v, 60, 63v-64, 65v, 86v, 98-98v, 131-131v, 145, VI, fls. 11, 103v;
Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 171-2, 248, 250, 252-3, 279, 287.
12. EFI (1632-36), xi, xvii-xviii, 226; Bal Krishna, Commercial Relations
between India and England, 65, 83.
13. AHU: India, Caixa 13, doc. 15 (8.1.1638); TdT: DRI-37, 429; DRI-38, 74-5;
Bal Krishna, op. cit., 65-6, 68, 74, 234.
14. Danvers, PI, II, 329-34.
15. Ibid., 331-2; Clauses XI & XII.
16. AR, II, pp. 530-6; Saldanha, Resumo da Histria de Goa, 293-303; Khan,
S.A., Anglo-Portuguese Negotiations Relating to Bombay, 442 ff.; David, M.D.,
History of Bombay, 30 ff; Prestage, The Diplomatic Relations of Portugal,
156-62.
17. HAG: Mones 42, fls. 136-200; AHU: India, Caixa 28, doc. 79, Caixa 39,
doc. 34; Pissurlencar, op. cit., IV, 280-8; Baio, A Inquisio de Goa, I, 408.
18. Pissurlencar, op. cit, 245, 247, 320-3; EFI (1670-77), x; Danvers, op. cit.,
360-61.
19. HAG: Mones 47, fl. 246; Pissurlencar, op. cit., 245, 320-23, 390-92,
404-5; Danvers, op. cit., 362.
20. Moreland, op. cit., 98 ff.; Bal Krishna, op. cit., 86.
21. Moreland, op. cit., 39-40.
22. HAG: MS 1501 (Ordens Rgias), fls. 10-11.
23. Boxer, DSE, 312-3; Meilink-Roelofsz, op. cit., 177 ff.; Harrison, op. cit.,
660; Boxer, PSE, 110-12.
24. Harrison, International Rivalries Outside Europe: Asia and Africa,
NCMH, III, 556-8.
25. Boxer, The Great Ship from Amacon, 173-333; Boxer, Fidalgos in the Far
East, 4-8, 15-16; HAG: ACF, IV, 95v-108, V, 24-5, 53, 206-7, 217v-18, VI, 6v;
Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 204-27; APPO-BP, BK IV, Vol. II, P.1: 285-7; TdT DRI-38,
468v, 471v; AHU: India, Caixa 20, doc. 53 (14-10-1648), Caixa 22, doc. 54
(5-11-1653).
26. Harrison, Europe and Asia, 665; Pissurlencar, op. cit., 117 ff. The Carreira da India was the round voyage between Portugal and India. Cf. Boder,
PSE, 207-22; The Carreira da India (ships, men, cargoes, voyages), apud
Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos e as Comemoraes Henriquinas,
33-82.
27. Pissurlencar, ACE, III, 27.
21
28. HAG: ACF, IX (1653-60), 6v-7, 61, 77v, 160v-62, 247v-48v, 250v-51, X
(1660-66), 9-9v, 33v-34, 49v, 55, 256-67; Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 353. Gujarati
merchants helped in the transference of bullion that arrived in the Northern
Province by charging 3% to take it to Goa.
29. Boxer, Portuguese and Dutch Colonial Rivalry, 16-22; Prestage, op. cit.,
173 ff.
30. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 176ff., 191 ff., 220-1, 224-5, 228-39; Boxer,
PSE, 115.
31. Danvers, op. cit., 300; Meilink-Roelofsz, op. cit., 164, 207.
32. Livermore, op. cit., 176-84.
33. Poonen, A Survey of the Dutch Power in Malabar, 91-113; EFI (1655-60):
45, 54-5, 83, 90; Queiroz, Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylo, 806-14;
Balsemo, PO, II, 44 ff.
34. Boxer, Portuguese and Dutch Colonial Rivalry, 41-2.
35. Ibid., 13 ff.
36. Couto, Dcadas da Asia, V, p.1, 278ff.
37. Pissurlencar, Colaboradores Hindus de Afonso de Albuquerque, 2-42;
Bragana Pereira, Historia Administrativa da India Portuguesa, OP., nn.
15-17 (Bastora, 1937): 124-8.
38. DRI, I, 144. The king of Portugal instructed the viceroy of India on 10-101607: It is convenient for the well-being of our State that the neighbouring
rulers be divided among themselves and this should be achieved subtly by
employing all possible means. Cf. Subrahmanyam, O inimigo Encoberto:
a expanso mogol no Deco e o Estado da ndia, Povos e Culturas, n. 5
(Lisboa, 1996), pp. 115-197. This study reveals how the Portuguese did not
shy away from resorting to assassinations when required.
39. Wicki, DI, XII, 379, 475, 625, 660.
40. Couto, Dec. IX, cap. 13, 82-4.
41. Maclagan, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul, 36, 48, 56, 82; Camps, Jerome
Xavier S.J. and the Muslims of the Mogul Empire, 4-5.
42. Pyrard, Viagem, II, 183-7; De Souza, T.R., Goa-based Portuguese
Seaborne Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century, 439; Pearson, Merchants
and Rulers in Gujarat, 97.
43. AHU: India, Caixa 2, doc. 71 (20-12-1612); Moreland, op. cit., 93.
44. APO-CR, I, P.2: 172.
45. Bocarro, Dec, XIII, P.1: 189-92.
22
46. AHU: India, Caixa 2, doc. 145 (25-12-1614): Achei este Estado miservel
e sem rendimento das alfandegas por causa do Mogor tolher o comrcio
de Cambaia e outras guerras do Norte. Cf. AHU, India, Caixa 3, doc. 46
(5-2-1615).
47. HAG: Mones 14, fls. 363-4; Biker, CT, I, 237: Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 291 ff.
48. Moreland, op. cit., 35-7; Foster, Early Travels in India, 65-6; Roe, Embassy
to the Court of the Great Mogul, passim.
49. Maclagan, op. cit., 99-105; Campos, History of the Portuguese in Bengal,
128-40; Pissurlencar, op. cit., 462-69; Manucci, Storia do Mogor, IV, 421.
50. AHU: India, Caixa 16, doc. 39 (17-2-1644).
51. Sarkar, J.N., A Short History of Aurangzeb, 165-8; HAG: Mones 55-B, fls.
424-5.
52. Boxer, PSE, 136; The province of the North comprised the Portuguese
settlements along the sixty-mile stretch of the coast between Bombay and
Daman. It extended for some twenty or thirty miles inland in some districts
and it was the most productive part of what Indian territory was left to the
Portuguese after their disastrous wars with the Dutch and the Omani. Cf..
Mare Liberum (Lisboa, CNCDP) n.9, Julho 1995, contains Proceedings of the
VII International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History, Goa, January 1994.
The main theme of the seminar was the Portuguese Province of the North.
53. Radhey Shyam, Life and Times of Malik Ambar, 68-98; Nayeem, External
Relations of the Bijapur Kingdom, 94-95; Tamaskar, Malik Ambar and the
Portuguese, 39 ff.
54. Nayeem, op. cit., 94-5; Bocarro, op. cit., 17-24, 48-77, 85-92, 106-112,
218-222, 251-59, 266-72, 281-91, 303-308, 340-41; Joshi, P.M. (ed.), HMD, I,
265-6.
55. Radhey Shyam, op. cit., 125-26.
56. Nayeem, op. cit., 95-6; Pissurlencar, A India em 1629, BIVG, n. 7 (1930):
52-61.
57. Pissurlencar, A Extino do Reino de Nizam Shahi, BIVG, n. 27 (1935):
122-3; ACE, II, 113-5.
58. HAG: Mones 21-A, fls. 54; Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 237.
59. Villiers, The Indian Ocean, 158: Quotes Roess maxim in his negotiations
in the East: Trade that comes by compulsion is not profitable and only
arouses the hate and opposition of the natives.
60. TdT: DRI-37, fls. 485-85v; Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 237.
61. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 238 ff.
62. Loc. cit.
23
63. Ibid., 414-16.

64. Loc. cit.
65. Nayeem, op. cit., 240-1, 252-3; Joshi, op. cit., 369-70.
66. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 313, 318.
67. HAG: MS 7701 (Registos Gerais do Senado), fls. 239-9v; ARSJ: Goa 34, fls.
305-6; De Souza, T.R., Matheus de Castro Mahale: An Unsung Hero, Goa
Today (Jan. 1975): 18, 28; Metzler, Der Brahmenspiegel des Matheus de
Castro, in NZMW, n. 4 (Schweiz, 1967): 252-65.
68. Heras, Some Unknown Dealings between Bijapur and Goa, Proceedings
of the Indian Historical Records Commission (Lahore, 1925): Pissurlencar,
ACE, III, 366-7, 371-6, 382-3; Biker, CT, II, 232-9.
69. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 140, 491-2.
70. APO-BP, Bk. IV, Vol. II, P. 1 : 289: Crooke (ed.), Travels in India by
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, II, 41-62; Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 197-8.
71. HAG: Mones 14, fl. 207v; Mones 19A, fl. 128; Pissurlencar, ACE, 1,
117-9, 179.
72. HAG: MS 2596 (Cartas e Ordens da Fazenda) fls. 82v-83v; APO-CR, V,
825-31.
73. Cf. supra n. 37.
74. Rego (ed.), DUP, III, 295-353; Azevedo, Epocas de Portugal Econmico,
89-163; Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, 48 ff. Cf.
Queiroz, Histria da vida do venervel Irmo Pedro de Basto, 279; Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 257, 426, 567, II, 12-3; III, 396-8; IV, 10-12, 32-3, 278-9.
75. Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 537, 570, Mones 13A, fls. 263-6; AHU: India, Caixa
31, doc. 21.
76. BG, XV, P.2: 110, 114; Felber, Subsdios, 246-8.
77. Bulho Pato, DRI, II, docs. 232, 303, 331; III, doc. 517.
78. TdT: DRI-38, fl. 292; Wheeler, European Travellers in India, 19.
79. Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 536-41 (includes the text in Kanada).
80. Ibid., 252.
81. Ibid., 569; HAG: Ordens Rgias, n. 2, fl. 20.
82. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 670. The correspondence of Ikkeri gold currency
and Goa gold currency is given as 100 pagodas to 102 santomes.
83. Ibid., II, 12-3, 55-6.
84. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 203.
24
85. Heras, The decay of the Portuguese power in India, JBHS, I, 1928; 36;
Pissurlencar, op. cit., III, passim.
86. Pissurlecar, op. cit., 219-21, 319-24.
87. HAG: ACF, IX (1653-60), fls. 99v, 146v, 175-5v, 186, 194-4v.
88. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 356-60.
89. Ibid., 396-8.
90. Biker, CT, IV, 189-97; Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 216-7.
91. HAG: Mones 31, fls. 78-9v, 80-1v, 106-7, 128-9.
92. EFI (1661-64), 343 n. 3; Pissurlencar, op. cit., 226-7.
94. Biker, CT, IV, 205-15, cl. 5.
96. Deleury, The cult of Vithoba, pp. 1-21.
97. Rego, DMP, IX, 475-6: . . . zari upazoni sansarim ekavella dekasi pandhari Vithala rayachi nagari.
98. Pissurlencar, O Elemento Hindu da Casta Chardo OP, n. 12-13 (1936):
203-32; Bragana Pereira, Os Ranes, os quetris, os oixos, os chardos, e os
bramanes de Goa, OP, n. 7-8 (1919): 320-36.
99. Valavlikar, Goemkaranchi Goembhaili Vasnnuka, 46.
100. Pissurlencar, Goa Pr-Portuguesa atravs dos Escritores Lusitanos, 59;
Inscries Pr-Portuguesas de Goa, OP, n. 22 (1938): 441-7, 451-5; Gune,
Meaning of Maratha Houni, Proceedings of the Maratha History Seminar,
1970, 1-5.
101. Ghantkar, An Introduction to Goan Marathi Records in Halakanada
Script, 1-2.
102. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 113-5; A Extino do Reino de Nizam Shah, BIVG,
n. 27 (1935): 122-3.
103. Pissurlencar, Portuguez-Marathe Sambhandh, 41.
104. Pagadi, Chhatrapati Shivaji, 83-4, 87-8, 104-7; Sarkar, Shivaji and his
times, pp. 54-8, 351-2.
105. Pissurlencar, ACE, 5-6.
106. Apte, A History of the Maratha Navy and Mechantships, 71.
107. AHU: India, Caixa 27, doc. 87.
108. AHU: India, Caixa, 27, doc. 99; Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 5, 608, 214-5,
225-6.
25
109. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 50, 188-91, 242; Portuguez-Marathe Sambandh,

35-6.
110. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 146; Manucci, op. cit., II, 120-5, 132-7.
111. Pagadi, op. cit., 194-6; Sarkar, op. cit., 352.
112. Pissurlencar, Portuguez-Marathe Sambandh, p. 190, n. 1.
113. Sen, Military System of the Marathas, 28-53; Kulkarni, Maharashtra in
the Age of Shivaji, 131-2; Saletore, The Significance of Chautai in Maratha
History, JUB, VII, p.1: 94-107.
115. HAG: Mones 47, letter n. 4; Pissurlencar, The Portuguese and the
Marathas, 64.
116. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, V, 116.
118. Ibid., 159, 163.
119. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 296-7; Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, IV, 347-9.
120. HAG: ACF, II (1621-25): fls. 145-151v.
121. Kulkarni, op. cit., 223; HAG; MS 1127 (Peties Despachadas do Censelho
da Fazenda), I, fls. 49-51.
122. HAG: MS 1127, fls. 9, 21v-22.
123. HAG: MS 970 (Reis Vizinhos, n. 2), fls. 36v-7, 73v-77; MS 971 (Reis
Vizinhos, n.3), fls. 8v-11v, 12v-14v, 29-29v; MS 972 (Reis Vizinhos, n.4), fls.
12, 29v.
124. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 296-7.
125. Rego, DUP, IV, 34-5.
126. Pissurlencar, The Portuguese and the Marathas, 26; HAG: MS 1127
(Peties Desp. do Conselho da Fazenda), fls. 146v-147, 154-54v, 223-23v.
Indicates 5th May as the date when hostilities began and 8th of December
as the day Sambhaji effected the invasion. Villages were depopulated and
peasants suffered from scarcity of seed and ploughs. Cf. ACE. IV, 5714: Inland trade was disrupted and led to shortages and high cost of food
provisions in Goa.
Part I
Rural Economy and

Corporate Life
26
Chapter 2
The Goan Rural Heritage

Land, resources and people
O LD C ONQUESTS region of Goa consists of three provinces, namely
Bardez, Tisvadi and Salcete, and it lies almost at the centre of the west
coast of India c. 250 miles SSE of Bombay. The three provinces are divided
and separated from each other by rivers descending from the western Ghats.
Bardez has Chapora river to its north and Mandovi river to its south; Tisvadi
is an agglomeration of islands formed by the turnings of the Mandovi and
Zuari rivers; and Salcete is separated from Tisvadi by Zuari river and from
its neighbouring eastern and southern regions by Sal river.
HE
The entire region has a narrow littoral strip bathed by the Indian Ocean. The
eastern approach is barred by a mountain range thickly forested. The lush
greenery all over presents a fine contrast to the red of the laterite soil. The
idyllic impression is further enhanced by the silvery ribbons of rivers and
rivulets with their serpentine windings.
The three provinces of Bardez, Tisvadi and Salcete occupy an average land
mass of 264 sq. km., 166 sq. km., and 233 sq. km respectively. The names of
the three provinces are derived from the number of the original settlements
in each of them. Thus, Bardez derives from Bara+desa, meaning twelve
regions; Tisvadi derives from Tis+vadi, meaning thirty settlements; and
Salcete is a corruption of Sasashta or sixty-six (settlements). The earliest
reference to these province names occurs in a Sanskrit copper-plate grant inscription issued by Madhava Mantri, Vijayanagara governor of Goa, around
A.D. 1391.1
CHAPTER 2. THE GOAN RURAL HERITAGE
28
The climate of the region is monsoonic, characterised by sultry weather and

a long rainy season followed by a long spell of heat. The temperature varies
between 16.3 C and 36.2 C, these two extremes registering in the months
of December and February respectively.2
29
Paddy cultivation constitutes the main occupation of the rural population,

and the chief crop known as sorod depends upon the heavy monsoon rainfall in the months of June, July and August. The serpentine river net and
seasonal lakes enable several villages to raise a second crop known as vaingan during the months of December-April. Where the vaingan crops is not
feasible, generally beans of various kinds are grown, as well as several other
kinds of vegetables.
The sandy soil of the areas lying along the extensive seashore is responsible for the poor yield in those villages that lie in the coastal region. This
deficiency is compensated manifold by the palm groves sprawling all over
the seaside area. Besides, fishing constitutes a compensating substitute for
the better rice production in the hinterland. In this connection one can
appreciate the hypothesis of the late D. D. Kosambi regarding the origin of
the settlement of the west coast. According to him, only the existence of
coconut trees could have made possible that settlement.3 During the seventeenth century the rural population of Goa depended to a very large extent
upon palm and palm products to satisfy many of their needs connected
with habitation and food, including their need of expressing their joy and of
drowning their sorrow. The only home grown export commodities which
paid in part for a variety of goods that needed to be imported were copra,
salted fish and salt.4
A study of the natural resources of Goa cannot help referring to the sufficiency of pasture for the animals that gave to the territory its name Gomant
and to its people milk for drink, cow-dung for house cleanliness, housewarming and manure, urine for sacred ablutions, and backs for plough,
yoke and packs. The conversion to Christianity and the consequent dietary
changes made of beef an important diet ingredient. For the Hindus it continued to be an assurance of ultimate bliss to die holding on to the tail of a
sacred cow.5
Details regarding the population figures are sparse and inexact. We are relatively fortunate to have such data for the areas where the Jesuits exercised
their missionary activities and recorded these in their regular reports sent to
Europe. These data need to be handled with caution but conservative estimates based on them would give population figures for Tisvadi and Salcete
during late seventeenth century as 30,000 and 80,000 respectively. Totalling
an average of 2500 Christians in Salcete villages during the first decade of
the seventeenth century, when the conversion work was still going on, the
total of Christian population was around 35,000.6 The limited information
from the Franciscan sources suggests that the population of Bardez did not
depart very much from the pattern of density in the other two provinces.
There must have been about 70,000 inhabitants in that province during
the seventeenth century.7 The population growth could not have made any
significant difference, because during that century the region was plagued
by wars and famines, which must have heightened the otherwise high rate
30
of mortality. This situation was particularly true of Bardez and Salcete which
were more exposed to invasions and were more easily affected by disturbances of trade contacts with the hinterland. The great famine of 1630-1,
two reported severe cyclones accompanied by earthquakes in April 1649
and in July 1654, the invasions of Bardez and Salcete by the forces of Adil
Shah in 1654-9, the invasion of Bardez by Shivaji in 1667, and a renewed
Maratha attack against the entire Goan territory in 1683, were some of the
major disasters which could not leave the population and economy of the
region unaffected. Fresh tax demands and recurring war contributions, the
religious fanaticism of the Inquisition aimed at the Hindus, as well as at the
poorly catechised native Christians, and constant threats of invasions were
further responsible for the reduction of the population by way of large-scale
emigrations. Most of the emigrants moved towards Kanara where rice was
more cheaply available. Manuel Themudo, S.J., visitor to Kanara missions
reported in 1669 that in the course of the previous 35 years nearly 30,000
Goans, chiefly Hindus had migrated to Kanara lands due the religious persecutions and other reasons.8 There were bolder spirits who sought their
fortune in distant places, including the gold mines of Mozambique.9 It was
the beginning of a tradition which had made of the Goans eternal pilgrims.
Those who stayed put could not have had much incentive for any improvement in their standard of living owing to stagnant technology and increasing burdens upon a stable productivity. In such conditions the growth of
population meant an increase of consumers. Even though agriculture is a
labour-intensive occupation and population growth could be an important
source of production increase, the prevailing system of land tenure was not
directed towards the expansion of settlement, cultivation and production.
The arrival of the Portuguese surely provided new avenues of employment,
but these helped more the artisan class than the landed gentry, which had
more to lose than to gain in the new situation.
Origin and distribution of the village communities

The efforts of the early sixteenth century Portuguese officials and chroniclers
did not lead them beyond the mist of tradition in their attempts to trace
the origin of the Goan village communities. Afonso Mexia who codified
the customary legislation of the village communities in 1526 could only
ascertain from learned natives that in remote times four men had cleared
the island of Tisvadi and brought it under cultivation. Mexia came to the
conclusion that it was impossible to discover anything more about the origin
of the village communities.10
The Portuguese chronicler Barros traced the origin of the Goan village settlers to some poor immigrants from Kanara who descended the Ghats and
31
reclaimed the land for cultivation. And when the soil had been made productive and the population had grown sizably the territory was overrun by
a ruler of Kanara, who left the people to cultivate their lands in peace, but
only after they had agreed to pay him a fixed annual rental per village on
the basis of joint responsibility of all the original settler-families of each
village.11
There is one curious attempt made by a noted Jesuit in the mid-seventeenth
century (1641) to explain the origin and nature of the Goan village communities. Alfonso Mendes, S.J. traced the origin of the settlement of Goan villages
to some time around eighth century A.D. basing his calculations upon a
copper-plate grant inscription issued by the Kadamba king Jayakesi II (sic)
in 1099. Reading in it that there had been nine rulers before the grantor-ruler
and arguing that their rule must have covered a span of nearly 200 years, the
Jesuit investigator placed the rule of the first ruler of Goa around A.D. 899. In
order to arrive at the final conclusion he deduced another 100 years, which
he assumed, must have been necessary for settlement and cultivation.12
This calculation of Alfonso Mendes, S.J. was based on the assumption that
the tradition of Barros was fully reliable, and for that reason he did not
think of the possibility of any other prior dynasty of non-Kanarese kings
ruling in Goa. The discovery of a statue of Buddha at Colvale (Bardes) by
Rev. Heras, S.J. and the results of the limited excavations conducted recently
by the Archaeological Survey of India at Kotta, which was once the capital
of the Goa Kadambas, have left us with no doubts about the existence of
an organised society in Goa already in the early centuries of the Christian
era.13
A number of theories have also been proposed to determine the ethnic
origin of the first settlers. The Pauranic tradition recorded in the Sahyadrikhanda of the Skanda Purana refers to Saraswat Brahmins migrating from
Bengal-Bihar region to Goa c. fourth century A.D. at the invitation of the
Kadamba king Mayuravarma in order to support his throne.14 The late D.
D. Kosambi has upheld this tradition with arguments drawn from religion,
linguistics and ethnology.15 According to another theory, the Shenvi Sarasvat
Brahmins of Goa may have migrated from the Kutch-Saurastra region some
time around the eighth century A.D., probably under the pressure of the
early Arab invastions of that area.16 P.S.S. Pissurlencar tried to reconcile the
tradition recorded in Sahyadri-khanda and Konkanakhyana, and visualised
the possibility of one early migration of the labouring classes, possibly of
South Indian origin, and a later migration of the Sarasvat Brahmins who
then established themselves as administrators.17
It is true that the village community set-up as it was found on the arrival
of the Portuguese was controlled by the Brahminical exegesis of Dharmashastras and Smritis.18 The immigration of the Goan Brahmins from somewhere in northern India is corroborated by the peculiar nature of the Goan
village communities; these bear similiarity with those in the North and differ
32
from those in Central and Peninsular India. The Goan village communities
belonged to the joint village type, as distinguished from the severalty type,
the entire village owning the lands, arable and waste, in common and acting
as a unit of land revenue. If joint villages originated, according to the opinion of B.H. Baden-Powell, by acquiring lordship over earlier settlers, then it
becomes easy to explain the fact of non-Brahmins continuing in the Goan
village communities as their effective members-administrators.19
Apparently the immigrant Brahmins failed to displace the earlier settlers
entirely, and this could be due to the limited number of Brahmins. The
migrations of the Brahmins must have also taken place in successive waves
and at pretty long intervals. This can be inferred from the observation of
significant differences among the Sarasvats of the three provinces. In Salcete,
with the exception of the Senvi Brahmins of Cortalim and Quelossim, who
are Smartas of disciples of Sahkaracarya, the other Brahmins of Salcete are
Vaisnavas. To this latter group belong also the Bardezkar Brahmins, but
their deities are more aking in their designations to the Ksatrya deities of the
non-vedic type. Besides, the Sastikar Brahmins tended to look down upon
the Bardezkar Brahmins, possibley because of their habit of eating in the
fields without performing the required pre-meal rituals. Until very recently
intermarriages among the Sastikars and Bardezkars were unheard of.20
It is likely that the Brahmin immigrants achieved predominance through the
goodwill of the local rulers, as well as by their superior education and skill
in handling the rulers, the latter reason also explaining the control of the
Brahmins at the desa or province level. Each desa had a General Assembly
(Camara Geral) of the village communities consisting of the representative desais of chief elders of certain villages of each province. Thus, there
were nine chief villages in Bardez, eight in Tiswadi and twelve in Salcete,
each entitled to send one or two representatives depending upon custom.21
In this total of twenty-nine chief villages, there were seventeen consisting
exclusively of Brahmins, and these along with the other chief villages represented 135 village among which there were only thirty-six exclusively
Brahmin-controlled.22
Representation at the desa level
Village Control
Bardez Salcete
1
2
3
Brahmin control
Mixed control
Non-Brahmin control
Total of villages
v=villages
v
10
8
21
39
d
5
2
2
9
v
15
2
42
59
Tisvadi
d
v
8
11
1
2
3
24
12 37
d=desa
d
4
0
4
8
It must be noted that even though the villages controlled exclusively by

the Brahmins are comparatively few they are all in the most fertile areas of
33
Goa and all of them lie along the upper courses of rivers. Such choice was
possible only to the favourites of the rulers or to the ministers of religion
who could play upon the superstitious nature of the people.
Codification of the rural customs and usages

Afonso de Albuquerque was not just a conqueror. He also displayed qualities
necessary of an empire builder. In order to conquer Goa and retain it, he
sought the goodwill and cooperation of the majority of the local Hindu
population by presenting himself as their deliverer from the oppression of
their Muhammadan overlords. Following the conquest of Goa, Albuquerque
exterminated the Muslim inhabitants of the city and confiscated their lands.
But he left the Hindus undisturbed in possession of their lands, remitted
one-third of their land-revenue payable to the State, and appointed some
prominent Hindu leaders to collect the revenues and to exercise justice
among the local people in accordance with their customs.23
It is obvious, however, from the letters of Albuquerque that he was not
moved by purely altruistic motives of pleasing and helping the natives.
He required their military assistance against the continuing threats of the
Muslims returning, and besides, he had no other way of knowing the dues
payable by them to the State. It may be noted in this connection that even
after taking the natives into confidence, they had been withholding such
information. A type of revenue known as Coxivarado, which amounted to
an additional one-fourth of the regular land revenue, did not come to the
knowledge of the Portuguese, and was not paid to them until thirty years
after the conquest of Goa.24
The feelings of the Albuquerque about the natives can be construed from
the tone of a letter addressed by him to the king of Portugal on April 1, 1512.
It makes it very clear that he would not care a hoot if, as a result of his petscheme of colonisation through mixed marriages, the native inhabitants
were dispossessed of their lands. He wrote: If the Portuguese continue to
marry and settle down at the present rate, it looks to me that Your Highness
may have to drive out the natives of this island and transfer their lands to
the Portuguese settlers. These lands are nobodys exclusive patrimony, but
they all belong to the king and lord of the land. 25
The scant documentation at hand does not enable us to say much about the
treatment meted out to the Goan village communities during the first few
decades of the Portuguese administration. But the efforts at codifying the
local customs and usages in the form of a Charter (Foral) and some other
instances indicate that the Portuguese administration was feeling its way. It
was an uneasy task for the Government to satisfy its own colonial interests
34
without unduly upsetting the local inhabitants. Here follow two instances
to illustrate the situation.
Firstly, a proclamation was issued by king Manuel of Portugal on March 15,
1518, stating that all lands in the island of Goa were to be distributed among
the Portuguese settlers, excepting the lands which might have belonged to
native Christians prior to the conquest of Goa!26 This could be explained
as a move to treat the Goans as vanquished foes, or as due to ignorance
of the situation on the part of the king, or due to misrepresentations on
the part of interested parties. It is also possible that all these factors were
jointly responsible. We do not know what was the reaction of the natives,
be we can guess that it must have been sharp, because the king issued a
new proclamation a year later revising the earlier stand and declaring that
only the lands that had belonged to the Muslims would be given to the
Portuguese settlers and that none of the lands which had always belonged
to the Canarins (the native landowners) would be taken away from them.27
The second instance is contained in a letter of the king of Portugal to the
Portuguese settlers at Goa. It was a reply to certain complaints of the Portuguese city-dwellers. The king replied: you have written to me about
an order issued by Afonso Mexia and confirmed by the Chief Captain and
Governor Lopo Vas to the effect that no Portuguese city-dweller may buy
any lands or palm groves that belong to any non-Christian inhabitant of
the island, even is such properties are said to be belonging to the Crown.
Your request is that I should not object to anyone selling what is his, or to
anyone buying what is sold in this manner, provided the State received its
dues. I have no other information than what you have written to me. I am
writing to Nuno da Cunha, my Chief Captain and Governor to inform me
about the motives behind the order against which you have complained.28
The same letter said little further: I agree with you saying that you would
benefit immensely with the acquisition of some forest lands which you
have mentioned. You also write that the native landowners of the villages
concerned have objected to your wishes. I wish to have more information
regarding this matter before giving you any definite answer. 29
In order to solve the administrative problems arising from the ignorance
of the local tradition on the part of the Portuguese, the chief revenue superintendent Afonso Mexia undertook the task of codifying the customary
law prevailing in Goan villages. As a result the Charter of Local Usages was
issued on September 16, 1526. The information was gathered from the
learned Brahmins of Goa island, as well as from the natives of the mainland
provinces of Bardez and Salcete to which the Charter was made applicable
after they came definitely under Portuguese jurisdiction in 1543.30
The Charter, consisting of forty-nine clauses, enumerates the village functionaries and their functions, lays down the rules of succession and repayment of debts, clarifies the property relations of the village inhabitants
35
among themselves and in relation with the State, and notes down some
traditional practices in favour of certain individuals, groups and villages.
The Charter is the earliest detailed description of the village communities
in India left by Europeans.
Leaving most of the minor details to be clarified in the two following chapters of the present monograph, we shall presently concentrate only on what
the Charter had to say about the property relations in the Goan villages and
about the nature of their representation in the organisation of the village
communities. In this connection we wish to clarify certain concepts which
have not been properly explained in many of the studies that have treated
Goan village communities.
The village administration was entirely in the hands of a village council or
ganvkari, which was made up of the representatives of the vangad or clans
that claimed to descend from the first settlers of the village. Every male
member of such a vangad became a ganvkar on attaining a certain age, say
between twelve and eighteen in most of the villages. Though the presence
of all the ganvkars was not required for the quorum of the village council
meetings, every ganvkar could, if he wished, attend the meetings, express
his opinion and block the proceedings with his single naka, which was the
way of expressing a veto.31
We wish to recall in this connection a theory expounded by H.S. Maine
regarding the evolution of the Indian village communities. It was held by
him that in those parts of India in which the village community was most
perfect the authority exercised by the headman was lodged with the village
council.32 Maines contentions were branded as unwarranted generalisations by A.S. Altekar, who wrote his History of the Village Communities in
Western India ostensibly with the purpose of revealing the regional peculiarities of the village communities in Western India. However, by stating
categorically that Maines theory was without foundation at least where
Western India was concerned, Altekar appears to have fallen prey to the
generalizing tendency which he wished to exorcise.33 The situation that
prevailed in Goa seemed to disprove the universality of Altekars counterstatement. In Goa we do not find headmen as executive heads of the village
communities, though we come across many other historians who understood the situation that way.34 What we observe in Goa is some kind of
gradation among various constituent vangads of a village, a gradation which
probably originated with the importance of the contribution of each vangad
towards the development of the village during the first years of settlement.
The most respected elder or elders of each vangad attended the village council meetings, but the representative elder of the first ranking vangad (or
vangads, if two were placed as equals in the first rank) was regarded as chief
ganvkar and was granted certain social privileges which are mentioned in
the Charter. Thus, when at the approach of the rainy season the houses had
to be covered with palm leaves to protect the mud walls against the lashing
36
rains, it was the chief ganvkars privilege to begin work on his house first.35
Also, at any festive gathering the chief elder was the first to be honoured
with betel and garlanded with a strip of white cloth called pachodi; at seedtime and at harvest, the first field to be taken in hand was that of the chief
ganvkar; the dancing girls had to perform first before the house of the chief
ganvkar and then before the others.36 Beyond such privileges there were
no special powers that a chief ganvkar enjoyed. The administration was
conducted with nem or unanimous decisions of the entire village council.
The execution was entrusted to some hereditary officials, whose functions
are described at length in the next chapter.
It is obvious from the above that the ganvkars alone had a say in the decisionmaking. However, as exceptions to the rule, some non-ganvkars were, in
some villages, given the right to express their opinion during the village
council meetings, but they had no right to vote. These non-ganvkars belonged to the categories of Kulacari and Vantely. The Kulacari were like
the upri tenants-at-will of Maharashtra, but the designation also included
the village servants whose non-agricultural services were required for the
self-sufficiency of the village and were paid with rent-free grants of land. A
vantely was an outsider to the village, but was associated with the ganvkars
because of his skill, say in building or repairing clay levees. As a payment
of his services he received a land grant or a share in the annual profit of
the village. There are even cases of vantely being awarded the rights of full
ganvkars, as in the village of Calangute in Bardez and in the village of Raya
in Salcete.37
The right of the ganvkars in-council to make grants of land freely is already
an indicator of their joint ownership of the village lands. This joint ownership and community interests were also safeguarded by the Charter which
enabled the village community to prevent any unwanted outsider from
acquiring property in the village. It stated that if a ganvkar or some other
person wished to sell his property in the village, such sale would not be effective without a prior consent of the village assembly and without respecting
its right of pre-emption. 38
The joint ownership of the village community was most manifest in the
distribution of the paddy field which in the times of early settlement the
entire community had laboured together to bring under cultivation. Altekar
presents the khoti system of joint ownership of land as an exception to
the rule in western India. This system prevailed in the Konkan regions of
Maharasthra and consisted in farming out lands for the purpose of revenue
collection.39 We must accept that khoti prevailed also in Goa but to a limited
extent and for quite a different reason. Only the khazan or reclaimed lands
were farmer out to a khot, who was generally one of the ganvkars, and the
main purpose was that of ensuring cooperative labour to maintain the clay
levees and the sluice gates which protected the lands reclaimed from rivers
or the sea. The khot would sublet land parcels to individual cultivators, who
37
formed an association called bhaus. Every member of this assosication was

required by its superintendent (called kamat) to contribute with free labour
whenever necessary for the protection of the khazan lands. 40
Most of the other lands of the village which were not khazan lands did not
come under khoti and were auctioned triennially directly to the cultivators.
This system of auctioning to the highest bidding ganvkars, and sometimes
to outsiders as well, provided the latter could find a ganvkar to bid for
them and to stand surety for them, was an expression of joint ownership
which did not allow any individual ganvkar to keep any definite lands for
an indefinite period. In this connection we are led again to question the
assertion of Altekar that the communal ownership of lands had never
existed in India.41 We are told in a recent study on the Disintegration
of the Village Communities in India that cases of communal ownership
were observed in Tanjavur, Mysore and Carnatic. But the author explains
these instances as characteristic of the villages called agraharah vadiky,
which were originally grants of kings to Brahmins.42 In Goa, however, the
system was universal and embraced even the village communities which
were controlled exclusively by non-Brahmin ganvkars.
Defining further the proprietary rights and their representation in the village
communities the Charter ensured their permanency and exclusivism. It
is important to stress this point because it was on this issue that the village communities found themselves very soon confronting new economic
interests that were bent on destroying the traditional set-up that was unfavourable to them. The Charter determined that if the ganvkars of a village
were unable to pay their revenue to the State, only the exercise of their rights
as ganvkars was to be suspended until they showed readiness to resume
their obligation of payment.43 However, in case of an individual ganvkar
absconding because of unwillingness to pay or inability to pay, a time was
fixed for his return. If he failed to turn up, his heirs were given an opportunity to assume the ownership and obligations of the property; it they
declined, the village assembly could bestow it on whomsoever it chose, provided he was ready to pay the tax and the arrears.44 Hence, while in case of
a village there was the possibility of its being entrusted entirely to outsiders
for effective administration, the danger of alienation was more remote in
case of individual ganvkars. Only in some cases of certain villages a stricter
rule was applied and the movable property of the absconding ganvkar was
straightaway confiscated by the State, while the immovable property was
auctioned to the highest bidder from among those entitled to it and the
proceeds were forwarded to the Crown.45
The Charter also established in favour of the ganvkars that their rights and
privileges could be passed on only through direct male heirs. The same
applied also for the transmission of property: Women were categorically
denied inheritance.46 The dignity of the ganvkars was further protected by
that clause of the Charter which stated that ganvkars could not be deprived
38
of their rights despite any sort of misconduct on their part. Even if a ganvkar
deserved punishment, he was to be punished bodily or in his possessions,
but his male heirs would in no way suffer in their rights because of him.47
Whatever might have been the regional variations of the proprietary rights
and their representation in the village communities of Goa, it is beyond all
doubt that the core of the rural heritage as recorded in the Charter was very
much steeped into Hindu Law, and this was particularly true of Goan usages
regarding property and inheritance. The stipulations of the Charter in this
regard reflected the practices sanctioned by the Mitakshara school of Hindu
Law to which the concept of joint family was basic and central.48
The conclude, we may note that the Charter compiled by Afonso Meixa
was far from being a very comprehensive register of local customs and
usages.49 It was meant as a manual for the administrators, and therefore, it
concentrated only on the issues which were raising constant problems for
them. And even regarding such issues the information collated by Mexia
was defective. Thus, for instance, some natives remonstrated against the
Charter in 1534 in connection with its stand regarding the division of property in a polygamous family. The Charter had recorded just one view, that
is, division by stirpes, but the learned men invited from the mainland expounded two equally observed practices, including division by heads. The
Charter was accordingly modified to accommodate both views.50 This accommodating attitude of the Portuguese, however, did not last long. Not
long after, the Charter became an obstacle, and its stipulations, chiefly regarding inheritance, were positively disregarded and violated in order to
favour conversions to Christianity and colonial interests as discussed in the
next Chapter. 51
R EFERENCES
1. Pissurlencar, Um passo do Cronista Barros elucidado a luz duma inscrio sanscrita, OP, n. 18 (1937): 35-45; Inscries pre-portuguesas de
Goa, OP, n.22 (1938): 421-41.
2. Almeida, Aspects of the Agricultural Activity in Goa, Daman and Diu, 36.
3. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical
Outline, 189: The propagation of coconut on the west coast is traced back
to 2 c. A.D. brought from Malaysia.
4. BHC-JMS, I, 270; Almeida, op. cit., 59, annexure n.7; HAG: Mones 54, fls.
50-4.
5. Wheeler (ed.), Early Travels in India, 188, 201; Fonseca, An Historical and
Archaeological Sketch of the City of Goa, 115.
39
6. Wicki, DI, IX, 507; Souza, OC, I, 103; ARSJ: Goa 35, fls. 324; all these
documents from Jesuit sources give an average of 80,000 as the population
of Salcete during the late 16th and throughout the 17th century. The figures
for Tisvadi can be considered as merely approximative after excluding the
city population: Cf. Wicki, DI, I, 253; IV, 645; V, 229; XI, 373; HAG; Mones
26B, fl. 407.
7. Meersman, The Ancient Franciscan Provinces of India, 157: The average
of the figures presented here does not take us beyond 50,000. However,
calculating the population on the basis of a tobacco substitute tax collected
from Bardez one budgrook per household we have nearly 72,500 people
paying 14,500 xerafins. A household is taken to consist of five persons. This
was in 1664-5. Cf. AHU: India, Caixa 26, doc. 61 (28.i.1664), doc. 137
(5.i.1665). ARSJ: Goa I, fls. 116, 219, 185ff., 219ff (1603-1609).
8. ARSJ: Goa 26, fl. 89 ff.
9. TdT: MS Junta da Fazenda Pblica (Estado da India), III, fls. 2-3v; HAG:
MS 1172 (ACF, xiv), fl. 265; MS 1127 (Peties Despachadas do Conselho da
Fazenda), fl. 138.
10. Baden-Powell, The Villages of Goa in the Early Sixteenth Century, JRAS,
London, 1900: 263 (Clause 1). This translation of the Charter has been
followed in the present Chapter unless otherwise stated.
11. Barros, Decada II, p. 1, Bk. V, Ch. I: 440-1.
12. ARSJ:: Goa 22, fls. 59-65v: This report was written in defence of the rights
of the Jesuits of the College of St. Paul in the city of Goa over certain village
community lands that were granted to them and were being withdrawn.
For biodata of Afonso Mendes, ARSJ: Goa 25, fl. 298v; Hist. Soc. 49, fl. 18v;
worked in Goa, Mysore and Ethiopia. Moraes, The Kadamba Kula, 166-7:
Provides a chronological chart of the Kadamba kings of Goa, and we find
Guhalladeva III ruling during 1080-1100.
13. Heras, A newly Discovered Image of Buddha Near Goa, JBHS 1930:
173-89; Ancient temple complex found in Chandor, in The Navhind Times,
Panaji, 8. iv. 1974.
14. Gerson da Cunha (ed.), Sahyadri Khanda, 305, 333.
15. Kosambi, Myth and Reality, 166-8.
16. Moraes, Dr. Jos Gerson da Cunha, 1844-1900, 26.
17. Pissurlencar, Goa Pre-Portuguesa atraves dos Escritores Lusitanos dos
Sculos XVI e XVII, 35-8, Konkanakhyana was compiled in 1721 and it
has preserved the traditions current among the Sarasvat Brahmins of Goa.
This History of Kakshinatya Saraswats was edited by Chandrakant Keni and
reprinted in 2001 by the V.M. Salgaocar Foundation.
18. DCosta, The Christianisation of Goa Islands, 20.
40
19. Baden-Powell, The Indian Village Community, 403, 430-4; Srinivas (ed.),
Indias Villages, 21-2; BHC-JMS, II, passim.
20. Bragana Pereira, Etnografia da India Portuguesa, II, 210-20, 250; SG, III,
34-85; APO-CR, Suppl. 2: 371-82.
21. The chief villages of Tisvadi were: Greater Neura, Gansim, Ela, Azosy,
Karbelly, Batim, Kalapur, and Greater Morumby. The chief villages of Bardes
were: Sirula, Asaganv, Pomburpa, Calangute, Aldona, Kandoly, Nachinola,
Parra, and Salganv. The chief villages of Salcete were: Madganv, Verna,
Kurtory, Lotly, Raya, Banavly, Betalbaty, Colva, Kortaly, Kelxy, Nagoa, and
Sankval, Cf. BHC, II, 24-5.
22. The exclusively Brahmin-controlled village communites were the following: Greater Neura, Gansim, Ela, Azosy, Sirula, Asaganv, Pomburpa,
Nachinola, Saliganv, Madganv, Verna, Kudtory, Lotly, Banavly, Kelxy, Nagoa,
and Sankval, all these from among the chief villages.
23. Barros, Decada II, P.1: 472, 483, 546; Bragana Pereira, Historia Administrativa da India Portugesa, OP, nn. 15-7, 1937: 87-90, 124-7.
24. APO-CR, V, 962-3: Coxivarado is described in this document as voluntary contribution and most of the writers who have dealt with the history
of the revenue administration of Goa have interpreted it that way. They
have derived the term from Khushi, meaning wish in Konkani language,
plus vrat designating contribution. This explanation, however, sounds too
simplistic. The term is derived most likely from kusavrti or tax on grasslands
of forestlands. It could also be taken to mean the chief source of income for
the Kusa or Public Treasury.
25. Baio (ed.), Afonso de Albuquerque: Cartas para el-rei D. Manuel I, 74.
26. Gabinete Litterario, II, 94-7.
27. Ibid., 97-8.
28. APO-CR, I, p.1: 14-5.
29. Loc. cit.
30. HAG: MS 8791 (Livro Vermelho), fls. 147 ff. contain the most correct
version of the Charter. It was edited in APO-CR, V, doc. 59, and also in
BIVG, n.59, 1944: 52-62. There is another copy in HAG: Mones 74, fls.
48ff., which was edited by F. N. Xavier in Colleco das Leis Peculiares das
Communidades, 1855-77: i-ix. There is a 17th century version in BM: MS
Add. 28.433, fls. 3-7, and a 19th century copy in BNL: MS 201, n.128. Cf.
also a digest of the Charter in SG, Charter were published in Whiteway,
R.S., The Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550. App. II, 215-20;
a complete English rendering along with commentary in Baden-Powells
The Villages of Goa in the Early Sixteenth Century, JRAS, London, 1900:
261-91. Cf. Valentino Viegas, As Polticas Portuguesas na India e o Foral
41
de Goa, Lisboa, Livros Horizonte 2005, pp.125: Unfortunately it provides a

unhelpful transcription accompanied by even less helpful genealogy and
analysis of the manuscript version of the *Foral* available at the National
Archives of Lisbon, classified under Gavetas 20-10-13. The author does not
mention or correct the reference to it as original by Carlos Renato Gonalves
Pereira, Histria da Administrao da Justia no Estado da India - Sc. XVI,
Vol. I, Lisboa, 1964, p. 89, n. 6 with reference to *Gavetas 20-10-30*. The
same version was published 10 years later in Gavetas da Torre do Tombo,
Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Histricos Ultramarinos, 1975, Vol. XI, pp. 19-28.
The same version was transcribed somewhat freely more than a century
earlier by Manuel Jos Gomes Loureiro, Memrias dos Estabelecimentos Portuguezes a leste do Cabo de Boa Esperana, Lisboa, 1835. One of the clauses
missing in this 1835 transcription is curiously the same that is missing in
the presently edited version of Valentino Viegas! The language style and the
missing parts suggest it to be an early draft, rather than a developed or final
version critically edited by Cunha Rivara who collated three different texts
that he could find in Goa. He published it in Archivo Portuguez-Oriental,
Fasc. V, doc. 58. Baden-Powell translated from there and is used by me here.
31. BHC, II, 21 n. 40; Appendix A-1. Ganvkars were land controllers operating to draw revenue from the oppressed cultivators, and to transmit part of
it to the State administration. However, the village community cannot be
simply identified as community of Zamindars in North India.
32. Maine, Village Communities in the East and West. 122-3.
33. Altekar, A History of Village Communities in Western India, 1-2, 10.
34. Almost all authors without exception have imagined the situation at
Goa as similar to that in the neighbouring regions. Hence, their tendency to
equate headmen with elders. There was no equivalent of the Maharashtras
Patil in Goan village communities.
35. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 265 (Clause 46).
36. Ibid., 265-6: Clauses 41-2, 46-8.
37. BHC, II, 40 n.247; n. 298.
38. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 272 (Clause 15).
39. Altekar, op. cit., 11, Cf. Gune, V.T., Land Laws, HMD, II, 545.
40. Pereira, Instituto Organico das Communidades do Concelho das Ilhas,
OP, n.5, 1933: 89; Kosambi, Myth and Reality, 163.
41. Altekar, op. cit., 81. Irfan Habibs position that no evidence exists
for communal ownership of land or even a periodic distribution and redistribution of land among peasants (pp. 119, 125) is untenable in the face
of the existing documentation of the village communities of Goa. Cf. APP.
A-4, 3, App. A-8, 1.
42
42. Bhatia, Disintegration of Village Communities in India, 91.

43. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 270 (Clauses 6, 7).
44. Ibid., 264 (Clauses 17-9).
45. Ibid., 265 (Clause 40).
46. Ibid., 270-1 (Clause 30).
47. Ibid., 264 (Clause 8).
48. Kane (ed.), HD, III, 558, 561 ff.
49. Cunha Gonsalves, Usos e Costumes dos Habitantes No-Cristos da
India Portuguesa, Estudos Coloniais, I, n. 2-3: 50-1.
50. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 271 (Clause 32): only division per stirpes was
recognised. Cf. APO-CR, V, 156-9; F. N. Xavier, Aditamento ao Cdigo dos
Usos e Costumes, Nova Goa, 1861: 5-10; HAG: Mones 76, ff. 55v.
51. F. N. Xavier, op. cit., 11-31; Wicki (ed.), O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 130-2,
133-4.
Chapter 3
Agrarian Organisation and

Praxis
rural agrarian life of Goa during the seventeenth century
continued to be ruled by the Charter of Afonso Mexia. The Charter,
however, merely delineates the outline of the agrarian organisation with
its essential characteristics. In order to capture the system at work with its
functional details one has to go beyond the Charter and scrutinise the contemporary records of individual village council proceedings and accounts.
Y AND LARGE
This is precisely what has been attempted in the present chapter, and the actual working of the agrarian system is described in the context of land tenure,
land distribution, land revenue, and distribution of profit and loss. The chief
village functionaries and their functions, as well as the non-agricultural services have also been discussed.
The village council

The difficulties of transport and communication, and the consequent isolation, were the chief factors that required each village to be a self-contained
and self-supporting unit. Even as late as 1781 the municipality of Bardez describes the means of transport as very primitive. It reports: Here everybody
walks and there is no question of using vehicles. Surprisingly, this is said
in a report complaining against the expenditure forced upon it by the State
Government for improving roadways in the rural area.1 For all practical
purposes the administration of the village was in the hands of the village
council, and it was only for the purpose of revenue collection and certain
judicial cases, or law and order problems which the village administration
CHAPTER 3. AGRARIAN ORGANISATION AND PRAXIS
44
was unable to cope with, that there was State machinery and a link organisation between the State and the villages at the province or desa level. At the
State level the highest authority to whom belonged the administration of the
villages was the chief revenue superintendent. On certain issues pertaining
to the crown lands in the villages the crown attorney had a say before a final
decision-making by the chief revenue superintendent.2 At the provincial
level there was a chief thanadar in Tisvadi and military captains in Bardez
and Salcete with general supervisory powers over the administration of
villages in their respective provinces. They possessed administrative, police
and judicial attributions.3 To help them in the collection of revenues there
was a collector in each province (recebedor) assisted by a clerk (nadkarni).
As a more direct link between the provincial administration and the villages
there was a General Assembly (camara geral) formed by the representatives
of the chief villages of each province.4
Normally, it was the village council that took all the administrative decisions
in the village. The meetings of the village council, consisting of the elders of
each vangad, were held as needs arose and they were frequent. They would
meet generally at open places where there was shade and cool atmosphere.
Hence, these meetings (ganvpan) would take place under a mango tree or a
banyan tree. When only a few met, the meeting was held in the house of a
ganvkar or in the Church verandah. Occasionally meetings were called by
the chief thanadar or the province captain at his residence.5
The ganvkars-in-council always had the village clerk (kulkarni) with them
to declare the nem and to record the proceedings. The office of the clerk
was hereditary, but in addition to this so-called escrivo fatiosim there was
in a village another clerk-accountant, who kept the register of village lands
and revenues, and he was known as sanbuka, which was a corrupt version
of senabova, senaboga or shanbag. The Portuguese designation for the
same was escrivo corrente. This latter category of clerks was examined and
approved by the Revenue Department and their appointment to a particular
village had to be ratified by the village council concerned.6
Land tenure
Hindu law codes had always recognised that the land belongs to the clearer
of the wood.7 It was on this basis that the ganvkars in Goan village communities regarded themselves as rightful owners of all the village lands. However,
the Muslim rulers all over India, including Goa, had the tendency to overrule
the ownership of the original soil-clearers by their right of conquest and
thus the Muslim domination had set in the process of feudalisation in Goa
at the time of the Portuguese arrival.8 This process was halted by Afonso
de Albuqeurque, who invited the native Hindus to cultivate their lands in
peace and pay their revenue, which he reduced by one-third in order to win
45
the goodwill of the Hindu population and to utilise their cooperation to

exterminate the Muslims.9
The policy of Albuquerque was confirmed by a royal proclamation of December 18, 1519, revising an earlier proclamation and stating that the lands that
had always belonged to the natives would not be taken away from them.10
The issue of the Charter in 1526 marked a very significant step towards the
recognition of the village community tenancy rights, though the Charter
retained quite a number of rules that had been introduced by the Muslims
and were detrimental to the village communities. Thus, for instance, the
rule in the case of failure of a whole village to pay strikes us as very harsh; for
here the other villages, not the treasury, are to bear the loss, although they
are in no wise to blame for it.11 Moreover, the rules of escheat (on failure of
heirs) have been largely extended to benefit the Government, and collateral
succession is not required.12
These rules were responsible to some extent for the dispossession of the
village communities of their lands, which became crown lands and passed
into alien hands by way of grants. This happened soon after the conquest of
Goa when the lands that were owned by the Muslim inhabitants of the city
and the suburbs were distributed among the Portuguese as revenue-free
grants, and since these lands had to pay revenue to the village communities
to the tune of 1460 tangas and 14 leaes, this sum was discounted from
their dues to the State.13
In the wake of the conversion policy and the subsequent destruction of the
Hindu temples, the lands which the village communities had applied to
the maintenance of cult and ministers of the cult were handed over to the
Jesuits and other ministers of the new religion in violation of a written convention according to which the lands would remain in the possession of the
village communities and would only pay an agreed sum for the upkeep of
the new cult.14 Some entire villages were confiscated in the Salcete province
to punish their rebellious villagers and they were given as grants to certain
individuals, who in turn passed them to the Society of Jesus by way of endowment. Thus Kola, Ambely, Assolna, Kunkoly, Veroda and Velim became
properties of the Jesuits in Salcete.15 In Bardez the village of Anjuna lost
some of its lands as punishment for rebellion,16 and the villages of Nadora,
Pirna and Revora were given as grant to a certain Mukunda Rane in 1609,
probably for ensuring more effective defence of those border areas.17
In addition to the official action of the State there were private interests
trying to invest their capital in the village lands. With the beginning of the
seventeenth century this tendency becomes more marked because the Portuguese seaborne trade was becoming more and more risky for investment.
In this rush for investment in the village lands the Religious whites proved
to be a serious hindrance to the lay whites, who had to be contented with
a poor show compared with what the organised and concentrated capital
46
of the religious orders was achieving. Besides, the religious pastors of the
villages had a firm grip on the villages, and they did not mind exploiting
their social and spiritual position to promote the temporal interests of their
Orders ostensibly to plant Christianity in the new soil. The frustrated anger
of Portuguese laymen took the form of loud denunciations of clerical success. The Portuguese settlers of the Goa city wrote to the king of Portugal in
1603: If this State of India is lost, it will be solely because of the Society of
Jesus (. . . ) They are absolute masters of a great part of this island (of Goa),
most of which they have bought, and at this rate there will be no house or
palm grove left which will not be theirs within ten years from hence. The
Portuguese settlers find themselves empoverished, because they have no
lands to invest in, and whatever capital they had they have lost it in the sea.
The income which the Fathers (of the Society) derive from their properties
in Salcete alone should be sufficient to maintain all the Religious houses
that we have here. 18
It was in response to repeated complaints of this nature that several royal
and viceregal orders were issued to control the establishment of new religious institutions and to check the acquisition of more land properties
by the existing ones.19 The seriousness of the land grab on the part of the
religious orders is sufficiently testified by the registered property of the various religious monasteries that flourished at Goa during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.20 It is interesting to note that lands were acquired by
the religious orders in Goa and not just as foundations for their sumptuous
houses in the city and its suburbs, but even for supporting their missionary
activities abroad. Thus, for instance, the Jesuits had purchased lands in Goa
to support their missions in Mozambique, Cochin and Japan.21
It is important to note that the Europeans, with European agricultural patterns in mind, employing their control of land not just to collect revenue, but
to organise production on new lines, led to the formation of large consolidated plots of land as a novel feature in the village agriculture. The religious
proprietors employed local labour, but they did not as a rule sublet their
lands. They cultivated their paddy fields and particularly their palm groves
along more scientific lines.22 Their large holdings and their large yield was
not to the liking of the village ganvkars, who continued to claim hereditary
powers guaranteed by the Charter while large tracts of the village land had
gone and were going out of their control. Even their former tenants-at-will
were becoming mundkars or rent-free tenants bound to the soil of the palm
groves owned by the religious orders.23
In these circumstances, the foreign investors known as khuntkars were refusing to acknowledge the administrative exclusivism of the ganvkars and had
found ways of infiltrating the village councils as new ganvkars. The protests
of the ganvkars against this violation of their privileged rights evoked a Government response and brought about a number of legislative orders from
1604 onwards declaring that the khuntkars could not legitimately buy, or
47
in any other way acquire, the rights of ganvkars, but the legislation was not
applied with retrospective effect.24
As a result of the land grab by the khuntkars, the village communities were
becoming unable to meet the growing demands of the State, which was
always short of funds and had developed the habit of milching them out
of the village communities as much as possible.25 The white khuntkars,
particularly if they were Religious, did not easily yield to pressures. It was,
therefore, in its own best interests that the Government interfered with
determination to arrest the process of alienation of the village lands. This
was done by a decision of the Public Revenue Council in 1649, declaring
that all proprietary rights upon the village lands rested with the crown and
that the ganvkars were mere lease holders (rendeiros) with no rights to make
grants of lands or to alienate them in any way on their own. This decision
was based on an entirely irrelevant document, which it quoted to prove that
right from the early times the Government had farmed out the revenues of
Salcete and Bardez in triennial contracts. The term designating revenues in
the quoted document is rendas, which means non-agricultural revenues and
not land revenue for which the term foro was invariably used.26 Therefore,
even though the validity of the decision was questionable, in the prevailing
circumstances it was a lesser evil to be chosen. The decision paid rich
dividends to the State exchequer during the period that followed, and at the
same time the village communities were saved from further disintegration.
Land distribution
The elevated areas of the village were, as a rule, set aside for residential
purpose, and these were perhaps distributed originally among the residents
of the village according to the number of the members of each family. Each
family was provided a plot for house and for an orchard close to it. Such
plots are designated in the village records as gharbata, gormanda, thikan.27
The residential areas (vadde) were generally isolated from each other by low
lying fields which were used for paddy cultivation. Each of the residential
areas was known as vaddo, and several vadde together formed a village or
ganv. Among the paddy fields there were some reclaimed from river or
sea, and these were known as kantor or khazan lands. The highlands were
known as morod and molloi. The areas lying in the vicinity of a spring or a
lake and utilised for areca-groves were known as kulagar.
The lands in a village were classified as first and second class lands, and
those belonging to either class were divided into three portions, each portion being applied to a different purpose. Thus, the first class low-lying
paddy fields were distributed as follows: one portion consisting of the best
fields was set aside for the sustenance of the temple priest and temple servants, as well as for defraying the other expenses of worship. These were
48
called nelly lands. The second lot constituted the fund of the village association, and the third portion was given as namasy to the village servants
in lieu of remuneration for their services. Of the second class lands, one
portion was granted to the temple and the village servants as namasy; second portion was reserved for works of public utility, such as roads, tanks,
canals, pasture lands, cremation ground, and so on, and third portion was
given in grants to individuals for developing it into orchards, palm groves
or areca-groves against the payment of a fixed rent (kutumbana) or flexible
rent (vanty).28
The paddy fields which belonged to the village fund could not be alienated
by way of grants and they were given on annual or triennial leases to the
highest bidding village ganvkars.29 Initially, perhaps, the auctioning of the
paddy fields was done every year, as indicated in the Charter.30 However,
the records of the seventeenth century refer always to triennial auctionings
of the fields, at least of those of khazan type. This change was probably
justified by the fact that people would take better care of their fields at least
during the first two years, because it had already become common practice
to leave the fields unweeded and without manure during the third year
of the lease (tisalak sandunk). Also the excessive expenditure incurred in
conducting the auctioning was a sufficient reason to discourage annual
renewal of the leases.
The auctioning of a village fields could last some couples of days and the
Government officials and their aides had to be paid for all the days of their
stay in the village. Thus, for instance, the auctioning of the fields of Aldona
in 1604 took four days. The crown attorney who was present was paid 40
xerafins, and interpreter (dubhaxi) 4 xerafins, his nayak 4 xerafins, and the
machila or palanquin 3 tangas. The parish priest was paid 25 xerafins for
having supplied meals to the Government official during those days. The
total expenditure amounted to 102 xerafins, 1 tanga.31
The auctioning could begin only after the entire village had been informed
at least five nights in advance (pancaratri) by the village crier (parpoti) at
the sound of a metal basin. Only the ganvkars, and rarely the Kulacari,
were allowed to bid. Any outsider could bid only through a ganvkar. The
highest bidder had to present immediately his sureties in the person of
one or more ganvkars owning lands, and failing to do so, the bidder was
liable to pay a fine and the land was auctioned all over again.32 The existing
documentation does not suggest scarcity of cultivable land, but the shortage
of labour and migration of peasants to neighbouring jurisdiction and Kanara
was caused by the heavy revenue demands.33
The leased plots of non-reclaimed land were known as melaga, while the
leased plots of the reclaimed land were called bandy or gutoga. These
latter category of fields were generally farmed out for a period of three
years to a khot who would present four guarantors and then distribute the
49
whole area among its traditional cultivators forming an association that was
known as bhaus. This hereditary association had its president called kamat,
which was also an almost hereditary office. He had his assistants known as
palny, who kept watch over the clay levees and the sluice gates (mandusa)
in order to prevent their rapture and inundation of the fields. The bhaus
associates were bound to contribute with free labour whenever directed by
the kamat to do so, and those who could not come personally had to send
paid substitutes.34
It was customary to check misappropriated land, and this was done at the
time of the triennial auctionings, but more systematically every twenty-five
years.35 More land was often added to their permanent holdings by their
proprietors, and this additional area was generally obtained by reclaiming
it from the rivers.36 Those found with usurped area for which they paid no
rent were fined a xerafin and a larim, whether the area was cultivated or
not. This fine was applicable to the properties paying rent of the vanty or
flexible type. If the usurped area was added to a property having fixed rent,
then four larim, were charged for each coconut tree that was planted, and
two larins for every empty pit. We see these rules observed in the Donkuly
village of Salcete in 1629.37 A slightly different pattern of fining was followed
in the Sirula village of Bardez in 1660: When cereal producing lands were
usurped, these were confiscated in favour of the village community and the
guilty proprietor would pay an additional fine of 2,000 ris. However, if the
usurped land had coconut trees already planted on it and could not revert
to the village community, then a rent of one tanga was charged for each tree
every year, and an additional fine of 2,000 ris was collected immediately.38
The measuring of the fields did not follow a uniform system in all villages.
In the Karbelly village of Tisvadi the paddy fields were measured with the
vanva cane, similar to the kathi of the neighbouring lands of Maharashtra.39
In Salcete a cane of three varas of five spans each was in use during the
mid-sixteenth century. In terms of cubits it must have measured seven and
half cubits.40
The measuring of plots for coconut tree plantations was done with a rope
(corda). This type of measure was not uncommon elsewhere in India, and
Wilsons Glossary gives the length of a rope or rasee as eighty cubits. In the
Arthashastra of Kautilya we come across rajju as a unity of land measurement in cadastral survey. It was equivalent to ten canes or dandas of four
aratnis each.41 It has not been possible for us to determine the length of
the rope used in Goa, but apparently the rope used in Salcete and Bardez
was not equal in size, because from figures available the coconut trees were
planted in Salcete at a distance of one rope from each other, while in Bardez
an average of five coconuts trees were fitted in an area measuring one square
rope.42 The Register (Tombo) of Salcete lands (1622-92) also refers to the
cane of 18 cubits (mos) or 36 spans (palmos) for measuring palm groves.43
There is also reference to covas (hollows) as a measuring unit for palm-
50
groves. The Charter of 1526 indicates that 12 paces was standard distance
between two palm trees.44
A third kind of nomenclature was current to indiciate the size of the areca
tree groves. The least unity of measurement was a zambo, which indicated
the area occupied by one areca tree. The largest unit was known as kagany, which was the size of a plot for six hundred areca trees. Each kagany
consisted of four kamby, and each kamby of four gida and two zambe.45
Land revenue
The entire village acted as a unit for the payment of the land revenue or any
other additional impositions. The land revenue was fixed for each village.
It is not clear when and how the land revenue payable by each village was
assessed, but the Portuguese retained the traditional assessment and mode
of payment. However, calculating the proportion between the gross income
and the land revenue (sidau) paid by the villages to the State (divan) it can
be reasonably deduced that the rayarekha system of assessment of Vijayanagar must have been introduced into Goa during the century long rule of
Vijayanagar in Goa (1378-1472). The land revenue (foro) amounted to about
one-fifth of the gross income of the village.46 The term dhastudoddo used in
the village records for the annual balance sheet suggests that the prevailing
form of assessment could date back to the later Bijapuri domination and its
hast-o-bud method of assessing revenue.47 The revenue from palm groves
was assessed independently at the rate of 5 tangas brancas per year per 100
trees. A new palm grove was not liable to this normal rent during the first
25 years, during which not more than one-tenth of the normal rent was
demanded.48
In addition to the land revenue the people had to pay a variety of other taxes
during the Muslim rule. More burdensome among these were Godevrat and
Kusavrat. The first of the two was destined to support the Muslim cavalry.
The second imposition was an additional one-fourth of the land revenue.49
These impositions must have surely been oppressive to the people, who
could pay them only from the income they derived from the land cultivation.
All these additional taxes were retained by the Portuguese. A report sent to
the crown by an important Church dignitary in 1545 described the natives of
Goa as very poor people and paying a heavy duty on what they cultivated.50
Also a memorandum submitted by the General Assembly of the village
communities of Salcete to the king of Portugal in 1643 represented the heavy
burden of taxation and pointed out that the land revenue along amounted to
one-fifth of the produce, and that after discounting the labour cost and other
expenses not more than six per cent profit was left to the cultivator.51 While
there was no remission easily granted, new tax burdens were introduced to
meet defence requirements after the invasion of Sambhaji in 1683.52
51
The job of collecting the taxes of the village was auctioned every year, and
one who agreed to exercise it for least payment had to present his guarantors
and act as potekar or sacador.53 The collection of land revenue was done
in monthly or quarterly instalments depending upon the custom of the
village. The potekar who was almost always one of the village money-lenders
could approach the tax-payers only after the village clerk and a couple of
elected ganvkars (louvad) had prepared the account of dues to be collected
from the individual tax-payers after deducting whatever the village owed
them by way of remuneration for services, or by way of discount for any
theft of coconuts or damage to crops owing to the negligence of the village
appointed watchman (terlu). Basing himself on the adau or the periodic
balance sheet the clerk of the village had to work out a list of the revenuepaying ganvkars and kulkarni tax-payers and their respective dues, and this
list (uruvaly or bhatkula) he had to present to the potekar by the twenty-fifth
day of the month at the latest. Only then could the potekar begin his rounds
and obtain receipts from the clerk for the collection made. The money that
he collected, plus the sum he added (bartani) from his own pocket to make
up for the defaulters, was to be submitted by him to the provincial collector
(recebedor) before the beginning of the new month. He had to bring the
receipts issued by the collector and hand them over to the village clerk to
be noted down in the village account-book. If there was any delay in the
collection of taxes and the payment to the province collector because of the
negligence of the potekar, then whatever expenses were incurred due to the
inquiries made by the province collector by sending his nayaks and peons
to the village had to be borne by the potekar.54
The methods of tax collection were very severe and dreaded by the taxpayers. The potekar would pay for the defaulters, but then with a kusa
or a notification issued by the village clerk and endorsed by the province
collector he proceeded to confiscate cattle, grain, or any movable goods
he could find in the house of the debtor and auctioned them to cover the
value of the tax payable by him. In the meantime the debtor was taken to
prison by the nayak of the province collector and released only after the
debt was satisfied. The confiscation of the goods was done in accordance
with the valuation of goods done by the village gramavariks, in the presence
of the village clerk, and by the parpoti of the village. Nothing more could
be taken than required for the satisfaction of the debt.55 If the debt could
not be made good with the goods of the debtor, then those who had stood
surety for him at the time of land auctioning were taken to task.56
The potekar was entitled to collect interest on the money he paid for the
tax defaulters. The interest when collected in grain was known as bhatkado
and when collected in the form of coconuts it was known as narlmodo.57
The rate of intereste varied at different times of the year and the highest rate
was probably charged for the months when the rice supply was most scarce.
The average rate was approximately 11%, but reduction was made in times
52
Mode of interest collection

Order of
10
11
12
2.5
1.5
2.5
1.5
1.5
1.5
0.5
1.5
0.5
installments
Interest
(xerafins) 1629
per kudav of
paddy 1632
of natural calamities, as it happened for instance in 1632 when the region

was still recovering from the great famine. The collection of the interest
was done along with the sixth and twelfth instalments which were paid at
the time of the harvest. No cultivator could lift any amount of paddy from
the field without presenting to the watchman a chit issued by the potekar
declaring that the cultivator owed no dues to the village.58
The tabulated information refers to Kortaly in Salcete, and the blanks for the
fifth, sixth, eleventh and twelfth instalments indicate that these instalments
were paid at the harvest time and as such the problem of collecting interest
did not arise. The village customs provided measures to be taken against
the potekar if he exceeded his powers. If a wrong person was arrested by the
nayak of the province collector, the potekar was obliged to pay the person
one bargany for each day of imprisonment. Also, if cattle not belonging
to the debtor was taken by mistake, then various rates of indemnity were
fixed depending upon the kind of cattle-head that was lost to its rightful
owner. In Aldona village, for instance, every head of cattle taken by mistake
and returned had to bring along six zoitole per day. If a head of cattle died
or was not returned to the owner, then the following dues were collected
from the potekar to be paid to the owner of the cattle: four varaha for an
ox, three for a cow, two and half for a he-buffalo, five for a she-buffalo, and
two for a calf. This was the compensation demanded at the beginning of
the seventeenth century.59 However, the rates charged in Siuly and Sirula
villages of Bardez in the early 70s of the seventeenth century differed very
considerably. The charges in Siuly were four xerafins for an ox and three
xerafins for a buffalo, cow or calf.60 But in Sirula the charges were much
higher, namely eight xerafins for an ox, the same amount for a milk-giving
cow, five xerafins for a buffalo, and ten xerafins for a milk-giving buffalo.61
This information is valuable to assess the labour cost and the living cost in
an economy which depended upon cattle for cultivation, transportation
and for food supply as well.
There were provisions to prevent the potekar from collecting more cash
than he was entitled to collect from the tax-payers. If he collected anything
more than six zoitole he could be required to return one and half xerafins to
the cheated party; if, however, the excess collected was less than six zoitole,
53
then potekars goods would be auctioned to give satisfaction to the tax-payer

who demanded justice.62
In spite of all precautions taken to keep the potekar within the bounds
of justice, he never ceased being a dreaded officer. That was chiefly due
to his power to despoil the debtor of their few belongings without any
consideration of mercy. A few illustrations drawn from the village of Kortaly
in 1631 may help us to understand the fear of the tax-payers: for being
unable to pay four tangas brancas and five leaes of his rent, one khandi
and seventeen kudav of John Vazs sorod crop of paddy were auctioned.
For his inability to pay two tangas brancas and one bargany, Diogo Franco
Purso lost an ox. Francisco Purso could not pay six leaes, and his canoe was
handed over to the creditor for one month. Diogo Bhairo Purso owed three
bargany and one leal, and his best cow was auctioned.63 Potekar ietolo is a
Konkani expression, meaning the potekar will come, commonly used by
older people in Goa to frighten kids into doing things which they would not
easily yield to.
Distribution of profit and loss

A general dhastudodo or balance-sheet was prepared yearly or half-yearly
by the ganvkars and the village clerk. In the section indicating the adau
or income the various sources of income and their respective revenues
were noted. Chief among them were always the paddy-fields and the palm
groves. A rather meager income was derived from some other sources,
such as the rent of the village shops, the auctioning of the monopoly rights
for killing fish in the khazan lands during the months of the year when
they were kept flooded, auctioning of the river passage (penta), and so
on. The expenditure was called vechu, and it included among other heads,
the land revenue and other taxes payable to the State. Then followed the
stipends and the perquisites of the local functionaries and village servants,
as well as expenditure on religious cult and public utilities. If the village had
acquired any loans, these were also paid off at this time after deducting all
expenses from the total income. The remainder was shared by the jonkars
and khuntkars.64 Whenever the expenditure exceeded the income the loss
was made good by recovering proportionate contributions from the jonkars
and shareholders. Thus, for instance, the dhastudodo of Azosy for the year
1669 showed an adau of 1595 tangas brancas, 2 barganya and 14 leaes, but
the vechu amounted to 1903 tangas brancas and 14 leaes. The deficit of
307-2-00 was distributed equally among the jonkars and each of them had
to pay 4-1-01.65
Jon was the privilege of every male ganvkar after reaching a certain age
which varied from village to village. It was the right of the ganvkar to a share
in the net profit of the village, and only where the jonkar held properties
54
paying flexibe rent he was also required to contribute to cover the deficit.
But mere jon did not imply the obligation of contributing towards the loss.
However, if a ganvkar was unable to pay his taxes, his right to jon could be
auctioned by the village, but this could be done only during the life-time
of the debtor-ganvkar.66 In the beginning of the seventeenth century the
indebtedness of ganvkars had led many of them to sell their jon to their creditors, who were quite often outsiders to the village. The evil consequences of
this practice were soon realised by the village communities and legislation
was introduced to keep out intruders.67
The distribution of jon followed a different pattern in different villages.
In some cases the profit was distributed per stirpes, that is, into as many
equal portions as the number of vangad in the village. The amount that
each ganvkar obtained then depended upon the number of ganvkars in
each vangad. The custom followed in other villages was to distribute the
profit among the ganvkars individually, and this mode of distribution nwas
known as personal jon. Quite often the village clerk, the widows and the
orphans were also granted a full or fractional jon. It was also usual to grant
a permanent jon to the patron saint of the village.68
Some more village functionaries and servants

A number of subordinate functionaries were elected or appointed periodically to help the village council with the administration. Whenever a village
was required to supply free labour to the State, the village elected a couple
of gramavarikas to make the necessary arrangements and to lead the batch
of workers.69 The function of a gramavarika was also to act as an assessing
officer in case of thefts or damage caused by cattle to crops. In some villages the officials elected to do this were known as chaugule, modestu and
kumer.70 They also judged petty cases and acted as justices of peace in a
village. The chief chaugula was generally appointed by inviting bidders, and
the one who agreed to function with the least salary presented his gadelikar
or assistants. The job was farmed out on the condition that these chaugule
be just in their decisions and available at any time their services were required by the people. A fine of two barganya was laid down if a chaugula
failed to answer a call.71
The village also farmed out the office of the terlu whose duty was to guard
houses, orchards, palm groves and paddy fields of the village. Generally,
each vado or ward had a chief terlu who was responsible before the village
council and he would choose some men to assist him. The village council
entrusted the job to them, specified their duties and fixed their musara
and other perquisites. Musara was paid by each ward to its terlu, and the
perquisites were collected from the lease-holders of the paddy fields and
palm groves in accordance with the village customs. Thus, for instance, in
55
Kortaly village the terlu received six coconuts out of every hundred coconuts
plucked and two kudav of paddy from each plot (zanvo) of cultivated paddy
field.72 At Azosy a terlu watching paddy fields was paid between five and
nine measures of unhusked rice per bandy of cultivated land.73
The village council also appointed the padai or padekar for each ward of
the village having palm groves. Only these village-appointed padai were
allowed to pluck coconuts in the presence of the terlu. If there was any theft
of coconuts, the owners of the palm groves had to produce before the village
clerk the sworn testimony of the padai confirming the theft and specifying
the quantum of loss in order to get the terlu to make good of the loss.74
As Siuly a padai was given three coconuts out of every hundred coconuts
plucked when the palm grove was subject to kutumban rent, but those who
paid vanty type of rent gave the padai two coconuts per every two tangas of
rent.75 When fields were auctioned the padai were also called upon to hold
the measuring stick or the rope.76
Not rarely villages appointed their solicitors to defend the interests of the
village in the courts of law.77
Every village had a definite number of servants whose non-agricultural
services were essential for the economic self-sufficiency of a village. Available records of the Goan village communites in the seventeenth century
contain references to the carpenter (thovoi), blacksmith (vinani), washerman (dhobi), potter (kumbhar), barber (malo), basket-weaver (mahar) and
cobbler (chamar).
The services of the barber and washerman were almost exclusively of personal attendance, although the barber also acted as acceptable matchmaker. The services of the other village servants were more directly associated with the agricultural needs of the village. The carpenter had to fix
the sluice-gates which prevented the inundation of the khazan lands. He
also collaborated with the village blacksmith to keep the villagers supplied
with ploughs, hoes and other agricultural implements. The potter supplied
clay vessels for home use, as well as for watering purposes in the fields.
The mahar manufactured the gudve, which were used to water the vaingan
fields. He also wove mats and baskets and other bamboo products such as
souvem (mat) supa (winnowing fan), varlo, (basket with 4 cornered bottom)
etc., essential for operations connected with threshing, cleaning and storing
of paddy. Besides providing the ganvkars with footwear, the cobbler also
supplied them thongs for whips and bags for water.
There is very scanty documentary evidence to illustrate the mode of payment to each of the above artisans or to deduce their relative importance in
different villages. Each artisan who served the village had the revenues of a
namasy land or lands assigned to him in lieu of payment. Such grant was
hereditary and could not be revoked, but if a person consistently failed to
56
do his duty, the grant could be transferred to another person belonging to

the same family and who would agree to serve the village more dutifully.78
In addition to the income derived from the namasy lands, artisans also
received musara in the form of grain from the individual ganvkars, whom
they served. In the case of some artisans the remuneration was paid entirely
by the village. Thus, for instance, the ganvkars of Azosy made a two-year
contract with the cobbler Bras Fernandes to supply sandals. The village set
aside a namasy for him; ten xerafins also would be paid in cash every year
in quarterly instalments. The ganvkars receiving sandals were also required
to pay the cobbler a sum of one and half bargany per pair of two-strapped
sandals and one bargany for a pair of one-strapped sandals.79 It was also
a practice in the same village that each household of ganvkars should give
ten kudav of bhat or unhusked rice to the dhobi (washerman) as his annual
musara. The washerman was expected to bring back the clothes washed on
Saturdays without fail to enable the ganvkars to dress in their Sunday best
for the Church liturgy.80
Artisans of all categories were welcomed by the ganvkars on the occasion of
religious feasts in the village and given a share of special sweet rice cakes
(sadna) especially prepared on such occasions.81
Artisans had to make their rounds of the village every week and attend to the
needs of the ganvkars who required their help. An artisan could be fined by
the village council every time he refused to attend to any ganvkar. Ordinarily
this fine did not exceed one tanga, but sometimes it could be as high as five
tangas.82
Each village also had its cowherds. Depending upon the number of the
village cattle herd, there was one cowherd for the entire village or even one
cowherd for each ward of the village. Apparently, every eighty head of cattle
had one cowherd, who was paid not more than one xerafin per head of cattle
a year.83
It was the duty of the shepherd to watch the cattle while grazing and to
prevent them from entering cultivated lands and damaging crops. It was
customary to impose a fine of two barganya for each head of cattle that
entered cultivated land each time it entered the field.84
A village had also a goldsmith (shet), who stood higher than the other village
servants in he social hierarchy, and he even claimed to belong to the class
of the dvijas, while the latter treated him as a vaisya.85 It was the goldsmith
who pierced the ear-lobes of females and sometimes of males as well; he
provided villagers with gold and silver ornaments. He also acted as a shroff
or money-changer and checked the genuineness of the currency which
village officials had to collect by way of revenue. For this latter service he
received a remuneration from the village.86
57
R EFERENCES
1. AHU, India, Mao 8 (Jan. 4, 1781)
2. HAG: Mones 53, fls. 50-1; BHC, II, 17-8.
3. APO-CR, V, 1-3, 12-6, 35-6, 65-8; HAG: ACF, IX, 59-62; Pissurlencar (ed.),
Regimentos das Fortalezas da India, 142 ff.
4. Baden-Powell, The Villages of Goa in the Early Sixteenth Century, 266
(Clauses 2, 43, 44 of the Charter); BHC, II, 24-5.
5. HAG: MS 10148, fl. 63v: . . . Shrimata Mhal-Gove grame padri vegairache
ghari bhaisike. . . (=in the village of Goa Velha, they (the ganvkars) met
in the residents of the parish priest); HAG: MS IC017, fl. 15: . . . talyachya
bandachya ambyapya baisike. . . (=by the lake side under a mango tree);
HAG: MS 10204, fl. 10v: . . . Raichura pobsatu Sinoru Gaspari Simauche
gharapya bhaisike. . . (=at the resident of the Captain Gaspar Simo in the
village of Rachol they (ganvkars) met...
6. Ghantkar, An Introduction to Goa Marathi Records in Halakannada Script,
54; HAG: Moes 93, fl. 388v; AHU: India, Caixa 24, doc. 158; Collection of
Mr. Avelino Soares: Siuly village records for the year 1672 contain references
to Sambuka, samuqha, sanbuqua, always meaning clerk-accountant.
7. Kane, HD, II, 867.
8. Barros, Decada II, Bk. V, Ch. II, 457. Cf. App. A-1.
9. Ibid, 470-1.
10. BHC, II, 8-10.
11. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 270-1 (Clauses 6, 27-9).
12. Ibid., 271, 280.
13. BHC, II, 10.
14. Ibid, 11-6.
15. BHC-JMS, I, docs. 13-4; Almeida, A Aldeia Cola, OP., n-3-4 (1920):
125-34.
16. Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa, 424, n. 133: DMP, V, 439; HAG: ACF, IX, fl.
31v.
17. HAG: ACF, V, 66-7; BHC, II, 61. Ganoba Rane of the same family served
the Portuguese in Ceylon with 400 men in 1639.
18. APO-CR, I, P.2: 128. Cf. APP. A-1, A-3, A-4 & 10, A-8 & 4.
19. TdT: DRI 32, fl. 140; AHU: India, Caixa 25, doc. 117; AR, I, docs. 102,
212-3, 287-8, 490, 596, 617; APO-CR, V. doc. 956.
58
20. HAG: MSS 824, 830, 3026, 3029, 3038, 3041 are some of the codices of the
long series entitled Papers of the Suppressed Convents that may be usefully
consulted for studying the land grab by the religious orders.
21. ARSJ: Jap. Sin. 23: fl. 379; HAG; Mones 19C, fls. 734v-6v; ACF, IV, fls.
109v-110v.
22. BHC, II, 45-55: contains a short manual of instructions laid down by an
early Jesuit in Goa for growing coconut trees in a scientific manner. Cf. HAG:
MS 1498 (Ordens Rgias, n. 2), fl. 98: contains a report sent to the crown by
the Bishop-Governor of Goa praising the skill and industry of the Jesuits in
cultivating lands and making them productive (22. i. 1636); Mones 19C,
fl. 734v: The three villages of Salcete, namely Assolna, Velim and Ambely
were valued as 2010 xes. In 15787, that is, at the time they were given to the
Jesuits. By 1635 the industrious Jesuits had raised their yield to 5500 xes.
23. App. A-3
24. APO-CR, V, 1375 ff; Appendix A-2
25. App. A-8, A-11; BHC, II, 130 ff.
26. HAG: ACF, VII, fls. 81v-2; Xavier, F.N., Colleco das Leis Peculiares das
Communidades, I, 38 n. 1.
27. BHC, I, 3.
28. Ibid., II, 7, 10, 44. Clause 9 of the Charter enabled the ganvkars to arrange
for the cultivation of the waste lands by leases and at any rate of rent they
please up to a period of twenty-five years, but thereafter the customary rent
had to be put into effect. According to this customary rent a property with
hundred palm trees paid five tangas of four barganya each. If the area was
smaller or bigger, the payment would vary accordingly. Twelve paces was
the conventional distance between one tree and another. Clause 10 of the
Charter determined the usual rate of rent charged for the area groves. If was
four barganya per year for a plot of hundred trees having only well water
available, and six barganya when there was running water. The distance
between one tree and another was of five cubits.
29. App. A-4: 11. 17-20.
30. Clause 20.
31. Ghantkar, op. cit., 28.
32. HAG: MS 10226, fl. 21 (Kortaly); MS 10022, fl. 12v (Azosy): The fine for
failing to produce a guarantor was laid down as five tangas brancas.
33. App. A-8, & 7, 11; A-12, & 3.
34. HAG: MS 10029, fls. 20, 35-5v; MS 10037, fls. 14, 15; MS 10038, fl. 15;
MS 10039, fl. 12. A Kamat in the village of Azosy was paid with a rent-free
59
grant of two bandys. He had only to pay the dues of the terlu. If any Kulacari
belonging to the bhaus failed to come for work when called upon to do so,
he was liable to pay a fine of one tanga branca.
35. App. A-6, A-7.
36. Xavier, F.N., Colleco das Leis Peculiares das Communidades, I, 209-12;
HAG; Mones 85, fl. 123v.
37. HAG: MS 10204, fls. 23-23v; Appendix A-7. The term used for additional
usurped land is gaban.
38. Collection of Avelino Soares: Sirula village book for the year 1660, fls.
2v-3v.
39. HAG: MS 3069 (Tombo dos namoxins), fls. 51, 241v; Ghantkar, op. cit.,
49-50; Kulkarni, Maharashtra in the Age of Shivaji, 150: the length of the
kathi was give cubits and five closed fists.
40. APO-CR, V. 638-40; DMP, X, 215-7.
41. AS-K, Bk. II, Ch. 20.
42. HAG: MS 3070 (Foral de Salcete, 1567), fls. 124-4v; MS 7587 (Foral de
Bardez, 1647), fls. 185-6.
43. HAG: MS 7583, fls. 323-4.
44. Clause 9.
45. Faria, G., Medidas Agrarias das Communidades, OP. XVI (1919): 89-91;
HAG: MS 10226 (Kortaly), fl. 97: two gidas and 19.25 zambe are referred to
as a visavo or twentienth part of three kagany, three gidas and 13.5 zambe.
46. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, XV, P.2: 155-7.
47. Habib, op. cit., 198 n. 11: Hast-o-bud was a summary assessment by
estimating the total produce of a village after inspecting all the fields, or by
just counting the ploughs.
48. HAG: MS 3070 fls. 582, 645.
49. BHC, I, 48-55; II, 55 n. 276.
50. DMP, III, 207.
51. App. A-8, &7.
52. App. A-8 & 2. There are instances, however, where the ganvkars in village
councils determine to reduce or remit some instalments of land revenue
owing to some extraordinary calamities. Cf. HAG: MS 10861 (Chinchiny,
1698) fl. 117; MS 10866 (Colva, 1684) fl. 121, 123v. In this latter case a
remission of 1 bargany per tga. br. Of revenue (=1/4 of total revenue) is
granted because of the ravages of Sambhajis invasion.
60
53. App. A-10.

54. Ibid.
55. HAG: MS 10226 (Kortaly), fl. 36v.
56. App. A-10, & 2.
57. HAG: MS 10226, fls. 5, 11v, 15, 17v-8; MS 10254, fl. 13v. The narlmodo
paid in the village of Donkuly in 1638 was at the rate of 25 coconuts for each
xerafin of debt.
58. HAG: MS 10227 (Kortaly, 1630), fl. 26v. The auctioning of goods or
properties to effect the payment of debt at the time of the payment of
the sixth and twelfth instalments was known as kadsany; Collection of Mr.
Avelino Soares: Bastora village records (1679), fl. 10.
59. Ghantkar, op. cit., 31.
60. Collection of Avelino Soares: Siuly village records (1671), fls. 2v-3;
Appendix A-10.
61. Loc. cit.
62. Ibid., 11. 50-5.
63. HAG: MS 10226 (Kortaly), fls. 10v-11.
64. HAG: MS 10207 (Donkuly), fls. 13-13v.
65. HAG: MS 10029 (Azosy), fls. 13-13v.
66. Gomes Pereira, Jonos, 7 ff.
67. App. A-2.
68. BHC, I, 62-4; II, 29, 39, 141.
69. HAG: MS 10032 (Azosy, 1667), fl. 27.
70. HAG: MS 10045 (Karbely), fl. 32; MS 10033 (Azosy), fl. 12; Collection of
Avelino Soares: Bastora village book (1679), fl. 10.
71. HAG: MS 10056 (Karbely), fl. 50v.
72. HAG: MS 10028 (Kortaly), fls. 23v-4: The terlu received by way of
perquisites 10% from jackfruits, bananas and arecanuts, and 6% from coconuts. He received no perquisites in case of a theft. Cf. Ghantkar, op. cit.,
64.
73. HAG: MS 10035 (Azosy, 1688), fl. 8v; MS 10038 (Azosy, 1694), fl. 15.
74. App. A-9.
75. Loc. cit.
76. App. A-7.
61
77. HAG: MS 10037 (Azosy, 1691), fl. 15; Mones 85, fl. 126.
78. Baden-Powell, op. cit., 268 (Clause 12); Chicherov, India: Economic
Development in the 16th-18th Centuries, 15-43.
79. HAG: MS 10027 (Azosy, 1666), fl. 3v.
80. HAG: MS 10020 (Azosy, 1608), fl. 26v.
81. HAG: MS 10032 (Azosy, 1667), fl. 54v.
82. HAG: MS 10042 (Karbely, 1613), fl. 31v; MS 10031 (Azosy, 1671), fls.
3, 7. An excessively high fine of 10 tangas brancas was established by the
ganvkars of Azosy in 1672 against the village barber who had become very
negligent in his duty. The charges leveled against him were that he was too
often found drunk and was using blunt tools.
83. HAG: MS 10022 (Azosy, 1613), fl. 13; Xavier, F.N., Colleco das Leis
Peculiares das Communidades, I, 204-5.
84. HAG: MS 10058 (Karbely, 1622), fls. 21v, 23, 27v; MS 10022, fl.
85. Bragana Pereira, Etnografia da India Portuguesa, II, 39.
86. HAG: MS 10037 (Azosy, 1691), fl. 10; Collection of Mr. Avelino Soares:
Sirula village records (1660), fl. 31; Chicherov, op. cit., 29.
Chapter 4
Rural Social Life
OAN VILLAGES IN the seventeenth century continued to be communities
with their corporate organisation which attended to the economic

as well as social needs of the native population. Whatever might have
been their self-sufficiency and degree of isolation prior to the arrival of the
Portuguese, the impact of mercantile capitalism and the introduction of
post-Tridentine Christianity forced changes in the agrarian relations and
brought about a very significant change in the modus vivendi of the Goan
rural population.
Religious worship
When the Portuguese adopted the policy of conversion in the forties of the
sixteenth century, they destroyed nearly three hundred Hindu temples in
each of the three talukas.1 An average of four to five temples of varying dimensions in each village suggests the unimaginable control religion must
have exercised upon village life. Village life was centred upon the temple:
every activity had to be initiated and ended with offerings to the family
and village deities. Religious festivities were also occasions for gathering
fairs which promoted inter-village economy.2 Temples served as repositories for the village records, including the land survey and the land revenue
registers.3 It was in the temple premises that children were educated and
where the adults organised their cultural activities, particularly their zagor
or dramatic performances.4 The banyan trees in the vicinity of the temples
served as venues for the village council meetings. It was also in the temple
that a final solution nwas sought in case of property disputes which could
not be solved with the help of written evidence.5 The revenue of some of
the most fertile paddy fields of the village was applied to the expenses of
CHAPTER 4. RURAL SOCIAL LIFE
63
the cult and to the maintenance of the temple priests and other servants.
In addition to these nelly and namasy lands there were several other customary contributions in cash and in kind offered to the temples on different
occasions during the course of a year.6
The forties of the sixteenth century proved to be roaring and stormy for the
cultural life of the village communities. On the eve of the arrival of the Society of Jesus in Goa two gentlemen occupying positions of influence in the
Church hierarchy of Goa had set up a confraternity, known as Confraternity
of the Holy Faith, for initiating a drive for conversions to Christianity. This
confraternity persuaded the Government authorities to pressurise the chief
ganvkars of Tisvadi into making a grant of 2,000 tangas brancas every year
from the revenues of the lands which had been set aside for the temples
which were there no more. This was done, but the authorities recognised the
claim of the chief ganvkars that the lands had always belonged and would
continue to belong to the village communities.7
The Society of Jesus that had then just come into existence in Europe as
the shock-troops that led the vanguard of the Counter-Reformation did
not take more than a couple of years to reach Goa and to impress upon
the Portuguese Catholic authorities the need of applying to their overseas
possessions the principle cujus regio, illius religio that was being enforced
by the Reformers in Europe. It was through the Society of Jesus that Goa
was infected with the zeal of Counter-Reformation.8
The Goan inhabitants saw for the first time since the arrival of the Portuguese that both the Church and the State were serious and worked in
unison to force upon them the Roman Catholic Church. We are not questioning here if it was to be condemned or justified, but it is relevant to
note that the impact of the drive upon the corporate life of the Goan village communities was impressive and far reaching. The methods adopted
for propagating Christianity disrupted several social bonds and traditional
attachments which were keeping village communities together. Among
other measures adopted, Hindu temples disappeared, religious and social
celebrations of Hindus in public were banned, Hindus were made to wear
a dress distinguishing them from converts, convert ganvkars of whatever
ranks in the social hierarchy of the village would precede a Hindu ganvkar
in affixing their initials or signatures upon village community records, and
in villages where convert ganvkars were already a majority Hindu ganvkars
could be dispensed with in meetings of village councils.9
Economic pressures were no less intimidating: no Portuguese officials were
to employ any Hindus in Government or private service: Shenvi Brahmins,
who had traditionally been village clerks, were to be replaced by competent
converts; converts were to be preferred as State tax farmers, if their bids
were as good as those of a Hindu bidder; Hindu artisans were not to produce
anything connected with Christian worship; Hindu sailors and fishermen
64
could be forcibly recruited to help in State galleys; and traditional laws

of inheritance were modified to enable female converts to inherit when a
Hindu head of family died without a male heir.10
As in the case of all legislation the above legislation was not always enforced
with equal zeal and strictness, but even so the success was clearly visible.
The practice of Hinduism was practically banished within the Portuguese
jurisdiction of Goa; Christianity had been implanted and majestic Church
edifices in baroque style were beginning to occupy the sites where formerly
stood modest village temple structures; those who did not wish to conform
to the change had begun to emigrate. What was not so easily visible was the
growing bankruptcy of the village communities. This was a result of their
lands, labour and money being coaxed out of them to establish a baroque
style of worship that did not suit the modest agrarian economy of the Goan
villages.11
It may be remarked in this connection that it is not uncommon to hear that
the early missionaries did no harm to the village economy by transferring
to the Catholic Churches the paddy fields and the other benefices, which
the village communities had already set aside since time immemorial for
the maintenance of the Hindu cult. Such a way of arguing is fallacious,
because it is based upon ignorance of the fact that the revenue of such lands
and benefices had never maintained any strangers to the village, but had
always supported several families of the village connected with the temple
worship and service. Obviously, this was no longer the situation when the
foreign missionaries introduced the new religion and transferred the surplus
revenues to the common pool of their religious orders.12
Where social integration was concerned the preaching of equality of all men
did not prevent the missionaries from establishing religious confraternities
(confrarias) based on castes: and, just as their doctrinal wealth failed to
promote greater social cohesion, their vast income and unlimited political
influence did not achieve proportionate results in raising the standard of
living of their native converts.13 Even in admissions to their own ranks, religious orders, particularly the Jesuits, maintained strict racial qualifications
during the period covered by this study.14
Promotion of education
The Portuguese did not meet uncivilised and illiterate masses of people
when they took over Goa in the early sixteenth century, but it was not until
some decades later that they took cognizance of the literary heritage of the
natives. They discovered natives who were well versed in Sanskrit religious
literature and were conversant with contemporary Marathi religious literature as well. During their night raids upon the houses of prominent Hindus,
the Jesuits came across volumes of the Anadi Purana and Mahabharata.15
65
The Jesuit correspondence also refers to their discoveries of the VivekaSindhu of Mukundaraja, the Bhagvadgita, and the Yogaraja-Tilak of
Amritananda.16 The Jesuits were deeply interested in having translations of
these works in order to refute effectively the errors of Hinduism.
It is also known that a Goan Hindu from Kelxy, known as Krishnadas Shama,
wrote religious poems in Marathi in 1526. Two of his compositions along
with those of some others, such as Visnudas Nama, Dnyandeva, Shivadas,
Nivritideva, Samayananda and Namdeva, are found transliterated in Roman
script in a MS of the Public Library of Braga in Portugal.17
In the beginning of the seventeenth century the Jesuits began writing Christian puranas in order to satisfy the desire of the converts to listen to their
esteemed pauranic stories. The Purana Christo of Thomas Stephen, S.J.
and the Purana of St. Peter by Etienne de la Croix, S.J., both written in the
contemporary style of Marathi with some mixture of Konkani, are worthy
expressions of the missionary zeal of the Society of Jesus which had realised
the value of inculturation as an effective method of transmitting Christs
message.18 Besides these two Jesuits there were some others who also composed works of religious and literary merit in the vernacular languages of
Goa. Though comparatively less in quantity the output of the Franciscan
friars in the field of literary production was no less meritorious.19
Prior to Christianisation, formal education must have been imparted in
agraharas and brahmapuris. There is epigraphic evidence for the existence
of two such educational places, namely in Goa Velha and Goalim-Moula,
established in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries respectively.20
The Shenvi Brahmins of Kortaly and Kelxy possessed a long tradition of
scholarship. The kulkarnis of the village communities all over Goa were
mostly Shenvis. Fr. Francisco de Souza writes in his Oriente Conquistado
that all the Brahmins from Kortaly are known as Xenem (sic), which means
tutors. Throughout the lands of Konkan they are the ones who teach the
Brahmin youths to read, write and count.21
Churches replaced temples as centres of learning in the wake of conversions
to Christianity. Church schools were maintained at the cost of village communities which paid the school master for teaching the sons of ganvkars.22
There is not much evidence to expatiate upon the way schools were conducted or upon the nature of curricula followed. But in the more developed
schools run by the religious orders in Old Goa, by the Jesuits at Rachol and
by the Franciscans at Reis Magos, the curriculum included Latin language
and literature, religious knowledge, and liberal arts, including vocal and
instrumental music. There were also lessons in the vernacular language
intended to train catechists who were to go back to their villages and assist
their parish priests in the conversion of their co-villagers.23 At St. Pauls
boys school run by the Jesuits in the city of Goa special attention was paid
66
to arithmetic, because it was subject very much appreciated by the businessminded natives. The contemporary Jesuit reports say that it was not unusual
to find grown-ups in the arithmetic classes.24
Although Marathi written in old Kannada script appears to have been the
literary language of the Goans, the spoken language was Konkani to which
the early missionaries refer as lingua canarina or lingua bracmana.25 The
earliest reference to the spoken language of the Goan people is found in
the Suma Oriental of an administrative assistant of Afonso de Albuquerque,
Tom Pires who wrote in 1514: . . . the language of this kingdom (of Goa) is
concanim. . . The language of this kingdom of Guoa (sic) differs from that of
Deccan as well as from that of Vijayanagar. . . .26
The Jesuit Henrique Henriques, who had completed the writing of a Tamil
grammar in 1567 and had begun preparing a grammar of Konkani, wrote to
the General Superior of the Society of Jesus comparing the two languages:
A few words are similar in both the languages, and the construction is very
much alike; nevertheless, Konkani is the more difficult of the two.27 Thomas
Stephen, S.J., who published his Purana Christo at Rachol in 1616, writes
in the introduction that he did not use Shudha Marathy (pure Marathi),
because the middle class people would not understand it (madhima lokasy
nakale dekunu).28 The same Thomas Stephen, who made a distinction
between Marathy and the language of the Brahmins, wrote a grammar of
Konkani and a Catechism in Konkani, which he called lingua canarim. 29
From all the above it may be safely concluded that the village schools were
administering knowledge of Christian doctrine in Konkani following the
catechisms published by the missionaries in Konkani. The dictionaries of
the Konkani language compiled by the Jesuits during the first half of the seventeenth century, and the grammars of Konkani written by the missionaries,
suggest also that they were trying to master Konkani in order to instruct the
people in their own language.30
As the seventeenth century was coming to its close the Portuguese authorities were becoming painfully aware that their hold on Goa and other possessions in India was more precarious than ever before, and that the natives
had never ceased to express their lack of feeling for the Portuguese. The
main reason was the conflict between the white religious parish priests and
the native clergy that was growing numerically and in their demand for rightful place in the hierarchy. Archbishop Brando was inclined to favour them
and replace the white parish priests. This was seen by the white religious as
a threat to their livelihood. They mounted a campaign of vilification against
the native clergy in their representations to the crown. While the church
councils, the Constitution of the Archdiocese and the past instructions of
the religious orders had always favoured the use of Konkani for pastoral
purposes, now the move was to suppress Konkani as a strategy of taking
away from the native clergy their hold over the native faithful.31
67
It was in this context that it was decided to impose the Portuguese language
upon all the natives and suppress their native tongue. A viceregal degree
of June 27, 1684, ordered that the natives should apply themselves to the
study and use of the Portuguese language, and the parish priests and the
school masters should teach the children Christian doctrine in the same
language, as that in time it may become the common language for all,
making thereafter no use of the mother-tongue.32 This attempt of the
Portuguese turned out to be an exercise in futility. Konkani was never
exorcised from the Goan households, but what did happen is that Konkani
was denied an opportunity to develop as an independent language and to
have some literature worth the name.
Law and order

The Portuguese had introduced western judicial institutions in Goa and a
High Court of Justice (Tribunal de Relao) was established as far back as
1545. But if we were to compare the various departments of the Portuguese
administrative machinery on the basis of their inefficiency and corruption,
the administration of justice would have carried off the palm. We have
the testimony of the great critic of the Portuguese overseas administration,
Diogo do Couto, who wrote at the turn of the sixteenth century: . . . here,
one who has more power can have more justice and this cobweb cannot
catch anything else than mosquitoes: A Gujarati is arrested and condemned
for squatting while urinating; a Hindu is put in irons for quarrelling with
another of his kind or for abusing him; but if a favourite of the authorities or
a wealthy person breaks open the safes of a Hindu and takes away his goods
by violence, it is considered a light issue and permissible.33 The Italian
traveler, Nicolao Manucci, who had two long stays at Goa during the second
half of the seventeenth century has left a sickening impression of moral
degradation and of a total breakdown of justice in Goa. He describes an
episode of a French merchant who had a row with a shoemaker over prices
and had a stinking pot of excrement hurled at him. He also refers to hordes
of negro slaves roaming all over the town causing disturbances. Wishing to
give advice to visitors, Manucci refers to three stone statues on a wall near
the Jesuit house of Bom Jesus in the city. He says that these three statues
had their fingers touching the eyes, the ears and the lips respectively, and
they had a caption at their feet: He who sees, hears and says nothing, lives
a life devoid of care.34
While the High Court was there for appeal, each taluka had its own official
of justice. Tisvadi had its thanadar, Salcete had an ouvidor, and in Bardez
the Captain of the taluka acted as its Judge. Each of these officers had his
beadle (meirinho) and foot-soldiers to proceed to the arrest of the accused
or offending parties. There is abundant documentation pointing to excesses
68
and corrupt practices of these officials. A memorandum presented by the

General Assembly of the village communities of Salcete to the king of Portugal in 1643 describes the ouvidores of that province as idiots.354 Another
memorandum of complaints sent by the people of Bardez in 1668 contains
a long tale of extortions and violence exercised by the Captain and Judge of
the province.36 The beadles and their soldiers were well known for arresting
persons without cause in order to collect bribe money. They also forced the
village communities to pay for their journeys and stay in the villages which
they quite often visited on false pretext of official work.37
As a rule the State officials intervened only when the local village authorities
were unable to cope with their responsibility for maintaining law and order
within the limits of their jurisdiction. This intervention was resorted to
when the village community had to proceed to an arrest, which it could not
do, or when there was any serious bloody incident in a village, or when a
dispute was taken by the villagers on their own to the higher authorities.
The collection of the land revenue and other taxes was the responsibility of
the village community, and the village did it through its clerk and tax collector. These village officers had some limited powers to pressurise the villagers
who were irregular in their payment of their dues, but it was often necessary
to seek help of the province collector and to threaten them with arrest. It
is interesting to note that in such cases of arrest the village communities
expressed solidarity of their members by making the village community pay
the prison fees of the arrested ganvkars and the other expenses connected
with the arrest. The village would make arrangements to recover the money
from the arrested ganvkars after their release and in easy instalments.38
The village watchmen or terlu bore the responsibility of guarding land properties and houses against thieves. It was also their duty to report to the
province Captain if there was any stranger living in the village. The watchmen were instructed to arrest anyone moving outdoors after seven oclock
in the evening without carrying a lit torch in hands. They were required to
produce before the Captain or thanadar anyone sought for murder or any
serious trouble. They had to arrest run-away slaves and return them to their
masters. They could confiscate the mantle (kamboli) and the chopper (koiti)
of anyone whom they caught cutting branches of trees growing by the rivers
sides, because these trees protected the clay levees against erosion, and
thereby the khazan lands against inundation.39 While the village watchmen
acted their part as the ordinary guardians of law and order in a village, on
exceptional occasions the village council is known to have taken extraordinary measures to meet extraordinary situations. Thus, for instance, the
village council of Karbelly held a secret meeting on September 23, 1620, and
it appointed ten ganvkars to arrest some mischief makers who were wanted
by the Criminal Judge of Goa and had sought shelter in that village.40
There are innumerable references in the official documents of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries to the quarrelsome nature of the Goan natives,
69
who would spend all their time in suits and counter-suits in the courts of
law for the most trivial reasons.41 Certain petty disputes in the villages were
settled by village-appointed officials called chaugule and gramavarika. They
were generally called up to assess the damages caused to crops or even to
assess the value of the goods of a debtor before the goods were auctioned to
pay the dues. But the guilty could appeal to authorities above village level,
and the court procedure then could last for an indefinite period. In such
circumstances again the ganvkars showed their solidarity by protecting the
interests of a fellow ganvkar who was unfortunate to fall victim of a court
case against him. We read in the proceedings of the Karbelly village council
in the year 1613 that they took a decision to the effect that if any gankvar or
the village clerk is imprisoned owing to the hatred or ill-will of any enemy,
or owing to any dispute, which God forbid, the prisoner will be freed at the
cost of the village community; the ganvkars will also sow and look after the
fields of the imprisoned ganvkar if necessary; and the village community
will pay one tanga per day for the prisoner until his release.42
In order to prevent the villagers from destroying each other with expensive
court procedures, the Government had introduced simpler and summary
methods of justice for them. It was ordered in 1562, and again in 1575, that
all cases of the natives involving value less than three pardaus ought to
be decided verbally by the presidents of the village Church confraternities
(mordomos das Confrarias).43 It was also determined that native Christians
should not be imprisoned following any futile accusations against them, but
only in cases involving killing, crippling or false witnessing. Such cases only,
and cases involving substantial values could be referred to higher officials
of justice after depositing nothing less than two hundred xerafins.44 The
jurisdiction of the confraternity presidents was extended to cases involving
up to twenty xerafins in 1618, but the villages in the neighbourhood of
ouvidors or thanadars residence had to refer all the cases to these.45 A
new legislative measure created the post of Judge Protector of the native
Christians in 1682 to attend to the complaints of the native Christians of
Tisvadi. He could not levy a fine exceeding twenty xerafins. His functions
continued to be exercised in Salcete by its Ouvidor and in Bardez by its
Captain, but these being untrained in law could not levy a fine exceeding
ten xerafins. Their decisions had to be oral, and only in cases exceeding
their jurisdiction could an appeal be made to the High Court.46
In short, issues that affected the village good as a whole were judged by the
village council. Thus, for instance, a certain Miguel Furtado was condemned
by the village council of Azosy in September 1670 to pay twenty-five tangas
brancas for cutting down a banyan tree which the village community had
planted for providing a resting place for the travelers.47 However, in the case
of petty individual disputes the presidents of the village Church confraternities constituted the courts of first instance. These presidents were invariably
ganvkars of the village. They could decide cases not involving more than
70
three pardaus and they could sentence with imprisonment which would
not exceed three days. For all cases within their jurisdiction there was no
appeal. The next court of justice was at the taluka level, and the final court
of appeal was the High Court.
Social welfare
It is necessary to distinguish three different agencies that contributed towards the social welfare amidst the rural population of Goa, namely the
village elders, the Church minister and the Government authorities.
Making provision of some public utilities had always been a responsibility
of the village communities. A weary traveller, a needy Brahman and a holy
pilgrim could always be sure of a place for nights lodging and boarding in
an Indian village.48 In Goa the situation could not have been very different.
We learn that concern was shown for the travelers who carried heavy headloads by erecting dovorni at every kilometer or so along the roads leading to
the village market or to the inter-village fair, and trees were also planted on
the same spots to enable the travelers to rest under their shade.49
The village communities had also worked out ways of helping out individual
persons in need. Thus, for instance, in most of the villages the widows
and the minor orphans were entitled to a share in the annual profits of the
village in the form of an entire or fractional jon.50 Alms in cash or kind were
occasionally sanctioned by village councils in favour of some indigent person of the village.51 And we read in a Jesuit report that one village of Tisvadi
had even taken the trouble of making a more permanent arrangement for
helping the poor villagers in times of food scarcity. Ten khandis of paddy
were collected from the entire village at the time of harvesting, and with this
fund the needy were succoured.52
The Church played a very significant role in the line of promoting social
welfare. Each province had a Father of the Christians whose sole concern
was to look after the welfare of the native converts and to favour them in
every possible way. Concretely, among other measures of social welfare the
Father of the Christians made arrangements for the training of the converts
in different skills which could help them to find employment, and he also
sought to check the ill-treatment of the slaves.53
The parish priests were acting in their respective villages as the protectors of
the oppressed. Backed by the higher Church authorities with the directives
of the provincial Church councils and with Archbishops pastoral instructions, the parish priests tried to curtail the oppression of the non-privileged
peasant classes of the village by some ganvkars, who tended to sublet lands
for very high rentals or to reduce to bondage the tillers who could not pay
71
their dues. This does not mean that the ecclesiastics were not involved in
malpractices regarding the administration of lands owned by them.54
The Church had also established controls over loans in order to check usury
and rural indebtedness. The provincial Church councils had legislated that
without guarantee or pawn the rate of interests that could be demanded
was not to exceed 9%; for a loan with guarantee but no pawn 8% could be
charged: and with guarantee and pawn the permissible rate of interest was
only 7%. 55
The Jesuits in Tisvadi and Salcete had devised some more practical means of
extending help to the villages by establishing some sort of granaries (celeiros)
from where they would lend seed to the cultivators who had not been prudent enough, and the cultivators thus helped were required to replace the
same amount at the harvest time.56 It may be said in this connection that it
was through such social welfare measures that the Jesuits had been winning
the hearts of the rural downtrodden classes and at the same time irritating
the spirits of the Portuguese laymen, and attempts of some native ganvkars
at exploiting the rural wealth were frustrated thereby.57
Over and above the village level there was the central agency of the State
Government legislating social welfare measures. Thus, a law was enacted in
1605 and renewed in 1674 banning the celebration of weddings with banquets for more than thirty persons by native Christians, Brahmins, Banias
and Chardos. In case of lower castes the number was further restricted to
fifteen. This measure was introduced to prevent wasteful expenditure.58
Laws were also enacted to organise relief for the poor and crippled at the
village level, taking care at the same time to discourage beggary on the part
of the able-bodied.59 Also the same purpose was intended in the legislation ordering procurement of all surplus rice production of every village.
The surplus was kept within the respective village, but it was sold to the
needy of the village through a fair-price shop administered by the village
community.60 Along with these measures introduced during the last two
decades of the seventeenth century it was also decided to order each village
community to set aside a portion of the annual profits to help the ganvkars
who were victimised by the potekars by taking over their properties bringing
a revenue of thirty to forty pardaus in order to satisfy their debt which did
not exceed four to six pardaus. The new measure was also meant to help
the entire village community, because whenever the village was required to
make any war contribution or any other extraordinary payment to the State,
it was forced to seek the help of some individual ganvkar or ganvkars to
satisfy the State demand, and these money-lenders normally made the best
of the opportunity by extracting 300 to 400% interest on the loans. Without
a permanent fund to draw from, the village communities were not only
condemned to see no annual profits, but they were often forced to mortgage
village lands to the money-lenders with long-term damage to the village
revenue.
72
The same piece of legislation also tried to put an end to another serious
form of exploitation that prevailed in the villages. Mortgage contracts were
often signed with a clause stating that, if the mortgaged property was not redeemed on the day indicated on the contract, the mortgage contract would
be considered as a permanent sale. With such a clause the creditors were
usually trying to make themselves scarce on the day fixed for redeeming the
mortgage. The new legislation declared such transactions void and illicit.61
R EFERENCES
1. SG, III, 13-4; CEO, I, 286; DI, VII, 387, 296.
2. AHU: India, Caixa 3, doc. 19 (22.i.1615) refers to fairs in Tisvadi, Salcete
and Bardez in which the natives disposed of their surplus products, and
procured cheap provisions.
3. App. A-8.
4. Altekar, A History of Village Communities in Western India, 115; HAG: MS
10045 (Karbely, 1660), fl. 10: the village made the payment for the expenses
of the zagor or village dramatic performance; APO-CR, IV, 251.
5. Baden-Powell, The villages of Goa in the Early Sixteenth Century, 273
(clause 22).
6. Gabinete Litterario, II, 73 n. 1; HAG: MSS 3070-1 (Two copies of the Foral
de Salcete, 1567), 7583-5 (three volumes of the new Foral de Salcete, 1622):
passim.
7. BHC-JMS, I, 207-14.
8. Boxer, PSE, 66 ff.; Harrison, International Rivalries Outside Europe: Asia
and Africa, 548.
9. HAG: Mones 46A, fls. 213-6, 258-60: legislation on the celebration
of Hindu weddings; Mones 14, fls. 183-3v: Count of Linhares proposed
permission to Hindus to celebrate their functions against the payment of an
annual sum to the Government; MS 7846 (Alvars e Provises de Sua Magestade), fls. 136-39v: traces the whole history of bans on Hindu celebrations;
Wicki (ed.), O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 63-70, 49-51, 228-9; Priolkar, The
Goa Inquisition, 114 ff.
10. Wicki, op. cit., 49-51, 77-8, 84-5, 104-5, 113-22, 130-4, 184-5, 208-11,
224-9; Priolkar, op. cit., 114 ff.
11. App. A-8. BHC, II, 123 ff.
12. ARSJ: Fondo Gesuitico, MS 74-B/9/1443.
13. Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa, 318 ff.
73
14. Boxer, Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 65-8; Melo, The
Recruitment and Formation of the Native Clergy in India, 163-7.
15. DI, I, 328; IVG. 339, 203; Pissurlencar, Primeiros Livros Maratas, BIVG,
n. 73 (1954): 60-1, 76-8; DMP, VI, 470-1; VII, 221.
16. DMP, VII, 344-5; VIII, 220.
17. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 66-7; Sarasvat Santakavi Khrisnadas Samacha
Shodha, in Shri Shantadurga Chatuhshatabdi Mahotsava Grantha, 67-78;
Perer, Juze, Konknni Mandakini [in Devanagari Script], Alto Porvorim, Goa
Konkani Akademi, 1996: an anthology of early Konkani writers; Gomes,
O., Konkani Manasagangotri: An Anthology of Early Konkani Literature,
Chandor, 2000, pp. 19-41.
18. Pereira, Konkani a Language, 1-3; Priolkar, The Printing Press in India,
241-81: extracts from both these works.
19. Priolkar, op. cit., 225 ff.
20. Pissurlencar, Goa Pre-Portuguesa atraves dos Escritores Lusitanos, 16-8,
Um passo do cronista Barros elucidado a luz duma inscrio sanscrita, OP,
n. 18 (1937), 35-45.
21. Souza, OC, II, 12. Valavlikar, V., Shenay, in Shri Shantadurga Chatubshatabdi Mahotsava Grantha, 79-90.
22. ARSJ: Goa 35, fl. 274v; Ghantkar, An Introduction to Goan Marathi
Records, 38 (doc. 12).
23. Meersman, The Ancient Franciscan Provinces in India, 101; HAG: MS
475 (Cartas Patentes e Alvaras, n. 7), fl. 266 contains grant (1620) of job in
favour of Diogo de Souza, a principal ganvkar of Moira (Bardez), who was
educated at Reis Magos and had helped the Franciscans to catechise his
co-villagers. Cf. also HAG: MS 2200 (Registo das Cartas de Aforamento), fl.
54: gives details of the grant.
24. DI, V, 583-4, 595.
25. Pissurlencar, Os Primeiros Livros Maratas Impressos em Goa, 55; DI, V,
274; VI, 684, 699, 721, 501; VII, 44, 58, 76-7, 79, 81-3, 545, 574, 623; VIII, 70-1,
73-4, 79, 145-6, 172, 324-5, 327-8, 333, 421-5; Pereira, op. cit., 3.
26. Corteso (ed.), The Suma Oriental, II, 373.
27. DI, VII, 442; VIII, 145-6, 172.
28. Pereira, op. cit., 3.
29. Priolkar, The Printing Press in India, 322, 325.
30. Ibid., 222 ff.
31. Leopoldo Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa, pp. 176 ff.
74
32. HAG: Mones 49, fl. 291; Mones 52, fl. 86.
33. Couto, Soldado Prtico, 56-7.
34. Manucci, Storia do Mongor, III, 157 ff., 173-4.
35. App. A-8.
36. BHC, II, 65-7.
37. Wicki, O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 146; Mones 85, fl. 128-9.
38. Ghantkar, op. cit., doc. 10.
39. Ibid., docs. 13, 21; HAG: MS 10228, fls. 23v-4; Appendix A-9.
40. HAG: MS 10056, fl. 43v.
41. APO-BP, T, IV, Vol. II, P. 1: 262 in which Antonio Bocarro describes Goa
as an academy of solicitors.
42. HAG: MS 10042, fl. 33.
43. Wicki, op. cit., 202-3; Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa, 174-5.
44. Wicki, op. cit., 143-7.
45. HAG: Mones 87, fl. 14.
47. HAG: MS 10029, fl. 29.
48. Altekar, op. cit., 119-20.
49. Kosambi, Myth and Reality, 162; HAG: MS 10029, fl. 29.
50. Pereira, A.F., Instituto Organico das Communidades, OP, n. 5 (1933):
85-112; n. 6 (1934): 235-305.
51. HAG: MS 8000 (Aldona), fl. 33v: Sidul, a beggar woman is given half
xerafin for kapod; MS (uncatalogued) of Chimbel village (1639-88), fl. 3v:
The village paid six barganya to bury a poor villager, named Jos de Menezes;
ibid., fl. 14: The village council sanctioned one bargany as alms to a poor.
52. DI, VIII, 83-4.
53. Wicki, op. cit., 14-28.
54. Fondo Gesuitico: 74-B/9/1443, Goa 43. Is an excellent report on how the
Jesuits in Salcete tried to protect the peasants against the oppression and
tried to exercise their spiritual ministries without seeking any remuneration
from the natives. Cf. App. A-4 & 8.
55. APO-CR, IV, 277.
56. DI. XII, 614.
75
57. APO-CR, I, P.2: 128; AHU: India, Caixa 27, doc. 28 (28.i.1666); App. A-4.
58. HAG: Mones 53, fl. 26v.
59. Wicki, op. cit., 155-7; HAG: Mones 49, fls. 298-8v.
60. HAG: MS 7846, fls. 169-9v.
61. Ibid., fl. 156v-7; AR, II, 664-7.
Part II
Urban Economy and

Municipal Organisation
76
Chapter 5
Urban Topography and

Demography
C ITY OF Goa, which the Portuguese captured from Adil Shah in 1510
and converted into headquarters of their eastern empire in 1530, originally gained importance as a replenishing and refitting centre for the Muslim
trading vessels and had developed into an important horse mart supplying
quality steeds from Hurmuz to the rulers of the Deccan and Vijayanagar.1
The capital of the region was shifted from the northern bank of the river
Zuari to this places on the southern bank of the river Mandovi due to at least
two most probable reasons: Firstly, the Muslim rulers of the Bahamani dynasty must have found the new city founded by the Muslim traders a more
congenial place than the region developed by their Hindu predecessors.
Secondly, the silting of the Zuari river had apparently reduced the strategic
and commercial importance of the capital lying on its bank, thereby making
the transfer unavoidable.2
HE
Very little is known about the city of Goa and the development of urban
economy before the Portuguese take-over. A short but comprehensive
report by a near-contemporary of Albuquerque has described the city soon
after its conquest by the Portuguese as very great, with good houses, well
girt around with strong walls, with towers and bastions. The inhabitants
of the city are described as Moors of distinction, many of whom were of
divers lands. They were white men, among whom, as well as merchants of
great wealth, there were also many husbandmen. The nature of the urban
economy is further stressed by saying that the land, by reason that the
harbor was exceedingly good, had great trade, and many ships of the Moors
came thither from Mecca, the city of Aden, Ormuz, Cambaya and Malabar.3
From the rest of the meager information available it is clear that Goa occupied a pivotal place in the Muslim trade in western India. There were even
CHAPTER 5. URBAN TOPOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
78
good facilities for ship-building and ship-repairs.4 It was precisely because

Albuquerque had the right assessment of the situation that he went ahead
with the plans for the conquest of Goa against the strong opposition of his
colleagues.5 It was again due to the realisation of the strategic importance
of Goa that the Portuguese shifted their headquarters from Cochin to Goa
in 1530.6 Goa then became the central port of assembly for the Portuguese
Asiatic trade. And as the Portuguese monopolistic pattern of trade was
enforced with gun-boats, the royal shipyard was developed in Goa on a
gigantic scale with facilities for ship-building, ship repairs, gun-casting, and
storage facilities for all the necessary armament and provisions for the fleets
which cruised the eastern seas. It was in Goa that one could feel the pulse of
the Portuguese commercial life in the East.7
At the dawn of the seventeenth century the Portuguese fortunes in the East
were already set on their downward march, but the French traveller Pyrard
de Laval, who lived in the city during the closing years of the first decade
of that century, found the Portuguese eastern metropolis still commanding
considerable power, wealth and celebrity. However, hard times followed and
misery loomed large, even though Portuguese married settlers were trying
their utmost to hide their poverty and to extend their show of extravagance
much longer than they could afford it.8 The decline was obviously due to
dwindling trade prospects, but there were internal causes which hastened
the process. These internal factors were the natural concomitants of urban
development, namely moral degradation and ecological hazards. Hence the
need of some topographic and demographic considerations.
Urban topography
The city lay on the northern coast of the Tisvadi island and on the left bank
of the Mandovi river. It was situated nearly two leagues away from the place
where the Cabo promontory of the island juts into the Indian Ocean. The
city extended along the river side from Panelim to Daugim, a distance of
about two-thirds of a league. Along the river side were located some of the
important State and city establishments: On moving in a West-East direction one met first the royal shipyard (ribeira grande), followed by the quay of
Saint Catherine, the galley year, the quay of the viceroys, the customs house
and the store-houses for the imported foodstuffs (bangaal).9 Immediately
behind this line of establishments but contiguous to it were the royal hospital and the palace of the viceroys. On the eastern side of this palace was the
chief city market square (terreiro de Mantimentos and bazar grande), and to
its western side was the main entrance gate of the city, known as the arch of
the viceroys because every new viceroy entered by that gate to take office.10
The heart of the city was somewhat triangular in shape with its base running
parallel to the river bank from the hillock of Our Lady of the Mount on the
79
eastern side to the hillock of Our Lady of the Rosary on the western side. Taking into account the accidents of the terrain it was a distance of nearly 4,500
feet.11 The centre of the triangle base was the starting point of the Straight
Street (rua direita), also known as Street of Auctionings (rua de leiles), because it was the busiest marketing centre of the city and there were all kinds
of goods, including slaves, auctioned all throughout the week, with the
exception of Sundays and holidays, from early morning until noon.12 This
street was flanked on either side by shops of jewelers, goldsmiths, shroffs,
and many other kinds of merchants and artisans, chiefly from Europe.13
This main street led to the square of the Church of the Holy House of Mercy,
which lay almost at the centre of the city.14 Behind the Holy House of Mercy
(Santa Casa de Misericordia) there was another marketing centre, which
was very much frequented, but for non-lasting food commodities like green
vegetables, the city folk had to visit the bazarinho, meaning small market,
which lay between the Convent of Saint Francis and the royal hospital, and
for fish supply they had to frequent the quay of Saint Catherine.15
The square at the terminal of the main street was known as pelourinho velho
or old pillory. There was the court of justice and the city police station. The
law breakers were often whipped there in public.16
There were six different streets coming to meet at the pillory square, and
among these there was one that descended from the hillock of Our Lady
of Light rising at the southern extreme of the city and marking, so to say,
the vertex of the city triangle. This point was about 2,400 feet away from
the river bank. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the city proper,
excluding the suburbs, had a circuit of about four and half miles. The city
had grown in size by two-thirds of the area it occupied earlier, and the city
population had spilled over into seven to eight suburbs.17
The city and the suburbs were enclosed within a wall which was of little
resistance on the western side of the city, but along the river that separated
the island from the mainland it was buttressed with fortified checkposts,
called passos. There were six such passos, namely at Daugi, Gandauli, Benasteri, Karbelly, Agsy and Narve. Of these, the outposts of Gandaulim,
Benasteri and Narve required greater vigilance, because at Gandauli the
river could be easily crossed during low-tide, while Benasteri and Narve
required greater vigilance, because at Gandauli the river could be easily
crossed during low-tide, while Benasteri was the entry gate for all those
who came from the Ponda region bringing the essential supplies to the city
population, and Narve was a Hindu centre of pilgrimage and large crowds
of Hindus from the mainland flocked thither every year for a purification
bath in its sacred tirtha.18
Each of the above mentioned outposts had a captain, a scrivener and a garrison of forty to fifty men, whose duty was during normal times to keep an eye
on those entering and leaving the island, and chiefly to prevent the escape
80
of run-away slaves and others sought by justice. All persons and goods crossing these passages were required to pay tolls, which constituted a regular
sources of significant revenue for the State and it more than covered State
expenditure on the maintenance of personnel attached to those outposts.19
In addition to the six outposts protecting the city and the island against
any mischief from the mainland side, there were another two checkposts
at Ribandar and at Panjim, from where strict watch was kept over vessels
that entered the river Mandovi and moved towards the city. All vessels that
entered from the seaward side had to obtain a clearance certificate from
the Panjim checkpost, while the vessels coming through the Mapusa river
were searched at the Ribandar outpost, special attenting being paid to illegal
transactions in slaves and weapons.20
The interior of the city was a maze of criss-crossing roads and alleys, most of
which were named after the professions of the artisans who had their workshops along them. Thus, there were hatters street, the street of goldsmiths,
street of book-sellers, street of Gujaratis, and so on.21 Many of the streets
were paved and there was quite an extensive network of drainage canals,
which were sufficiently broad and deep, and they conducted the rain waters
either into the lake of Karbelly at the southern end of the city or into the
river.22
The city had no facilities of running water and the population had to avail
itself of the fresh waters of the springs within the confines of the city or utilise
the house wells. There was one good spring near the hillock of Our Lady
of Mount on the north-eastern fringe of the city, but a more appreciated
spring was at Bangany, which was about a quarter mile away in the western
direction. It was from this spring that water was generally supplied to the
city population by the slaves. Apparently the city elders were not eager to
set up aqueducts in the city, because they and the other Portuguese settlers,
who could earn money by employing their slaves in this service to the public,
were not keen to lose such income.23 However, a limited project was taken
up in 1601 to direct the waters of a water tank to the old pillory square
in order to mitigate the water shortage during the hot summer months.24
But even then the city continued to depend upon the Bangany water. The
Portuguese and the half-castes did not use any other water for drinking
purposes; however, the natives and the Hindu settlers depended exclusively
upon their house wells.25
Just as the city lacked good water supply facilities, also the sanitary arrangements for the disposal of the city refuse were most primitive and far less
hygienic than in the neighbouring rural areas which had pigs to do the scavengers job.26 The river bank, right in front of the city, was the site assigned
by the municipality for emptying the dirt pans and for the common people
to perform directly their duties of nature.27 However, it was not uncommon
to find city dwellers following the law of least resistance and messing all over
the place, so much so that the municipal authorities were called upon by
81
the viceroy in the beginning of the seventeenth century to take immediate

measures to prevent dirt being thrown on public streets.28 In spite of these
measures the situation had worsened in the course of years, and we find
that in the late seventeenth century it had become a favourite pastime of
unruly citizens to hurl pots of excrement from the house windows at the
street walkers down below.29 To conclude the topographic survey of the city,
it can be said that the low-lying situation of the city, which was surrounded
towards the interior by a chain of highlands, and the porous nature of the
soil served to enhance the problems created by the over-crowding of the
city and by the lack of sufficient sanitary arrangements to meet them. These
factors were responsible for the repeated attacks of cholera and their devastating effect, particularly in those wards of the city which were occupied by
a majority of Hindu and native Christians.30
Urban demography
The following survey of the city population cannot be but limited in scope
and merely indicative of the general trend, because the data available are
neither complete nor precise to warrant any firm conclusions. There are
many stray references to the non-Christian business and merchant community of the city in the State records. There are references to the capitation
levies imposed on them at different times, but the nature of the data provided is such that it is not possible to calculate from them the strength of
the community concerned. The same applies to the revenue records. Since
there was the practice of farming out the right of collecting revenues to
private individuals, the latter alone kept up-to-date lists of the tax payers,
and these lists are either lost or in some private collections. Our only help
outside official records lies in the reports of the religious orders and in the
accounts of the European travelers who visited Goa in the course of the
seventeenth century.
According to the statistics gathered in the very first year of the seventeenth
century in order to tax the Hindu population of the city there were 20,000 of
them.31 This constituted apparently one-third or so of the total city population, because the earliest information that we have for the population of the
city in the seventeenth century places 5,000 households in the city and its
immediate surroundings, which gives us 75,000 as an approximate figure for
the total population, considering that each household consisted of fifteen
persons, including the slaves. Of these city dwellers not more than 1,500
were Portuguese, and the rest were native Christians, Hindus and African
slaves.32
The information that is available for about twenty years later gives the total
number of households as 3,000 and says clearly that the population was
reduced nearly to a third of the population in the earlier times and that
82
several wards of the city were practically deserted.33 The city population
went on dwindling in the course of the century, and in 1658 when the
Government was considering the possibility of demanding contribution of
the Hindu inhabitants of the city it was found out that their number was
about one-tenth of what it had been at the beginning of the century, that is,
about 200 only. And among these there were no more than seven or eight
Gujarati merchants with sizable capital.34 By the end of the seventeenth
century the total population was somewhere around 20,000 and about a
fourth of this number was made up of mulatos or those having a mixture of
negro blood.35
The causes of the population decline were manifold: The religious intolerance of the Portuguese of the religious rites and social functions of Hindus,
and particularly the practice of taking away the Hindu orphan children from
their families in order to catechise and baptise them, were responsible to
some extent for driving away moneyed Hindus from Goa in the course of
the seventeenth century.36 The arrival of the English and the Dutch in India
and the consequent loss of the Portuguese trade monopoly in the eastern
seas further encouraged the process of desertion on the part of the Hindu
merchants and traders, who abandoned the city of Goa and other centres
of the Portuguese trade to move into the new centres developed by the English and the Dutch.37 The Dutch blockades of the Goa port, the wards with
Kanara rulers, and the feeling of insecurity caused by the Maratha threats,
were important factors that contributed to a large scale emigration of the
Goans, chiefly from the province of Bardez, to the neighbouring territories,
particularly to Kanara, from where food-grains were brought to Goa.
There were also repeated attacks of epidemics that took a severe tool of the
city population, particularly in those wards of the city which were occupied
by a majority of Hindus and native Christians. Thus, for instance, in the
cholera attack of 1570 about 900 people were affected in the ward of potters
and nearly one-third succumbed.38 So also after the cholera attack of 161819 the number of Hindu inhabitants of Santa Luzia ward was reduced from
about 30,000 to little over 15,000, which could be due partly to deaths and
partly to migrations.39
In addition to epidemics there were famines. The severe famine of 1630
which played havoc all over India also left is scar on Goa. The food scarcity
was such that many were pushed into the river and drowned owing to a rush
at the river-side city market.40 There was another reported famine during
the months of June-August 1648 when several persons were found dead
every day on the streets of the streets of the city and its suburbs.41
Among the various constituent groups of the city population the Hindus
were economically the predominant group. Almost all of the foreign travelers who paid long or short visits to Goa during the seventeenth century
have referred to business involvement of the Goan Hindus. They not only
83
controlled the market by supplying goods and labour, but were also acting
as State revenue farmers. In the first decade of the seventeenth century the
total of the farmed revenues (rendas) amounted to 68,555 xerafins per year,
and of these 62,815 or 91.7% were administered by Hindus. The highest investment of one single individual was 13,400 xerafins, and that was of Narsu
Naik, the collector of the opium tax. The second in rank was Damu Sinay,
who had bought the right of collecting cloth revenue for 12,000 xerafins.42
These are not the highest investments recorded. The tobacco revenue,
which was one of the highest on the State revenue list, was generally farmed
out for an average of 25,000 xerafins during the seventeenth century and
the tax-farmer was almost always a Hindu.43
One factor in favour of the Hindus was their contact with the neighbouring
lands. This was not possible to native Christians or to the Portuguese for
reasons based on religious grounds or national security. Their contacts with
their business partners on the mainland enabled the Hindus to run profitably whatever business they were involved in. Besides, most of the Hindus
running business in Goa or acting as State revenue farmers had their household belongings and capital on the mainland territories of Maharashtra,
Bijapur and Sunda, safe against the vagaries of the Portuguese administration, which too often sought funds for their war campaigns from the purses
of the Hindu businessmen. These circumstances enabled the Hindus to risk
large investments, because much of their money was borrowed from the
locality with the promises of high interest rate. The Portuguese administration faced a permanent problem regarding these Hindu revenue farmers,
who had a common tendency to cross the borders whenever they feared
official action for failing to satisfy their terms of contract. It is true that they
had to present reliable sureties, but these guarantors were either Portuguese
who were tempted with promises of high interest or their own relations and
friends who accompanied them in the exodus. The Portuguese administration was helpless in such situations, but generally the Hindu tax-farmers
would apply for a safe conduct and return and resume their obligations as if
nothing had occurred.44
The Hindus in Goa were not just shopkeepers and tax-farmers. They were
in every kind of trade and profession, and were much appreciated not only
by their common clients but even by Religious and State officials. While the
employment of Hindu artists to produce objects of Christian worship was
strictly prohibited by the provincial Church councils, religious orders still
preferred them for the decoration of their Churches.45 Also the State authorities held them in high esteem as can be concluded from the appointments
made by the Public Revenue Council to the cavalry regiment of Salcete in
1683. A Christian was appointed to look after the horses and was paid three
xerafins per month for every six horses he took care of. A Hindu blacksmith
was enrolled to nail horse-shoes and fix the harness. His salary would be
one santhome of gold per month plus a daily measure of rice. The only
84
reason given to justify this unequal treatment is recorded in the proceedings

of the Council meetings as he is a Hindu and must be kept satisfied.46
In course of time the Hindus had acquired such a control over the entire
fiscal administration that on more than one occasion the Government made
attempts to take over the administration of certain branches of revenue
but failed miserably, either because the Government did not have trained
personnel to replace the services of the Hindus, or because other Hindu taxfarmers and merchants sympathised with their co-religionists and threatened the Government with a showdown that would paralyze the administration. Thus, for instance, in 1630s the viceroy Count of Linhares had to
face the grim situation caused by the famine which had affected most of the
neighbouring regions as well. The viceroy detected that the Hindu official in
charge of collecting the duties on imported foodstuffs was in league with the
engrossers and was letting them sell food grain for excessively high prices.
The viceroy deprived him of his job and entrusted the municipality with
the task of importing and distributing food grain to the people at moderate
prices. This measure caused an exodus of the city shopkeepers and the
Government was in no position to replace their machinery of distribution.
Only when the restrictions on the merchants were lifted did the situation
return to normalcy.47
Another instance of the Portuguese administration succumbing to the
pressure-tactics of the Hindu revenue farmers happened in 1678 when
the Government took over the administration of the salt revenue of Bardez.
This revenue administration had been linked until then with the customs
revenue. In protest against the new measure the Hindu customs tax farmer
refused to cooperate with the Government-appointed revenue administrator and supply any information regarding the export of salt to the Balaghat,
even though he had detailed lists of people who owed oxen and the number
of oxen involved in the Goa-Balaghat trade. Not long after, the Government
had to relinquish the administration of the salt revenue and hand it back
to the Hindu customs revenue farmer.48 Even though the instances quoted
refer sometimes to the revenues of the areas outside the city, the revenue
farmers when they were Hindus had generally their residence in the city,
and as such they belonged to the economically dominant Hindu group of
the city population.
Another group of the city population consisted of the native Christians, who
were disparagingly called Canarins by the Portuguese, and who were generally recruited from among the poorer sections, of the natives, though not
necessarily from less noble castes. Those who had belonged to well-to-do
Hindu families had been disowned by their kith and kin for betraying their
ancestral religion and were thus reduced to poverty. Also those who had
belonged to the classes of artisans and had been doing well were alienated
from the solidarity of their old fellow workers. Besides, the preference that
the Portuguese showed to the non-Christian artisans and businessmen con-
85
tributed to crown the heap of derision of which the converts had become
victims. Conversion to Christianity had come to be regarded as invitation
to beggary by the Hindus and as production of fodder for the fires of the
Inquisition by the Portuguese.49
The share of the native Christians in the urban economy as artisans or as
tax-farmers or in any other capacity was just marginal, but their services
were exploited to some extent for manning State fleets and for menial work
in State establishments and in private houses.50 Some, however, had succeeded in getting education in the schools of the Religious Convents and
had begun acting as legal solicitors and as clerks of low category in various
State departments.51 There were still others, belonging exclusively to the
Brahmin caste, who sought the privileges of the clergy, but these were not
granted to them in full measure by the religious orders that were in charge
in the training institutions for the clergy and considered the ambition of the
Christian niggers as preposterous.52
There is not enough evidence to prove that there were mass migrations of
the native Christians from the surrounding villages to the city in search of
jobs, but there are sufficient indications that village folk visited the city and
kept it supplied with fresh vegetables, fruits and other necessities.53
The white population of the city can be classified into five different subgroups, namely: 1. The married settlers known as moradores casados; 2. The
high ranking Government officials who generally returned to Portugal on
completion of their term of office; 3. The soldiers that came in the ships of
the carreira to serve in the East; 4. The inmates of the Religious monasteries; and finally 5. The community of white businessmen, particularly the
Portuguese Jews, who were known as Cristos novos or gente da nao.
The moradores casados belonged to two distinct groups, one considering
the other as socially inferior, but both shared responsibility in the city administration. The component of lesser standard consisted of mesticos of
half-breeds generated by the mixed marriages encouraged by Afonso de
Albuquerque in order to find a legitimate solution for the uncontrollable
passions of his soldiery, as well as for creating manpower that would be
acclimatised to India and would thereby reduce the dependence upon the
supply of manpower from Portugal. The castios were the descendants of
Portuguese parents, but born in India. These considered themselves racially
superior to the former group of mesticos. Albuquerques scheme for mixed
marriages had entered rough waters during his own lifetime, because of
the opposition of some of his colleagues who had represented to the Crown
that Albuquerques scheme would throw the Portuguese colonial empire
in the East into the hands of the dregs of the Portuguese society, because
only such people had begun taking advantage of the scheme.54 It was then
that orphan girls began to be sent regularly to India in the annual fleets: The
new scheme was aimed at relieving the burden of the growing number of
86
Portuguese families that were losing their bread-earning members in the

national adventure of colonial expansion, and at the same time it would
help in retaining in India the blood purity of the ruling race. The scheme
was made attractive to the Portuguese in India by granting different kinds of
jobs to those who chose to marry these orphan girls.55
The important administrative posts in India, such as that of the viceroy,
the chief revenue superintended, the judges of the High Court, the chief
secretary, and some other jobs were reserved to fidalgos and high ranking
nobles who came to India with the sole idea of amassing wealth. None
of them entertained the desire of settling down in India, but they looked
forward to returning home with improved finances. When calamities befell
the Portuguese in India during the seventeenth century and took away the
former glamour of their eastern empire, the viceroys in India could not find
sufficient numbers of fidalgos to fill the responsible posts that were falling
vacant.56
The community of soldiers at Goa was never very large and there were never
at any single time during the seventeenth century more than a few hundreds
ready to take up arms at an emergency call.57 The number of the Indianbound ships that left Portugal during the seventeenth century had dwindles
to nearly half that of the previous century, and the annual average had fallen
from seven to four.58 The involvement of the Portuguese in war with the
Dutch rebels against the Spanish rule in Europe had taken a severe toll of the
financial resources and the fighting population of Portugal. These factors
combined with harsh treatment, unrewarding payment, and the unimaginable hardships of the journey discouraged volunteers for the manning of
the Portuguese Indiamen. The shortage of men had thus become a chronic
problem during the seventeenth century, and a solution to it was found in
the practice of emptying the prisons of Portugal.59
Over one-third of the men that embarked at Lisbon normally succumbed
during the journey and the remaining number had to undergo a long or
short period of hospitalisation on reaching Goa. Once at Goa, if the ship
could not immediately return to Portugal, the municipality took care of the
crewmen during the winter, but the soldiers were left to fend for themselves.
The State would feed them freely and pay them a small salary during the
five months of summer when they were required to embark in the coastal
fleets, but during the remaining part of the year some who had relatives
in India went to stay with them, others crossed the borders and went to
offer their services to the native rulers, others still made friends with some
local women and lived with them at their cost, and there were quite many
who found a solution to their economic insecurity in the clerical gowns and
under the Convent roofs.60
The soldiers were known as soldados, which meant bachelors in common
parlance, because the casados or married settlers were not compelled to
87
perform military service and were distinguished from the former by a cloak
they wore.61
In the Portuguese seaborne empire, which has justly been called a military
and maritime enterprise cast in an ecclesiastical mould, the clergy constituted the most powerful section of the white population.62 The privileges of
the clergy had their source in the so-called Crown Patronage (padroado real)
whereby the Roman Pontiffs expected the Portuguese Crown to promote
the expansion of Christianity in its expanding national jurisdiction.63 Goa,
which had been granted a metropolitan archbishopric, had become the
headquarters of missionary activities in the entire Portuguese empire, and
there were set up in Goa religious monasteries which trained missionaries
for the whole vast field. The sixteenth century may be called the heyday
of the Portuguese missionary expansion in the East, but during the seventeenth century the Crown was beginning to realise that in the process of
preaching the Gospel the religious orders had departed from evangelical
poverty and had grown wealthy beyond the limit of tolerance in the context
of the financial straits of the State and its lay citizens. The widespread contacts of the missionaries, plus the accumulation of capital in the hands of
their organised managements, permitted the religious orders to multiply
their capital in commercial transactions, while the limited capital of the
lay individuals and the highly corrupt State machinery offered no scope of
any profitable trade to these parties.64 In order to promote a more just and
equitable distribution of wealth, the State legislation tried to stop the multiplication of the Religious houses, prevent the clergy from acquiring more
and more landed properties by influencing the dying to bequeath property
to them in their last wills, and punish the businessmen who co-operated
in the trade activities of the clerical merchants.65 The State was also caught
in a problem caused by the soldiers, who on their arrival in India sought to
escape military service by entering the monasteries. It is noted in a record
of complaints of the State officials that in 1636 there were altogether 1,730
men in different religious orders in the Portuguese State of India, while the
number of the soldiers to defend the State did not reach that figure.66
Finally, the fifth and the most important section of the white population
for the economy of the city consisted of various European nationalities, but
more particularly of the Portuguese Jews. The importance of the latter group
can be best understood in the general context of the national economy of
Portugal, whose experiments in discoveries and overseas expansion had
received a boost and had gained quick success due to a very large extent
to the exodus of Jews from Spain and their inflow into Portugal with their
capital and skills.67 The same anti-semitic policy of Spain was extended to
Portugal following the amalgamation of the two crowns, and this was greatly
responsible for the rapid decline of the Portuguese trade even before the
arrival of the North European rivals in India.68
88
It is not possible to determine even approximately the number of the European businessmen settled at Goa, neither that of the Portuguese Jews, at
any time during the seventeenth century. In 1606 the Portuguese Government imposed a ban on foreigners visiting and living in Portuguese overseas
possessions, excepting the islands of Azores and Madeira, after one year
from the proclamation of the order.69 We know that Pyrard de Laval was
caught under this order and so was a Flemish trader Jacques de Couttre
and his brother. This is known from the accounts they themselves have
left.70 However, the execution of the decree could not have been very strict
because we find eight Genoese merchants and businessmen settled in Goa
offering a loan of 50,000 cruzados to the State in 1625 for the purchase of
cargo for the Lisbon-bound ships.71 Also the correspondence of the Goa
municipal authorities with the Crown during the first three decades of the
seventeenth century and even later contains complaints against the New
Christians living in Goa city and monopolizing its trade, thereby preventing
the Portuguese settlers from investing their limited capital profitably.72 It
indicates that in spite of the bans on the Jews and other foreigners, they were
too essential for the urban economy of Goa and for the general economy
of Portugal to be ferreted out that easily. This is made clear by the chief
secretary of the Portuguese Indian administration when he wrote to the
King in 1636 that the Jews residing in Goa were on the whole well-behaved,
generous, and very useful to the royal exchequer. He further added that the
State would never be in position to equip several fleets in the past were it
not for the loans of the Jewish businessmen. He also praised the generosity
of the Jews in sheltering and feeding the soldiers who arrived from Portugal and had nowhere to go, and accused the Portuguese settlers of doing
nothing of this sort.73
Finally, the last section of the city population, but not less important
whether numerically or economically, consisted of the slaves, who were
the social underdogs providing cheap labour. A comparatively small number of slaves was State-owned and these were employed in the galleys and
in the gun-powder manufactory.74
Most of the other slaves in the city were owned by the Portuguese, who
had invested nearly a million cruzados only in the slaves they had acquired
from Japan in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.75 The author of the
Dcada XIII and the chronicler of the Portuguese State of India, Antonio
Bocarro, writes that the number of slaves owned by the Portuguese settlers
was estimated at ten per household in 1635. He refers also to natives owning
slaves.76 The Italian doctor, Gemeli Careri, who visited Goa in 1695, found
the city of Goa teeming with mulatos or the descendants of the negro slaves
cross-bred with the Portuguese. According to him, they must have formed
at least one-fourth of the city population.77
The slaves were obtained from different parts of Asia and Africa. In the
beginning, the large bulk of slaves arrived from Japan, Macau, Bengal and
89
East Africa, where the native agents captured people from the interior and
sold them to the Portuguese traders who visited those regions.
The slave trade of the Portuguese in Japan and Macau was halted when
the Jesuit missionaries, entrusted with the task of preaching Christianity to
these countries found it difficult to convince the natives of the Christian love
at a time when they were experiencing the barbarities of the slave traders,
who were co-religionists of the missionaries. The Jesuits brought pressure
upon the Goa administration and had laws enacted banning all illicit forms
of slavery practised by the Portuguese in the above mentioned lands of
the Far East.78 Also, the slave traffic in Bengal subsided after the atrocities
perpetrated by the Portuguese invited the wrath of the Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan, who destroyed the Portuguese settlement at Hughly and carried
away thousands of the Portuguese men, women and children captives to
Agra.79
The slave traffic then concentrated on East Africa. There is no way of checking the number of slaves that arrived from there every year. One single
frigate for instance, that came from Mozambique to Goa in 1683 had brought
207 negro slaves. They had been purchased by different persons at Goa and
some belonged to the crew members of the frigate who enjoyed the privilege of bringing a fixed number of slaves duty free while others had to pay a
freight charge of five xerafins per slave.80
A limited number of slaves was obtained by capturing Muslim vessels that
visited Mecca every year or any other vessels that failed to comply with
the Portuguese passport regulations. The captives were either sent to the
galleys and gunpowder manufactory, or they were sold at the slave-market
on the rua direita of the city.81 The law did not allow the Portuguese to
enslave the natives of Goa, but we do come across documentary references
to low-caste Goan natives called kunbis being deported en masse to Ceylon
to cultivate lands there.82 It may be that the Portuguese at Goa could not
possibly keep slaves belonging to the same land, but we have no records or
definite evidence either to conclude that Goan natives were included in the
number of the Indian slaves that were sent to Portugal in the yearly trips of
the Indiamen.83
As we have said, the slaves constituted cheap labour power and the wealth
of the Portuguese in India was calculated from the number of slaves they
owned. The male slaves were generally required to do all kinds of tough
menial jobs or to help in the construction works. Their most common occupation was to carry water from the Bangany spring and to bear palanquins
and parasols. The male slaves were also employed by their masters to punish
their enemies and rivals. There were always many runaway slaves who were
a menace to public safety and the Government was even forced to take stiff
measures to control their movements outdoors after sunset. Once during
the viceroyalty of D. Filipe Mascarenhas (1646-51) nearly 250 kaffirs were
slaughtered overnight for disobeying the restrictions imposed on them.84
90
The female slaves attended their female owners and nursed their children if
necessary. The more attractive ones were engaged in selling stitch-work and
pickles along the city streets. Many of them also sold liquor in the town and
made cash through prostitution. The female slaves were also used by their
owners as intermediaries to convey messages to their secret lovers and to
gratify their sexual desires in many other ways by evading the watchful eyes
of their over-jealous husbands, who sought to guard their wives as vestal
virgins and kept them confined within their house walls.85 The Portuguese
gentlemen were no less guilty in this regard, and we read in a Jesuit report
that there were innumerable Portuguese in India who bought droves of
slaves and slept with all of them.86
The slaves were often subjected to most cruel treatment if they displeased
their masters, and there were instances of slaves being beaten to death and
buried in the backyards.87 Most slaves received little or no care at all if they
fell sick.88 The slaves could not easily run away from their cruel masters, as
there was an official slave-retriever in the pay of the municipality and it was
not easy to escape the vigilance of those who guarded the passages to the
mainland.89 The preaching and the influence of the Catholic Church was
the only solace and source of mitigation to their sufferings.90
R EFERENCES
1. Barros, Dec. II, Liv. V, 455; Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento e
Conquista da India, Liv. III, Cap. VIII, 21; APO-BP, Tomo IV, Vol. I, P. 1:
498-500.
2. Correa, Lendas, II, Lisboa, 1860, 55; Gray (ed.), The Commentaries of the
Great Affonso Dalboquerque, II, London, 1877, 92; Castanheda, op. cit., 21;
Barros, op. cit., 453; Fonseca, An Historical and Archaeological Sketch of the
City of Goa, 125.
3. Dames (ed.), The Book of Duarte Barboza, I, 174-5.
4. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. I, P. 1: 403; Barros op. cit., 466; Castanheda, op. cit., 25.
5. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. I, P. 1: 385-7.
6. Correa, Lendas, III, Lisboa, 1861, 342.
7. Pyrard, II, 34-9; AHU: India, Caixa 13, doc. 5 (8.1.1638).
8. Grey (ed.), The Travels of Pietro della Valle in India, I, 157.
9. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. II, P. 1: 222; Pyrard, op. cit., 37-9
10. Pyrard, op. cit., 9-19, 40-2; HAG: MS 7766, fls. 33v-35.
11. APO-BP, loc. cit.
91
12. Pyrard, op. cit., 49-50; Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, I, 140.
13. Loc. cit.
14. Fonseca, op. cit., 245-6: The erection of the Church was ordered by
Affonso de Albuquerque in 1513 and he was buried there when he expired
on his return from Hurmuz in 1515.
15. Ibid. : Affonso de Albuquerque himself had ordered forty-eight shops to
be built in the vicinity of the Holy House of Mercy in order that a part of their
income might be applied to the support of the Church and its Chaplain, and
the remaining to the maintenance of some Eurasian orphans, as well as to
remunerating the judges of the city. Cf. Pyrard, II, 37; Comentarios de Garcia
de Silva y Figueroa, I, 176 on bazarinho and fish market.
16. Fonseca, op. cit., 247; Pyrard, op. cit., II, 44.
17. Ibid., 48, App: India, Mao, 1 doc. 56.
18. Ibid., 30-1: APO-CR, IV, 188-9; V, Suppl. 2: docs. 35, 119; Commentarios,
I, 212: During his two and half years of stay in Goa the author attended the
festival twice, once on August 15, 1615, and the second time on August 4,
1616. He reports that on the first occasion there were nearly 16,000 people
of all ages attending the festival.
19. Pyrard, op. cit., 31-2; AGU: India, MS 219: According to this register
of Goa revenues for the years 1621-6 the annual income of the Daugi and
Narve outposts was farmed out for 1870 xerafins and the expenditure of
the two garrisons amounted only to 1031-4-20 (= xerafins-tangas-ris). The
income of the Benasteri checkpost was 1400 xerafins and the pay of the
garrison was 710 xerafins. The income of the Agsy check-post was 2100
xerafins and its expenditure did not exceed 549 xerafins. The check-post of
Karbelly did not have a permanent garrison and the captain was paid out of
the revenues of the Agsy check-post. The excess revenue was used to pay
several other Government officials.
20. HAG: MS 7738 (Acordos da Camara, 1629-32), fls. 213v-15 gives details
of the standing order issued by the viceroy Count of Linhares to the chief
coastal guards of the Panjim bay; APO-CR, V, doc. 757 contains the standing
order to be observed by the thanadar of the Ribandar outpost.
21. Cf. App. B-8.
22. HAG: MS 7832 (Livro de termos das obras, 1654-5), fls. 9-9v: One March
24, 1654 the repairing of the drainage consisting of 13 canals was auctioned
to Mathew Pires for a sum of 140 xerafins. The terms of the contract made it
clear that the clearing should be done in such a way that a person might be
able to walk through them with ease in an upright position. Cf. Pyrard, op.
cit., II, 48. 23.Pyrard, op. cit., 55.
24. Cf. App. B-4.
92
25. Pyrard, op. cit., 36.

26. HAG: MS 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fls. 72v-73: The city regulations did
not permit anyone to rear pigs or to let pigs move within the city limits or
even in its suburbs.
27. APO-CR, II, doc. 51.
28. Cf. App. B-5.
29. AR, I, 330, 370; Manucci, Storia do Mongor, III, 173.
30. Boxer, PSE, 133; Commentarios:, I, 168: Between Santa Luzia and Daugi
lived Christian and non-Christian natives (gente miserable y pobre).
32. Commentarios, I, 167.
33. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. II, P. 1: 222, 261.
34. HAG: Mones 26B, fls. 408-408v.
35. Sen (ed.), Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri, 187.
36. Priolkar, The Goa Inquisition, 114-49.
37. AHU: India, Caixa 29, doc. 34 (24. viii. 1672); Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 283-4.
38. Wicki, DI, VIII, 316-9.
39. ARSJ: Goa 33, II, fls. 500, 718. An epidemic during Nov. 1617 April 1618,
judged as most dreadful until that time, killed nearly 2000 Portuguese. The
natives killed were not counted. The epidemic fizzled out with the coming
of heavy showers on May 15 (Comentarios, II, 486-8).
41. ARSJ: Goa 34, II, fls. 406-110; 290 ff: vivid description of a killer cyclone
between April 25 and May 2, preceded by earth tremors on April 13.
42. HAG: MS 1183 (Provises dos Vice-reis, n. 1), fls. 167-77.
43. HAG: MS 1370 (Fianas n. 2) fl. 191; MS 1371 (Fianas n. 3), fls. 16,
75v; MS 1127 (Peties Despachadas do Conselho da Fazenda, n. 1), fl. 80v;
Mones 52, fl-338v.
44. APO-CR, Suppl. 2: 64-5, 175-5: The Hindu tax farmers promised to pay
their guarantors the highest permissible rate of 10%. Cf. HAG: Mones 26B,
fl. 407; Mones 19C, fl. 918v; Pissurlencar, ACE, III, 246; IV, 116, 119, 129-30,
419-20 contain references to impositions of Hindus during the seventeenth
century. A permanent capitation tax of the Muslim Jizya type was introduced
at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it was known as Xendditax: Cf. T. R. de Souza, Xenddi Tax: A Phase in the History of Lusi-Hindu
Relations in Goa, 1704-1841. Regarding the Hindu tax-farmers crossing
93
into the mainland and asking for safe-conducts to return, Cf. HAG; ACF,
passim.
45. APO-CR, IV, 24-5, 45-6; HAG: MS 2785 (Despezas do Convento da Graa),
fls. 103-30v.
46. HAG: MS 1127 (Peties Despachadas do Conselho da Fazenda), fl. 143v.
47. HAG: Mones 14, fls. 46-8; MS 7738 (Acordos do Senado, 1629-32), fls.
199-204.
48. HAG: MS 1127, fls. 21v-22, 49-50; MS 11s8, fl. 141v.
50. Pyrard, op. cit., 19, 36, 90; Linschoten, I, 260, 271; APO-CR, VI, doc. 236,
520; HAG: MS 1169 (ACF, XI), 19Vv; Mones 19A, fl.128.
51. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. II, P.1: 261-2; Crooke (ed.), Travels in India by JeanBaptiste Tavernier, I, 156.
52. Pyrard, op. cit., 47; De Melo, The Recruitment and formation of the native
clergy in India, 129 ff.; Boxer, Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial
Empire, 65-9.
53. AHU: India, Caixa 3, doc. 19 (22.i.1615): Cf. also n. 50 supra.
54. Rego, Histria das Misses do Padroado Portugus do Oriente: India,
174-85; Amancio Gracia, Os Primeiros crusamentos europeus na India,
BIVG, n. 1, 1926; Baio (ed.), Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, 140.
55. Adolfo Costa, Orfs del-rei, BIVG, n. 17, 1940; APO-CR, I, P. 1: 81, 101,
109; III, 78, 90, 161-2, 203, 207, 282, 501, 715, 720; V, 999-1000; VI, 1301-2.
56. HAG: Mones 55B, fl. 438.
57. HAG: Mones 18, fl. 99 (7.x.1633): The viceroy writes to the Crown that
in the beginning of the seventeenth century there were 14,000 soldiers in
India, but that he could not count more than 1,500. Cf. also Pissurlencar,
ACE, II, 36; IV, 53, 62, 97; Boxer, PSE, 53.
58. Magalhes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, 77-9:
While a total of 705 ships left for India in the sixteenth century the number
of ships that left for India in the seventeenth century was only 384.
59.AGU: MS 33, fls. 43-43v; India, Caixa 11, doc. 53 (20.ii.1635).
60. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 30-41, IV, 100; Pyrard, op. cit., 92-100; Couto,
Soldado Prtico, 214-8; Di, XIII, 507: Fr. Jerome Rebelo, S.J., reports in 1584
that much mortality during migration is caused by the beef and pork diet,
and adds: quem poder comer legumes vir so a India (=whoever can do
with lentil will arrive safely in India).
94
62. Boxer, PSE 75.

63. Rego, O Padroado Portugus do Oriente, Lisboa, 1940; Paiva Manso,
Bullarium Patronatus Portugaliae Regum, 5 vols., Lisboa, 1868-79; Fortunato, Coutinho, Le Regime Paroissial des Dioceses de Rite Latin de IInde,
Louvain, 1958; Boxer, PSE, 230-50.
64. Boxer, op. cit., 329-32; Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European
Influence, 130-31.
65. On reducing the number of Religious houses and their inmates, Cf TdT:
DRI 32, fl. 158; DRI 33, fls. 144, 207; HAG: HAG: Mones 12, fls. 50-2;
APO-CR, VI, 843, 1102-3; AR, I, 178, 238-&. On preventing the Religious
houses from acquiring more land properties, Cr APO-CR, V, 1280-1; VI, 888;
AR, I, 452; HAG: Mones 19C, fls. 734v:6v. On curtailing the trade of the
Religious, Cf. APO-CR, VI, 892-3, 839; AR, I, 84; AHU: India, Caixa 27, doc.
28 (28.i.1666).
66. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 32, 36. 67; Livermore, A New History of Portugal,
125-7, 133-4, 164-5; Boxer, PSE, 270-4; Meilink-Roelofsz, op. cit., 131.
68. Loc. cit.
69. HAG: Mones 6A, fl. 106; AR, I, 216.
70. Pyrard, op. cit., 201; BNM: MS 2780 (Vida de Jaques de Coutre), fl. 231 v.
71. AHU: India, Caixa 8, doc. 192 (26.vi.1625).
72. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 102, 106, 112, 119, 121; P.2: 44, 57, 64-5, 204-5; AHU:
India, Caixa 4, doc. 138 (6.1.1617), Caixa 6, doc. 32 (14.i.1619) HAG: Mones
20, fl. 28 (1.xii.1634).
73. TdT: DRI 36, fls. 252-3.
74. Magalhes Godinho, op. cit., II, 584; HAG: MS 1129 (Peties
Despachadas do Conselho da Fazenda n. 3). Fls. 138-39; MS 1370 Fianas, n.
2), fl. 159v; AHU: India, Caixa 5, doc. 64 (1.i.1618).
75. APO-CR, I, P. 2: 127.
76. APO-BP, T. IV, Vol.II, P. 1: 222-3.
77. Cf. n. 35 supra.
78. APO-CR, V, 791-3; Wicki (ed.), O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 90-3, 329-31.
Cf. Supra n. 75.
79. Maclagan, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul, 99-105; Campos, History of
the Portuguese in Bengal, 128-40; Manucci, Storia do Mogor, IV, 421.
80. HAG: MS 2316 (Feitorias), fl. 117.
81. HAG: Mones 14, fls. 282, 319-9v.
95
82. HAG: MS 1164 (ACF, V) fls. 164-5; HAG: MS 860 (Cartas de alforria), fl. 3
contains a reference to a slave of Chardo caste, which indicates that even
high caste natives were occasionally enslaved. Cf. Teotonio R. de Souza,
Manumission of Slaves in Goa during 1682 to 1760 as found in Codex 860, in
The African Diaspora in Asia, ed. Kiran Kamal Prasad & Jean-Pierre Angenot,
Bangalore, Jana Jagrati Prasad, 2008, pp. 167-181.
83. Mendes Luz, Regimento da Caza da India, AJIC, VI, T.II, 145-6; HAG:
Mones 22A, fls. 201-3; Pissurlencar, Regimentos das Fortalezas, 85ff. It
was customary to allow the high ranking ship crew of the carreira to take to
Portugal a definite number of male slaves without paying customs duty, and
sometimes free of freight charges as well. Cf. APO-CR, VI, 789 (23.ix.1606),
1153 (29.x.1618): Decrees were issued forbidding taking of slaves of less than
16 years of age and female slaves of any age.
84. AR, I, 13-6; II, 547; HAG: Mones 46A, fls. 499-9v; Manucci, op. cit., III,
163-4.
85. HAG: MS 7856 (Livro dos termos das fianas), passim: several references
to slaves selling arrack in the city. Cf. Pyrard, op. cit., 52; Linschoten, I, 20910; Mandelslos Travels, 80; The Travels of Pietro della Valle, I, 161; Travels in
India of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, I, 151; Manucci, op. cit., III, 157 ff.
86. Rego, DMP, VII, 32-8.
87. Cf. App. B-2, B-10.
88. Loc. cit. Cf. also APO-CR, IV, 269-70; Wicki, DI, IV, 750, 793.
89. Cf. App. B-3.
90. HAG: MS 860, passim: The Father of the Christians attended to the
welfare of the converts, including slaves. He looked into the titles which
their masters claimed for their captivity and fixed the terms of their indentured labour. ARSJ: Goa 33, II 293v. The Jesuits had founded a religious
confraternity for the negro slaves in 1648.
Chapter 6
Municipal Organisation and

Policies
Establishment of the city administration
G OA , Albuquerque did not delay measures aimed at
consolidating his hold upon the new acquisition. The mixed marriages
which he encouraged had this purpose. They were aimed at generating
manpower acclimatised to India and attached simultaneously to the home
country and to the colonial residence.
FTER CONQUERING
Initially Albuquerque encouraged marriages by offering cash dowries at the

cost of the public exchequer and by making grants of lands.1 To these attractions he soon added the offer of offices pertaining to the city administration.
The Portuguese chronicler Barros writes that before Albuquerque left Goa
for Malacca in January 1512 he had organised the city administration and
selected gentlemen (homens bons) with sufficient aptitude from among the
married settlers to act as aldermen, market inspectors, justices of peace,
police constables and so on.2 This account of Barros finds confirmation
in a letter of Albuquerque himself. He wrote to the King of Portugal on
December 3, 1513: The posts of city captain, head constable and factory
clerk have been given to men sent by Your Majesty, but the other jobs of the
city administration are entrusted to the Portuguese gentlemen married at
Goa.3
Although it is not possible to pinpoint the date of the establishment of the
Goa municipal council with the help of the extant records, there is ample
evidence to form a precise idea of its nature and development and policies.
CHAPTER 6. MUNICIPAL ORGANISATION AND POLICIES
97
First and foremost, there is a charter of privileges granted by Albuquerque

himself to the city officials. This is known through its copy sent to Lisbon
in 1515 for royal confirmation.4 The initial clauses of this charter describe
the structure that the municipal organisation was to have, and they indicate
that it was modeled largely after its metropolitan prototype. This fact is
significant because it reflects the importance that Albuquerque attached
to Goa. There were other municipal councils set up in the Portuguese
eastern empire, but were given constitutions of the municipal councils of
Oporto or Evora.5 Goa city was also declared to be realenga, which meant
an inalienable possession of the Portuguese Crown, and this was done years
before it was made the headquarters of the Government of the Portuguese
State of India.6
The charter clauses determining the structure of the municipal administration state that the aldermen and justices of the peace should be elected
every year and the market inspectors every month. The artisans are directed
to have a body of twenty-four representatives to direct their affairs, and the
House of Twenty-Four (Caza dos Vinte Quatro) was to elect four representatives to be on the municipal board for promoting the welfare of the working
classes. All the officials were entitled to carry red wands of office with the
royal coat-of arms at one end and the wheel of St. Catherines martyrdom at
the other end of the wand.7
The privilege clauses of the same charter determined among other things
that there could be no appeal against the judgement of the market inspectors beyond the municipal board. Married settlers could not be imprisoned
in public jails while in municipal office. The citizens serving in municipality offices were granted some kind of private justice. All the citizens
were allowed to navigate freely and to bring foodstuffs and other goods to
the city without paying any import taxes. All the municipal offices were
reserved to the Portuguese married settlers, excepting those reserved to
the Crown appointees. Married settlers were exempted from any exclusive
tax impositions or loan demands by the State authorities. They were free
to sell, if they wished, any of their movable and immovable properties, including whatever they might have received by way of dowry from the State,
provided the buyers were not Muslims or Hindus. The city captain was to
swear respect to the city privileges on taking office, and he was given two
votes during the proceedings of the municipal council meetings, but he was
instructed also to use his rights and privileges to contribute towards the
smooth administration of the city.8
All the above provisions of the charter granted by Afonso de Albuquerque
to the citizens of the Goa municipality were confirmed by the Crown on
March 2, 1518, but with a few clarifications and reservations. Thus, for instance, the citizens were not granted exemption from contributing to works
of public utility. They were not allowed also to trade freely in prohibited
goods, such as spices. The State authorities were also left with discretionary
98
powers to deprive a citizen of his office and to confiscate his belongings, but
only in such cases for which those punishments were normally inflicted in
Portugal.9
Municipal evolution at Goa in the 16th century

Goa city developed great administrative complexity after the transfer of
the seat of Government from Cochin to Goa in 1530. The city also grew in
size, in population, and in commercial traffic. This growth led to a kind of
identity crisis on the part of the municipal administrators, who began facing
challenges to their privileges and decisions. There was a strong central Government established now as the headquarters of the entire Portuguese State
of India, which extended from East Africa to the Far East, including all the
Portuguese centres of influence situated therein. The city councilors were
finding many of their demands being rejected on the part of the Government
authorities as preposterous and irreconcilable with the wider interests of
the State. This situation reflected the conflict that was common in Medieval
Europe of the mercantilist age between the municipal exclusivism of the
towns and the nationalism of the developing States.10
As a result of such conflicts and crises the city council in Goa got its powers
and privileges defined with greater clarity and precision. A revised charter
of privileges was issued by King Sebastian in 1559. It declared inter alia that
the citizens elected to hold any post in the city administration would have
the right to be treated as members of the royal family as regards the privilege
of exemption from imprisonment in public jail. The charter recognised
the judicial control of the city elders over those appointed by them to any
city office, but it left the aggrieved party to seek redress through the regular
channels of State judiciary. The clerks of the municipality and the clerks
of the attorneys for the orphans were empowered to act as public notaries
in matters pertaining to their offices. The city council could assign places
or streets to the city artisans and merchants, and it could enact necessary
market regulations. Vessels bringing goods and food supplies to the city
could not be diverted by the State authorities to any other place unless
it was so required by urgent needs of the empire. The city aldermen and
other officials, including workers representatives, could decide in council
meetings to make grants of waste lands that were not requisitioned by the
State. The city elders were also granted jurisdiction over all cases of verbal
offences within the city limits.11
After the city had obtained the confirmation of its privileges, it sought to do
away with the recurring doubts regarding the election procedures and functions of the city councilors and of various other subordinate officials of the
city administration. This was done by sending a 12-point questionnaire to
the municipal council of Lisbon.12 The answers received from Lisbon do not
99
conform in all things with the procedure that prevailed in Goa, although the
instructions received from Lisbon were enforced by a decree of the viceroy
Dom Luis de Ataide in full and without alteration.13 This same decree was
confirmed in 1577, in 1582, and again in 1641.14 The Lisbon system was substantially followed in Goa, but the records of the Goa municipality help us to
describe the organisation and working of the municipality administration
with its regional peculiarities and variations.
Composition, functions of the municipal council

The presence of the city captain in the municipal council of Goa was one of
its peculiarities. The city captain was an ex-officio member of the council
with the right to two votes. His presence, however, was not very much appreciated by his colleagues in the municipal council. In a letter written to the
Crown in 1602 the councilors explained that the city captain invited to join
the city council in olden times when there were few citizens to administer
the city and there was also the need of using the position of the city captain
to uphold more effectively the privileges and rights of the citizens. In the
course of time, they wrote that the presence of the city captain had become
more a hindrance than a help for the good administration of the city. Two
reasons were put forth to justify this complaint. Firstly, the city captain used
his two votes, as a rule, to provide city jobs to his own favourites. And, secondly he often acted as an agent of the viceroy by revealing to him matters
discussed in the municipality chamber and things written to the Crown in
secrecy regarding the State administration.15
In spite of the above complaints of the other councillors, the city captain
continued to participate in the city administration with his rights and privileges as before. The only concession made in favour of the other councillors
was a permission granted to them in 1655 by the viceroy Count of Sarzedas
to effect appointments to the city offices even if the captain was not present
at the meetings after a prior intimation.16
The other officials that constituted the municipal council and enjoyed
decision-making powers were altogether ten in number and were elected
once a year. These were: Three aldermen (vereadores), two justices of peace
(juizes ordinrios), one city attorney (procurador da cidade), and four workers representatives (procurodores dos mesteres).
The first six of the above ten officials were elected through a complicated
system of balloting. General elections were conducted every three years. All
citizens were summoned to the Town Hall by the secretary of the council
during the last week of the last month of the year. The Crown judge of the city
(corregedor da comarca or ouvidor geral) officiated over the proceedings and
six electors were chosen by the majority vote of the assembly of the citizens.
100
These six electors were generally from among the prominent citizens and
they were administered the oath of the Holy Gospels. The six electors were
then separated into three batches of two each and instructed to draw up
three lists (Pautas) of the candidates for the various city posts during the
three years to come.17 The lists were collected and scrutinised by the Crown
judge to ensure that none of the persons nominated for office in any given
year were closely related to each other by ties of blood or of interest.18 The
lists were then sealed with red sealing wax by the secretary of the council
and taken to the viceroy who had the right to inspect them once again.
Sometimes the viceroys did not just inspect them, but would even introduce
their own candidates or determine which candidates should serve during
each of the three years.19
The triennial election lists were kept in an election coffer of the municipality
house. It was opened once a year on New Years Day or on New Years Eve to
determine who would replace the outgoing officials at the end of the year.
A young Portuguese lad was asked to draw the names inscribed in paper
slips from different bags representing different categories of the municipal
offices. The new officials were then inducted into office with an oath on
the Holy Gospels and with a promise to safeguard the rights of the people,
to attend truthfully to the service of God and of the Crown, and to observe
secrecy regarding matters discussed in the municipality chamber.20
From the point of view of class domination, the city administration was a
preserve of the white settlers. A royal edict of 1542 had made it very clear
that the offices of aldermen, judges, procurator, secretary, almotacels, and
workers representatives in whom the control and the administration of
the city of Goa are vested, should always be taken from among the married men and heads of households, who are Portuguese by nationality and
birth and not from among those of any other nationality, birth, and quality
whatsoever.21
In addition to the above qualifications, it was also required that the candidates should be old Christians and not of Jewish descent. However, in spite
of these clear injunctions, convert Jews were not always kept out of the city
administration, and the offices were often retained within closed circles.22
There is evidence also of conflict between the fidalgos (nobility of blood)
and the noblemen (nobility of service) in the city of Goa, and the latter did
not look happily at the superiority complex of the former.23
It was also determined by a municipality accord that in order to be elected
alderman a candidate should have served earlier as market inspector and
justice of peace, or as city attorney. This pre-requisite was not applicable to
the fidalgos from among whom was elected one of the three aldermen.24
Anyone elected to serve in any office of the municipality was not free to
accept it or to decline the offer.25 The above mentioned accord of the municipality had also enacted that a citizen who refused to take up the office
101
for which he was elected would be declared ineligible to any other office
in future and would not have any say in the assembly of the citizens. He
would also be condemned to pay 200 cruzados as fine and undergo two
years of exile.26 In actual practice this severe legislation was not easily enforced. Thus, for instance in 1602 the fidalgos, Dom Diogo Coutinho, elected
to serve as alderman declined alleging illness. When the other councilors
found out that he was coming from his distant residence in Salcete for
treatment and for the Lenten services of the Church to the city, they condemned him to undergo the customary penalties. When the viceroy showed
himself reluctant to execute their sentence, the councillors closed the municipality chamber, the market control room and the slaughter-house. They
even threatened to lay down their offices. The viceroy did not yield to their
pressure and got them to elect a new alderman.27
In 1650 the municipality had requested the Crown to let one of the three
aldermen continue in office for another term in order to maintain some continuity in the councils functioning.28 The viceroy Count of Obidos, when
consulted by the Crown on this issue, judged the step unnecessary on the
grounds that there were always persons of experience available.29 A significant change in the composition of the municipal council was introduced in
1654 when a royal decree ordered that the council would thereafter have two
aldermen from among the fidalgos and only one nobleman.30 Apparently
the protests of the noblemen obtained a reversion of the order in 1665.31
The frequency of the meetings of the municipal council was determined
by the pressure of work. The meetings were chaired by one of the three
aldermen for a period of one month. The chairing alderman was known
as aldermen of the centre (vereador do meio). The chairing was done by
rotation after the first chairman was elected by lot. The one to sit at his right
and to succeed him on the chair was also selected by lot.32
While the chairing alderman of the month was left with an overall supervision of the municipality affairs, the other two aldermen had to attend
regularly to the judicial cases brought to them by the market inspectors or
by private parties. This they normally did twice a week with the assistance
of the two justices of peace.33 They decided the cases verbally and their
decisions were final in matters regarding the violation of market regulations.
In matters relating to property disputes or personal injuries, their decisions
were subject to appeal to the nearest Crown judge or to the High Court.34
The work of the city attorney was to defend the interests of the city corporation before the State Government and before the individual citizens.
In fighting the municipality cases he was attended by a syndic. Before finalizing any contracts for farming out rights of any revenue collection, or
before announcing any changes in currency, the Government was expected
to notify the city attorney and seek the opinion of the city councilors about
the terms of the contracts or about any proposed innovations.35 The city
102
attorney had to be present at all the meetings of the municipal council and
bring to the attention of the councilors whatever he deemed necessary for
the city welfare.36
The four representatives of the workers were elected by the House of TwentyFour, which controlled the affairs of the artisans organised in craft guilds.
After being elected they were presented in the municipality chamber by
the Judge of the People, who was the head of the House of the Twenty-Four.
The workers representatives did not sit along with the other councillors,
but they had a separate bench for themselves facing the three aldermen.
They voted in all matters, except in the judicial cases brought before the
municipality.37 They had the right to sign all documents of the municipality,
as well as letters addressed to the Crown. This right was maintained in spite
of the tendency of the other councillors to consider them as upstarts and
as men of little intelligence and incapable of conducting the business with
required secrecy.38
The other functions of the city administration were performed by many
subordinate officials and servants appointed by the municipal council. This
fact reminds us again of the mercantilist policy of the medieval towns, which
employed its burghers to control almost every possible town activity.39 The
Goa municipality records refers to over thirty categories of such services.
The chief of them pertaining directly to the running of the city administration were the council secretary, the foreman of public works, the judge
of the market square and the market inspectors. Whatever pertains to the
market organisation and administration is left to be covered at length in
the next chapter. Here it will suffice to mention the functions of the other
servants and their functions.
The municipality secretary acted also as its clerk and standard-bearer on
the occasions when the municipal officials had to attend certain public
processions and festivities. It was a salaried job, and he received extra
allowances as standard-bearer.40 The foreman of public works had to look
after the building and maintenance of the public streets, city drainage, water
supply and the city walls and defences.41
The other offices for which their beneficiaries did not receive any salaries,
but had to be content with perquisites, were: The city accountant and his
clerk; the judges of the orphans and their clerks; the city tax-collector and his
clerk; the appraiser of the houses and land property; the police constables
and their clerks; the judges of the suburban villages; the treasurer, nayak
and clerk of the 1%, consulado and collecta revenues;42 the syndic and
the solicitor of the municipality; the slave-retriever; the city brokers; the
watchman of the municipality house; the superintendent of city cleanliness;
the teachers of suburban schools; the captain of the flotilla equipped from
the collecta revenue; and several other offices which are mentioned in the
service grants of the municipality records.43
103
The finances of the municipality

The income of the municipality was derived chiefly from the shops and
lands it gave in lease, from the fines collected for violations of market regulations, and from the licenses issued to artisans, shopkeepers and other
professionals to operate within the city limits. According to a report of the
municipality dated 1606 the rough annual income of the municipality did
not exceed 8,000 xerafins,44 out of which nearly 3,000 xerafins were spent
on salaries and allowances of the city officials, 2,000 xerafins on a hospital
for the incurables and crippled run by the municipality, and the remaining
sum of 3,000 xerafins on works of public utility and on the statutory feasts
of Corpus Christi and St. Catherine.45
The only other report of detailed accounts of the municipality indicates that
the market fines of the municipality amounted to 4,000 xerafins in 1644.
A paddy field was leased to a certain Bikarya Gauda for an annual rent of
300 xerafins. These two types of revenue were applied to payment of the
salaries and perquisites of the various municipality servants and to finance
the works of public utility. The income of the leased field was reserved
primarily for the payment of stipend to four mukadams entrusted with the
cleanliness of the four wards of the city.
The other forms of income and expenditure of the municipality as indicated
in the same report of 1644 were: 1,100 xerafins from the lease of some shops
and the market square, and 216 xerafins from the lease of some godowns
for storing timber and of some tents in which ready-made garments were
sold. This income was spent on the hospital for the incurables, to pay the
salaries of the municipality watchman and clerk of the market judge, and to
give monthly alms of 10 xerafins to the friars of St. Francis.46
The city was entrusted with the administration of 1% additional customs
revenue since 1569. Half of this revenue was spent on building and maintenance of the city defences and the other half for building galleys.47 In 1617 a
new additional duty on the export of precious stones was introduced. It was
known as the 2% consulado tax. The revenue was spent on building ships
and maintaining crews engaged in fighting the Dutch.48 Beside these two
types of revenue administered by the municipality a third type of revenue
was collected also with the help of the municipality since 1623. This was the
so-called collecta tax on the import of foodstuffs to the city of Goa. Only the
foodstuffs brought from the neighbouring regions of Bardez and Salcete and
grown there were exempt from the payment of this tax.49 The administration
of all the above extraordinary levies was taken up by the municipality with
the understanding that it would be able to exploit the necessary evils to its
best advantage. To this we shall return while discussing the municipality
policies.50
104
The regular city revenues were administered by the city council with the
help of a city treasurer, who had to submit his accounts to the city accountant at the close of every year. He was also required to present surety to
the municipal council on taking office. By a special privilege granted to the
Goa municipality its accounts were not subject to public auditing.51 There
are occasions when the municipality expressed in strong terms its displeasure against the interference of the State authorities into the municipality
accounts keeping.52
In spite of a well marked tendency of the Goa municipality to grab at every
possible opportunity of making some money and to administer it in its
own sweet way, it also had a good record of generous assistance at various
moments of crisis to the State Government.
In 1587, the municipality gave a loan of 10,000 xerafins to the viceroy Dom
Duarte de Menezes for the expeditionary force which sacked Johore.53 This
loan, just like most of the later loans, was never repaid. In 1603, the municipality collected 7223 xerafins, to provide foodstuffs to the fleet sent under
the command of Andre Furtado to defend Achin against Dutch attack;54
eight years later the municipality gave the viceroy Dom Ruy Loureno de
Tavora a sum of 10,000 xerafins to equip a galleon for the Malacca fleet;55 in
the 1650s the municipality contributed with great difficulty 10,000 xerafins
on the occasion of the desperate defence of the Portuguese in Ceylon56 and
in Kanara.57
The fall of these Portuguese processions brought to the city of Goa some
hundred of Portuguese families rendered homeless and without any means
of livelihood.58 The burden of assisting these refugees in a context of rapid
decline of city revenues made it impossible for the municipality to come forward with any further contributions when the very city of Goa was beginning
to be threatened with invasion by Marathas. When the Government was
in need of raising about 300,000 xerafins to meet the expenses of defence
against the Maratha Sambhaji, the sum was collected by imposing various
sorts of taxes on the Christian and non-Christian population of Goa and by
appropriating the silver ornaments of the Convents and Churches,59 but
there is no reference to any separate contribution of the Goa municipality.
The waning fortunes of the citizens are described tragically in a letter addressed by the municipality to the Crown in December 1693. The letter requests the King to drop the scheme of transferring the capital to Marmagoa,
because the citizens bad begun demolishing their houses and selling their
timber and furniture to find means of obtaining their regular meals for
some time longer.60 The state of the municipality finances at the end of the
seventeenth century is also reflected in a letter of the Crown to the viceroy
Count of Villa Verde whereby the latter is informed that the Goa municipality should be excused from investing in the newly established Company
of Commerce because of its financial bankruptcy. It is known, however,
105
that even the General Assembly of the village communities of Bardez could
invest 12,000 xerafins in the said Company.61
To close this treatment of the finances of the municipality a reference to
the salaries and other forms of remuneration to the municipality officials
and servants. It was not left to the municipality officials to decide their own
salaries, and in 1695 a royal instruction ordered the municipal council to
cut down all the increments it had introduced in the course of years without
any special royal sanction.62 It is in this connexion that we come across a
table of salaries and allowances payable to the municipality officials and
other subordinate officials during the seventeenth century.63
Municipal evolution in the 17th century

It is clear from the above that in the course of the sixteenth century the
municipality of Goa had grown to its full stature with its functions and
privileges well defined, though not always fully respected. Even though
the Crown had rejected its suggestion for establishing in Goa a kind of
parliament attended by the representatives of the various municipalities in
the Portuguese eastern dominions,64 its supremacy was acknowledged and
it was referred to as the head of all other cities.65 During the seventeenth
century we witness a continuous fight on the part of the municipality to
preserve its over-sized image against the economic, social and governmental
challenges that went counter to its interests and tended to blur its image,
if not to wipe it out altogether. This conflict is best understood in terms
of the medieval town policies in Europe as expounded by H. Pirenne or
E. Heckscher.66 And the various features of the medieval European town
policies such as provisionism, protectionism, stapling, and bureaucratic
control, are found reflected in what has been said about the privileges
and mode of functioning of the Goa municipality in the earlier part of this
chapter.67 What follows is an unveiling of the municipal policies of the Goa
municipality by analyzing its response to challenges it had to meet in the
course of the seventeenth century.
The married settlers of the Goa city had agreed to the imposition of various
customs levies on condition that the administration of the same levies would
be entrusted to them. The concession that they had extracted opened
to them new avenues of employment and new channels of profiteering.
Heckscher has referred to complaints registered against the electoral council
of Brandernburg in 1582 regarding their profiteering in corn trade.68 The
same could be said of the city elders at Goa. The viceroy Count of Linhares
wrote to the King in 1631 that the municipality officials had been hoarding
grain in order to make profits by exploiting the scarcity caused by drought
and famine all over India.69 The records of the Goa High Court for the year
1636 also reveal that four captains appointed by the municipality to the
106
collecta-financed flotilla were caught smuggling part of the load of food

grain imported from Kanara to relieve the famine threat to the city.70 It was
precisely the privilege of appointing men of its choice as captains and crew
of the collecta-financed flotilla that made the administration of the collecta
revenue so coveted activity to the municipality officials. Even after the threat
o fthe Dutch to the Portuguese shipping had ceased, the municipality of
Goa was not eager to abolish the collecta tax; they retained it as useful in
helping the State with its depleted exchequer to fight the new threats of
neighbouring Indian rulers. But they betrayed their real intentions when
the Government decided in 1694 to take over the administration of that
revenue. The municipality officials started a campaign of vilification against
the Government in its correspondence with the Crown, and it did not stop
denouncing the inefficiency of the Government until the administration of
that revenue was entrusted to them once again.71
There were also social problems that assumed alarming proportions during
the seventeenth century and began threatening the Portuguese colonial
society at Goa. Political misfortunes and trade decline added to the gravity
of the situation resulting from moral degradation, the legacy of the previous century which had seen the city at its height of prosperity. The city
elders did their best to remedy the situation by establishing an asylum for
orphan girls and another for sheltering women gone astray. Both these
institutions of charity were entrusted to the Holy House of Mercy (Santa
Casa de Misericrdia), which was almost a department of the municipal
administration for public assistance.72 The House of Mercy helped orphan
girls find husbands by offering them cash dowries and jobs to the men
disposed to marry them.73 This latter form of helping reflected the typical
attitude of the mercantile period when charity in the form of doling out alms
was being replaced by recruiting as many hands as possible for productive
activity.74 Even the administration of justice was made a means of producing economic gains. The municipality fines were almost always to be paid
in cash.75 Beggars and vagabonds who infested the city were scrutinised for
the genuineness of their needs and all the able-bodied were dispatched to
the galleys, in case of men, and to the Powder House, in case of females.76
The irreligious bent of mind of the Portuguese settlers of Goa also strikes
one as compatible with the general behavior in a merchant culture.77 A
monastery was established with the financial assistance of the municipality during the opening decade of the seventeenth century to enable the
daughters of the poor and respectable Portuguese settlers who were left
without means to offer decent dowries to their many daughters, to praise
God through lives consecrated to virginity and evangelical perfection.78
This was the monastery of Santa Monica about which the municipality was
complaining bitterly a few decades later when the spectre of poverty and fear
of racial extinction was beginning to haunt the Portuguese married settlers
ever more. They complained that the purpose of founding the monastery
107
had been defeated by restricting its shelter to females of noble birth and considerable wealth, thereby making it impossible for the Portuguese settlers to
find suitable partners.79
This dismal situation made the Portuguese settlers forget for a while their
racial prejudices and request the Crown to issue a decree ordering the
wealthy and high caste native Christians to offer their daughters in marriage to the Portuguese settlers.80 When this request was treated coldly by
the State authorities, the Portuguese settlers realised that the local native
custom prohibiting the re-marriage of widows was to absorb the wealth of
those widows. They then persuaded the State authorities in 1684 to issue a
decree ordering that native Christian widows may not be prevented from
marrying Portuguese settlers!81
There were finally the State authorities which constituted a serious obstacle
to many pretensions of the city administrators and a source of continuous
vexations to them. The chief cause of much bad blood between them was the
frank correspondence which the municipality maintained with the Crown.
The Crown had encouraged this practice in order to keep in check the vast
powers granted to the viceroys in India. The municipal councillors were
required to write dutifully and without fail every year reporting the state
of affairs in India and their own activities and difficulties.82 The viceroys
heartily resented these reports and misreports. This is evident from the
fact that in 1603 the municipality wrote to the Crown that the letters sent
to them were censored by the viceroys in order to find out from the replies
the nature of the complaints they might have sent to the Crown against
the local State Government.83 The most repeated complaints were against
the interference of the viceroys in the municipal elections and against the
violation of the privilege of the city councillors regarding immunity against
arbitrary arrest, judicial torture and imprisonment in chains.84
Just as the municipal officials rarely had good things to write about the Government, the correspondence of the viceroys is also replete with indignant
expressions against the municipal officials. Thus, for instance, the viceroy
Dom Jeronimo de Azevedo wrote to the Crown in 1613 that the municipality
officials were generally elected through bribery and from among men of
least competence. He accused them of having petty minds and of being a
source of constant headaches to the State administrators.85 The Count of
Linhares was writing to the Crown in 1630 that the municipal correspondence with the Crown was a mixture of calumnies and things irrelevant to
the welfare of the city. He requested the Crown to terminate such an evil
practice by ordering that the municipal secretary be sacked from his office if
he continued to indulge in such kind of correspondence.86 He wrote again
the following year exposing the abuses and corrupt practices of the Goa
municipality and other municipal councils in Portuguese India.
His diatribe ends with a suggestion to suppress the municipalities as the
only remedy to save India from total collapse.87 There are more instances
108
of such angry outbursts on the part of the viceroys against the municipal
councillors of the Goa city.88 The replies of the Crown to the viceroys and
governors always counseled moderation. The viceroy Count of Linhares,
who had suggested abolition of the municipalities was instructed to curb
their abuses and corruption, but not to suppress them.89 As regards the
complaints of the municipal officials and their demands, they were directed
to the viceroy who represented the Crown on the spot and would not fail to
do justice to them.90
Beside correspondence, attorneys too were sent by the Goa municipality to
the royal court to represent their interests. This practice was also encouraged by the Crown, but the viceroys were averse to this type of representation
as well, and more than once the municipality was refused permission to
send such envoys to the royal court at Lisbon and Madrid.91
To conclude, it may be said that the founder of the Goa municipality proved
right in his forecast when he wrote to the King in November 1514: These
Indians will know that we are come to stay, because they see our men
planting trees, building houses of stone and lime, and breeding sons and
daughters.92 As C.R. Boxer has very judiciously remarked, the very noble
and always loyal Senate of the Goa city was one of the principal forces which
held the ramshackle State of India together. It certainly was not a mere
rubber stamp in the hands of the viceroys and governors, and it provided a
strong element of continuity in a government whose head normally changed
every three years.93
R EFERENCES
1. Barros, Decada II, P.2: 559-62; Rego, A., Histria das Misses do Padroado
Portugus do Oriente: India, I, 174-85; Gabinete Litterario, II, 94-97, 97-98.
2. Barros, op. cit., 563.
3. Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, ed. A. Baio, 133.
4. APO-CR, II, 3-10.
5. Boxer, PSE, 281.
6. APO-CR, II, 11-13.
7. Ibid., 4-5, St. Catherine was selected as the patron-saint of Goa city and its
municipality, because the city was conquered by Albuquerque on November
25, the feast day of St. Catherine of Alexandria. To mark the pos-colonial
reality the Archdiocese of Goa decided to adopt Fr. Joseph Vaz as the patron
of the Archdiocese since the year 2000.
8. Ibid., 5-8, 46-47.
109
9. Ibid., 9.
10. Heckscher, E.F., Mercantilism, I, 332. The period extending roughly
between A.D.1500 and 1700 has been recognised as a critical one in the
economic history of the western world. It is customary to deal with these
years as the mercantilist period, and probably the only comprehensive theory of framework which treats these years as a distinct state of being with
its own policies and objectives is that of Eli Heckscher. To him mercantilism appeared as a system of unification, power protectionism, monetary
organisation, and a conception of society including views on religion and
ethics.
11. APO-CR, 139-44.
12. Ibid., 162-70.
13. Ibid., 170-71.
14. Ibid., 171-72, 214, 250-54.
15. APO-CR, I, p. 2: 109.
16. HAG: MS 7746 (Senado: Registo de Cartas Rgias), fl. 13.
17. HAG: MS 7865 (Senado: Cartas dos Governadores e Reis de Portugal,
1676-1708), fls. 86-86v.
18. APO-CR, II, 22; Boxer, op. cit., 276.
19. HAG: MS 7746, fl. 39; MS 7865, fls. 31, 95-95v; APO-CR, I, P. 1: 123, P. 2:
46: APO-CR, II, 246, 249-50: AR, I, 388.
20. HAG: MS 7765 (Assentos da Camara, 1597-1603), fls. 145v-146v; App.
B-6.
21. APO-CR, II, 115-16; Boxer, PST, 154.
22. HAG: Mones 13B, fls. 336-37; APO-CR, I, P.1: 130-31.
23. APO-CR, I, P. 2: 30. The noblemen refused to serve in the city hospital
under the supervision of fidalgos.
24. HAG: MS 7695 (Registos Gerais do Senado, 1570-92), fls. 147v-48; App.
B-1.
25. AR, I, 195-96; APO-CR, III, P.2: 935; App. B-1.
26. APO-CR, I, P.2 : 99.
27. HAG: MS 7765 (Assentos da Camara, 1597-1603), fls. 176-79v.
28. AHU: India, Caixa 21, doc. 19 (20.xii.1650).
29. HAG: Mones 22 B, fls. 254-55 (13.i.1653).
30. APO-CR, II, 260-61.
110
31. Ibid., 261-62.

32. HAG: Mones 54, fls. 89-89v; APO-CR, II, 123-25.
33. APO-CR, 74-75.
34. APO-CR, I, P.1: 57; P.2: 89, 102-103; II, 144-45, 229.
35. AHU: India, Caixa I, doc. 121 (20.ii.1621), Caixa 28, doc. 210 (3.x.1671);
HAG: MS 7745, fl. 18 (30.i.1683).
36. APO-CR, II, 283.
37. Ibid., 78-79.
38. APO-CR, I, P.1: 23, 153, 212.
39. Heckscher, op. cit., I, 130.
40. APO-CR, II, 206 provides a list of salaries of the municipality officials in
1572.
41. APO-CR, II, 274-75.
42. Cf. infra n. 48-50.
43. HAG: MSS 7750-57 (Registos das Cartas Patentes, 1596-1688). These
service grants are useful to have an idea of the various types of services
controlled by the municipality, but they rarely give details about the salaries
and perquisites or about the service conditions.
44. APO-CR, I, P.L.: 176.
45. The feast of the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi) was celebrated on a
Thursday, exactly three months after the feast of Easter. It was one of the
two statutory feasts celebrated by the municipality with special pomp. The
aldermen and other officials who did not have a salary were given generous
allowances on the occasion of these feasts to make good dresses for themselves. Cf APO-CR, II, 206; Boxer, PSE, 279. 46.AHU: India, Caixa 18, doc.
79.
47. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 81; II 188-91, 210, 213, 242.
48. AHU: India, Caixa 4, doc. 208 (22.xii.1617); APO-CR, II, 235-37.
49. HAG: MS 7748 (Acordos da Camara, 1621-25), fls. 152-53v; MS 7809
(Livro de Collecta, 1623-26), fls. 10-13. The duties imposed affected the
goods brought from Portugal also. Thus, coral, glassware, quicksilver, ivory,
wire, etc., had to pay 5 per cent. The duty on these goods was paid by the sellers, but the duty on eatables and drinks brought from Portugal was payable
by the buyers at the rate of 10 xerafins/wine barrel, 4 xerafins/vinegar cask,
4 tangas/oil pot, 1 tanga/oil bottle; and the duty on local items was as follows: 1 xerafim/khandi of husked rice and wheat, lentils, mungo (phaseolus
111
mungo), urid (phaseolus radiatus), and beans ; half xerafim/khandi of unhusked rice, nachini (eleusine coracona), bajri (panicum spicatum), pakal
(paspalum scrobiculatum), varyo (panicum miliaceum), kulit (dolichos biflorus), till (sesamum indicum), and zanvo (panicum miliare). Tax was also
imposed on animal slaughtering: 1 tanga/pig, 2 vintens/sheep, and 2 tangas/cattle head. Duties on some other items were: 6 xerafins/khandi of
ghee, 4 xerafins/khandi of oil, and 1 tanga/kumba of exported salt.
50. AHU: India, Caixa 9, doc. 166 (19.xii,1626), Caixa 24, doc. 123
(19.xii.1658) Caixa 26, doc. 167 (3.iii.1665).
51. APO-CR, I, P. 2: 175-76.
52. HAG: MS 7747 (Assentos da Camara, 1603-1608), fls. 213-18; APO-CR, I,
P. 2: 86-86, 177.
53. APO-CR, I, P.2: 45. In 1596 the municipality was still reminding the State
Government about the repayment of its loan.
54. HAG: MS 7747, fls. 7-7v; APO-CR, I, P. 2: 146, 169.
55. HAG: MS 7766 (Assentos da Camara, 1609-15), fls. 74-74v.
56. HAG: MS 7748 (Assentos da Camara, 1621-25), fl. 64.
57. AHU: India, Caixa 22, doc. 13 (4.iii.1653); Pissurlencar, ACE, III (1644-58),
241.
58. AHU: India, Caixa 26, doc. 44 (26.i.1664): . . . so many are the married
Portuguese who have arrived here from the Portuguese settlements fallen
into the hands of the enemy that it is pitiable to see them moving in bands
from door to door begging in order to find some means of supporting their
wives and children. Besides, there are many others living with their friends
and relations. . . (Translation of an extract of the letter written by the municipality to the Crown). Cf. Balsemo, Os Portugueses no Oriente, II, 78:
refers to c. 2600 women and children from among the Portuguese settlers of
Cochin brought to Goa by the Dutch vessels after capturing that place.
59. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV (1659-95), 419-20, 428-32.
60. HAG: MS 7865 (Cartas dos Governadores e Reis de Portugal, 1676-1708),
fl. 93v. (1.xii.1693).
61. HAG: Mones 58, fls. 167 (10.ii.1693).
62. HAG: MS 7740 (Acordos do Senado, 1694-1709), fls. 57-58; AR, I, 207208.
63. HAG: MS 7740, fls. 57v-58.
64. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 67.
65. Ibid., 79, 84-85.
112
66. Pirenne, Medieval cities, (Princeton,1948); E. Heckscher, Mercantilism,

London, 1955.
67. Heckscher, op. cit., I, 128-30; Pirenne, op. cit., 171-210.
68. Ibid., I, 160.
69. HAG: MS 1498 (Ordens Rgias, n. 2), fls. 8v-9v (6.vii.1631).
70. AR, I, 470-71.
71. AHU: India, Caixa 31, doc. 41 (27.ii.680); Caixa 37, doc. 12 (9.iii.1693),
24 (26.ix.1693), 88 (6.xii.1694); HAG: MS 7865 fls. 96v-97, 111, 113v, 117v-18.
72. Ferreira Martins, Histria da Misericrdia de Goa, I, 70-378; II, 201-86:
narrates the history of the two shelter-houses with the help of the original
papers of those institutions preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa. Cf.
Fatima Gracias, Beyond The Self: Santa Casa da Misericdia de Goa, Panjim,
Surya Publications, 2000. Also the more recent researches of Timothy Coates
and Isabel dos Guimares S have have brought more detailed information
on the workings of this institution in the context of the entire Portuguese
empire.
73. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 81,101, 109; III, P. 1: 78, 90, 161-62, 203, 207, 282,501; III,
P. 2. 715; 720; V, P. 3: 999-1000; VI, 1301-02.
74. Heckscher, op. cit., I, 167; II, 286.
75. HAG: MS 7846 (Alvars e Provises de S. Magestade e dos Vicereis, 15981781), fls. 7-7v.
76. HAG: MS 512 (Cartas Patentes e Alvars, n. 44), fl. 32
77. Heckscher, op. cit., II,302.
78. HAG: MS 7747, fls. 141-44; APO-CR,I, P. 1: 108, 113, 125, 130; P. 2 : 17, 56,
150, 190, 208.
79. HAG: MS 7786 (Senado: Diversos, 1610-1704), fls. 44v; MS 7745 (Registos
dos Cartas Rgias, 1630-1712), fls. 11v.
80. HAG: MS 7745, fl. 6v.
81. AR, II, 661-64; Cunha Rivara, Ensaio Histrico da Lingua Concani, 255-59.
82. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 100.
83. Ibid., 103-104; P. 2: 116, 224. In 1608 the municipality was requesting the
Crown to send a code which they could safely use in the correspondence.
84. Ibid., P. 2: 25-26, 32, 51, 63, 81, 99-100, 117.
85. HAG: Mones 12, fls. 66v-67 (23.xii.1613); Couto, Soldado Prtico, 118.
86. HAG: Mones 13B, fls. 336-37. (1.i.1630).
113
87. Cf. supra n. 69.

88. HAG: Mones 20, fl. 47v (4.xii.1634); AHU: India, Caixa 27, doc. 28
(28.i.1666); Caixa 28, doc. 210 (3.x.1671); Caixa 31, doc. 142 (1.x.1681).
89. AR, I, 441 (24.ii.1633).
90. APO-CR, I, P. 1: 65; Couto, op. cit., 109.
91. APO-CR, I, P. 2: 129, 135, 141; Viriato de Albuquerque, O Senado de Goa,
48-53.
92. APO-BP, Bk. IV, Vol. I, P. 1: 842.
93. Boxer, PST, 40.
Chapter 7
Urban Economic Life

P ORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the wherewithal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administrative bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.1 Without
any significant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.2 In the seventeenth century we
find this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.3 The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new field of action in the context of diminishing success in the missionary field by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.4 With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
HE
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.5 The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage inflation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check profit inflation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
CHAPTER 7. URBAN ECONOMIC LIFE
115
Labour organisation
The expression labour organisation is not limited here to its current popular meaning of organised labour in the context of industrial capitalism. It
may be surprising, however, to note that this meaning was not altogether
inapplicable to the economic situation of the Goa city in the seventeenth
century. An incident which took place on October 8, 1694, certainly points
to the existence of somewhat organised industrial proletariat in the Stateowned and managed industrial concerns. The chief revenue superintendent
(vedor geral da fazenda) sent a communication to the viceroy on the above
date reporting that a crowd of 500 poor artisans employed in the State
shipyard was shouting outside his residence denouncing that they had not
received their wages for seven consecutive weeks.6
In the gunpowder manufactory, where much skilled work was not required,
the great majority of the workers were slaves and those condemned to
forced labour. Neither of these types of labourers could express their protest
in any other form than sabotage. Outbreaks of fire and explosions in the
gunpowder house were not unusual.7 It was because of such incidents that
the general manager of that establishment proposed to the Public Revenue
Council in 1689 that only negro couples should be employed there. He was
convinced that the Hindus and others condemned to forced labour were
responsible for all the mischief.8
Going beyond the consideration of labour organisation of the types just
described, the present analysis proposes to delve into the structural pattern
of the labour market in general. The State was one single giant customer in
the labour market, but there were also many private enterprises consisting of
workshops-cum-shops owned by petty independent artisans and craftsmen,
who catered for the necessities and for the ostentatious tendencies of the
city population.
Pattern of demand and supply: Beginning with the public sector, we have
the Government owning a large service industry to look after the administration, defence and the spiritual welfare of the Portuguese State of India. The
Matricula Geral was the department which maintained the service books of
all employees on the State pay-roll. The exact number of the Portuguese serving in India, particularly in the armed forces, was kept a jealously guarded
secret for reasons of security.9 Unfortunately we do not have the records of
the Registration Office, but even if these records had been available, they
were likely to be misleading, because there was a permanent complaint
to the Crown from the more scrupulous officials in Portuguese India that
the registers contained more names of the dead or absentees than of those
actually serving.10
In the administrative set-up, the higher cadre came with appointments
from Portugal, but most of the subordinate posts were filled by Portuguese
116
married settlers, and others by the native Christians. While the strength of
the Portuguese soldiers available for service in Goa at any one time during
the seventeenth century never exceeded 1,500, the administrative services
could not have absorbed more than half that number.11
The State demand for labour was chiefly for fleet-manning and for combat,
particularly in the seventeenth century when there was a chronic shortage
of Portuguese manpower. This shortage was remedied by drafting the Portuguese married settlers and the native people, neither of which groups took
the measures willingly. Their reluctance is revealed by the fact that highhanded methods were adopted: skilled sailors were detained for months
prior to a planned expedition.12 Village communities were pressurised to
supply a definite number of men.13 Portuguese settlers were deprived of
their slaves,14 and the work in the galleys and gun-powder manufactory
was introduced as a form of judicial punishment for the law-breakers and
vagrants.15 It was only when all these methods failed to yield satisfactory
results and when the threats of the Marathas close at home forced the Government to review the labour situation that the administration realised that
wage-raising was the best attraction for labour.16
As regards the State-owned defence industries, their employment potentiality can be gauged from the nature and volume of their production. The
shipyard was a vast complex including a carpentry section, rope manufactory, smithery, foundry and cooperage departments. Giant carracks of
nearly 2,000 tons burthen as well as a variety of smaller s were built and
equipped there.17 There was a gun foundry with three large kilns and all
the required apparatus for casting guns as well as for minting currency.18
Pyrard de Laval, who has left the fairest description of the whole complex,
was impressed by the large number of workers employed there. He remarks
that with the exception of the general superintendent and the heads of the
various departments, most skilled and unskilled labourers were recruited
from among the natives of the locality.19
The gunpowder manufactory supplied gunpowder to all the Portuguese
settlements in the East and was even sending annually about 500 quintals
as a ballast of the Carreira ships.20 In 1630, it had six grinders and could
manufacture 500 lbs. of gunpowder each day. The viceroy Count of Linhares
raised the production capacity to 700 lbs. in 1634.21 A decade later the house
had acquired a new grinder and the production capacity had been further
increased to 800 lbs. a day.22
Before passing on to the demand for labour in the private sector something
may still be said about the employment procedure in the public sector. To
what has been said about the pressure methods of drafting, it may be added
that those who arrived as soldiers from Portugal were generally criminals
and convicts, sent straight from the prisons of Portugal.23
117
Once they arrived in India there was nothing like an organised army to offer
them necessary protection. When the summer season approached and the
coastguard fleets had to begin their patrolling duties, individual fidalgos or
noblemen appointed as fleet captains would recruit the men they needed
and submit the lists to the Government Registration Office.24 For the rest
of the year they were left high and dry on the shore to eke out their living,
which they generally did by begging at the Convent doors, or by joining
the retinue of some Portuguese brave, or by seeking some complaisant
women (married or unmarried) who would keep them, or by seeking out
and imposing themselves on any of their relatives found anywhere in the
East, or by crossing the borders and taking up jobs with some native ruler,
or by joining the ranks of the religious orders.25 Those employed in the fort
garrisons were somewhat luckier because they could more easily make a
living during the rainy season as well by preying upon the neighbouring
villages.26
Only married settlers and wounded soldiers were free to seek a non-military
occupation. However, all the posts in the administrative service and the high
positions in the military service were granted by way of reward. Anyone who
applied for such a post or for a cash pension had to present certificates of his
service covering at least eight years in the fleets.27 Only jobs connected with
the city administration were granted independently by the city councillors,
and certain low grade posts of clerks, interpreters and legal solicitors were
granted to the native Christians at the recommendation of the Father of
Christians.28 Another exception was in favour of those who were willing to
marry the orphan girls sent from Portugal or the orphan daughters of the
noblemen who died while serving in India. The posts offered by the State as
dowry to the orphan girls were also below the grade of factor and did not
require confirmation of the appointment by the home Government. Also
for males who married orphan girls service requirements were reduced by
four years.29
The offices were generally granted for three-year terms. But there were some
jobs, such as those of public notaries, bailiffs and chief constables, which
the viceroys could grant directly in India for the period when the granting
viceroy continued in office.30 However, almost all the higher category of jobs
were sanctioned (despachados) from Portugal after the lists of candidates
and their service files (consultas) had been submitted through the Secretariat in India. One single office was often granted to more than one person,
and a grantee had thus to wait until all those who preceded him had enjoyed
the grant or died. The time-lag could sometimes be of one generation or
more, but it was permitted to the grantees to renounce the office granted
in favour of someone else, or even to sell it.31 However, more than once
the State itself took the initiative of auctioning various administrative posts
and captaincies to the highest bidders.32 It was meant to raise funds for
the war expenses, but such interference must have made the situation of
118
the grantees still more hopeless. One factor which probably minimised the
frustration was the eagerness of the wealthy Eurasian parents to seek white
partners for their nubile daughters.33
Concerning the demand for labour by the city municipality much has been
said already in the last chapter, but there were projects of public works, such
as building and repairing of roads, drainage, canals, wharfs, and such like,
which surely required skilled and unskilled artisans and menial labour. Just
like the recruitment of labour for the State defence industries, in this case
also the recruitment of labour was left to the artisan-cum-contractor who
undertook to do the job.34
In the private sector there was first and foremost the institutional demand
of the religious houses. The craze of the various religious orders to outdo
each other with monumental display surely implied mass employment of
artisans connected with building and decorating work. The employment
potentialities were further raised by the reconstruction works that had to be
undertaken due to frequent fire accidents caused by the abundant use of
combustible building material and the lack of fire fighting equipment.35
The needs of the individual citizens were many and highly diversified. They
could, however, be classified under housing, food, dress, personal care
and transport. As regards housing there were the sumptuous mansions of
the Portuguese settlers in the city and also magnificent outhouses in the
suburbs. However, although the houses of natives were largely made of
stone and lime, there were residences of the natives in the close suburbs
which the contemporary missionary reports have compared to pigsties.36
From the point of view of labour demand, it is important to note that most of
the building material was obtained locally: The laterite stones were quarried
in the surrounding villages, the lime was manufactured out of oyster shells
in the kilns working in some other neighbouring villages, where also the
roof-tiles were manufactured. The illumination of the houses was effected
with torches and lamps fed with coconut oil, while it was common to use
wax-candles for the church services.37
The food needs of the city population were largely satisfied with imported
rice and wheat. Green vegetables, coconuts and coconut oil, and fish were
also important ingredients of the diet and were obtained from local suppliers. Several city dwellers had their own kitchen gardens and their own
palm groves where they set their slaves to work and to grow enough for
themselves and a surplus for the market.38 Beef was consumed regularly
by the inmates of the monasteries and also by the Christian city dwellers;
the cattle for slaughter was imported from the mainland.39 Fresh drinking
water was supplied by slaves who brought it in earthern vessels from the
Bangany spring and sold it at the road junctions of the city.40 As regards
eating utensils, the Portuguese had Chinese crockery imported from Macau,
while clay pottery manufactured in Bardez served the needs of the Christian
119
natives and the non-Christian served their dishes in containers made of

banana or jackfruit leaves.41
The dress habits varied between the simple and most exquisite styles. At
home even the rich covered themselves with bare minimum. In case of
women even this bare minimum is described by several European travelers as so transparent that it hardly covered anything.42 The children at
home normally moved about fully naked until they were big enough to feel
ashamed.43 It was while moving outdoors that the wealthy made an ostentatious display of damask, silk, velvet garments and jewelry. Even the lackeys
who accompanied them as palanquin or parasol bearers were dressed up in
gay and fanciful liveries. Those who were not so well-off tried to emulate
the rich, and even bachelors who lived together in rented houses kept at
least one good suit which they all shared in turn for moving outdoors.44 The
dress of the natives was also limited to covering the essentials while at home
but outdoors men wore silk cabayas and fine turbans of silk or velvet caps.
The women, both Portuguese and native did not show themselves in public,
except on rare religious and social occasions. There were however the female slaves who went round the city selling different kinds of wares. They
are described as good looking and well attired.45 Finally, the male slaves and
poor natives did not have more than a loin-cloth to cover themselves, and a
Jesuit report likens them to our father Adam.46
The personal care of the city dwellers required the services of barbers, who
were also the bleeder-surgeons of those days, the washermen, the cobblers,
the tailors, and so on. There were the pandit or quack doctors, who were very
much appreciated by the Portuguese. The municipality had thirty of them
permanently on its pay roll,47 and even the religious houses and the high
civil authorities had them as their house doctors.48 Licenses were issued to
them by the municipality for a fee of ten xerafins and with a clause that they
should not induce their Christian patients to make votive offerings to Hindu
temples and deities.49 The Portuguese who did not avail themselves of the
services of these pandits and treated their illnesses with enemas, purgatives
and bleedings succumbed much more easily than those treated with native
methods.50
Much of the close personal attendance was the job of hordes of male and
female slaves. The number of slaves indicated the wealth and social position
of their owners. The male slaves were usually employed by their masters as
instruments of their revenge, and occasionally their brute force was used to
intimidate friends and strangers to give loans which would be repaid only
on the doomsday.51 At the close of the seventeenth century an average
Portuguese household owned at least six slaves, but there were those with
better means who had even thirty or forty of them.52
As regards the means of transport for distance places the river navigation
was the cheapest means. On the land, the goods were carried on mens
120
heads. However, heavy and bulky cargoes were placed on parallel bars
which rested on the shoulders of four bearers. Stones, timber, and other
building materials were generally transported with bullock-carts. In this
connection, Pyrard had observed that the wheels of the carts were not metalrimmed.53 In spite of several legislative efforts to ban the use of palanquins
for the conveyance of persons, this means of transport continued in vogue
all throughout the seventeenth century and later.54 The vehicle consisted
of a chair or net hanging from a bamboo and having an overhead covering
made of woven palm leaves. The bamboo cane was placed on the shoulders
of two men in front and two behind. Horse-riding was rare and no amount of
legislation improved the situation.55 Most of the city people walked, but they
tried as far as possible to have parasols to protect them against the Sun. The
parasols were made of woven palm leaves and had an impermeable cover
for the rainy season.56 These parasols were carried by persons belonging to
a special class of boya of mahar caste, who also carried the palanquins.
In addition to the essential needs discussed so far the colonial rule promoted
widespread use of tranquilisers. Palm arrack distilled from palm toddy was
popular among the Portuguese and the Christian natives, and it was sold all
over the city. Tobacco was consumed for smoking, snuffing and chewing.
Apparently, it was very popular even among the Religious. In the year 1638,
Fr. Vitelleschi, the Superior General of the Jesuits, had instructed his visitor
to India to check three types of abuses prevailing among the Indian Jesuits,
and one of these was the way in which they spent freely on tobacco.57 Opium
was supplied as part of food rations to those employed in the galleys and in
the gunpowder manufactory.58 Gambling was also an irresistible attraction
for most Portuguese, and there were well furnished houses in the city for
this purpose.59 Finally, the city of Goa was no exception as far as the evil of
prostitution was concerned. Female slaves were much in demand for sexual
gratification, but the Portuguese had developed a preferential taste for the
Hindu nautch girls. The Portuguese visited them in the neighbouring islands
of Akado and Kumbarjua, because the nautch girls were not permitted to
enter the city limits.60
Guilds of artisans and craftsmen: The pattern of demand and supply in
the labour market of the Goa city during the seventeenth century enables
us to form some idea of the bargaining power of the labour. The picture is
further perfected by analyzing the organisation of the guilds of artisans and
craftsmen in the city.
Craft guilds and merchant guilds were not unknown to India even in ancient
times. Kautilyas Artashastra devotes one full adhikarana to the description
of sreni, and by the time of the composition of the Buddhist scriptures,
guilds certainly existed in almost every important Indian town, embracing
almost every trade and industry, including thieves,61 Considering the fact
that Goa had been an important trading centre at least from the times of the
Kadamba Jayakesi I, it is a sufficient indication that the merchant and craft
121
guilds which flourished in the medieval Kanara and Viyajanagar could not
have been alien to Goa.62
The earliest references to the craft guilds in Goa after the Portuguese occupation are found in the Jesuit missionary reports. A report of 1545 refers to an
excellent native painter who was the mukadam of all the other painters.63
Another report of 1559 says that among the Muslims as well as the Hindus
of this land there is in every kind of craft a title called mukadam, which corresponds to that of superintendent in our language; all those who practice
that particular craft acknowledge in a certain way his superiority.64 We also
learn from another report that in a 1560 a mukadam of the silk merchants
was baptised along with his three companions and that the entire street of
the silk merchants was festively decorated for that occasion.65
The Portuguese at Goa introduced the guild organisation which prevailed
in the Portuguese capital. Hence, it becomes necessary to trace briefly
the history of the evolution of the guild system in Lisbon. It was only by
the end of the sixteenth century that the urban economy of Portugal had
gained in complexity. By that time guilds had reached high development
in most of the other parts of Europe. In Portugal, the Discoveries had a
decisive influence on the process of their growth by causing an influx of
artisans from rural areas and from abroad into the capital. This development
forced the existing rudimentary guilds to meet the challenge and draw up
a written code of behavior. The oldest surviving written regulations are
those of leather-workers. Whatever regulations most of the guilds followed
were either customary or enacted by the State or municipal authorities.
In 1545, King John III instructed the Lisbon municipality to look into the
regulations governing various artisans, to modify them if necessary, and
to give new ones to those who did not have any. That is when we find the
municipality coming into picture for the first time as a recognised authority
to regulate and control guild affairs. It was in keeping with this instruction
that the municipality approved the regulations for different crafts during
the years 1549-64 and these were all compiled in one book entitled Livro
dos regimentos dos Officiaes Mecanicos (Book of Regulations Governing the
Artisans) in 1572. It was only thence onwards that the craft guilds of Lisbon
received a juridical discipline to which we can now turn our attention.66
Each craft guild elected two inspectors (juizes) to serve during a period of
one year. It was their duty to make inspection tours of all the workshops of
their craft and to check the quality of wares and their prices. They also regulated the distribution of raw materials among the craft guild members. The
inspectors were assisted by an elected clerk who accompanied them during
the tours and noted down their instructions. The inspectors could impose
fines which were executed by municipality-appointed market inspectors
(almotacels).
Each craft guild was also organised into a confraternity having its patron
saint, whose image or representation on a standard was carried by the guild
122
members during the statutory Corpus Christi procession. This was the internal organisation of the guilds controlled by two elected presidents or
mordomos, who summoned the meetings of the confraternity, administered the common fund, and attended to the social welfare of the member
families.
There were examiners (examinadores) elected to judge the competence of an
artisan who wished to open his own workshop and become an independent
craft master. A candidate for the masters qualification had to undergo the
prescribed period of apprenticeship (aprendizagem) and work as a wageworker (obreiro) during a minimum required period. The candidate then
had to produce satisfactorily his master work as directed by the examiners.
Only then did he receive a passing certificate which could enable him to
have his own workshop (tenda), apprentices and wage-workers.
A distinction was made between the grouping of artisans into bandeiras
(standards) and oficios (crafts). While a craft was a purely professional
classification, a banner designated one or more crafts having a common
banner of a patron saint. This latter arrangement had religious connotation
and it was also used as a base for representation of craft interests on the
municipal board.67
We may conclude the study of the evolution of craft guilds of Lisbon with
a reference to the political power wielded by the guilds. They had attained
a definite position in the national politics in the year 1384. It was a year
of national crisis, and the artisans of Lisbon played a decisive role in the
proclamation of the Master of Avis as King John I of Portugal against the
pretensions of Castile and in the midst of the hesitations of the nobility of
Lisbon. It was then that the new King rewarded his plebeian supporters
and proclaimed that twenty-four representatives of the workers, two of each
craft, would take part in the city administration. It is not known if there were
only twelve professional groups in Lisbon at the time, or if only the twelve
important groups were meant to represent the interests of all the others. But
whatever was the situation, the workers were to sit in the company of the city
gentlemen (homens bons) to administer the town affairs.68 This intrusion
was not taken well by the former elite, whose resistance must have grown
in the course of years. This is suggested by several royal orders which were
issued at different times in the fifteenth century confirming the privileges
granted by John I to the workers: They were to continue in the municipal
council and have their say in all its decisions.69 The only development in the
course of years was the restriction of the number of the workers who directly
participated in the proceedings of the municipal council to four. The former
body of twenty-four continued in existence, but as an electoral body to send
four representatives (mesteres). This situation remained crystallised until
1755 when the great earthquake shook the foundations of Lisbon city and
also of its guild organisation. The earthquake destroyed the archives of the
guilds; reconstruction work brought into the city waves of labourers from
123
the rural areas and from abroad. These developments forced the guilds to
reshape their organisation to withstand the shock.70
That the Portuguese transplanted the above described guild administration
into Goa is seen from the published and archival documentation of the Goa
municipality. Whatever has been said in the previous chapter about the
workers representatives and their place in the municipal organisation is by
itself sufficient to draw a parallel. However, more evidence can be adduced
not only to confirm the parallelism, but to illustrate the peculiarities of the
guilds at Goa.
The earliest extent original records of the Goa municipality date back to
1535-7, and they are regulations (posturas) for the bakers and the suppliers
of some important food items and services. We get an impression that the urban economy was still very much underdeveloped.71 However, new market
regulations drawn up in 1618 are very extensive and begin by saying that the
earlier regulations had become obsolete and inadequate to meet a situation
which had changed entirely.72 These new regulations really reveal a much
higher degree of complexity, and the artisans and craftsmen governed by
them include masons, stone-cutters, tile-bakers, goldsmiths, silver-smiths,
jewel-cutter and polishers, wax-workers, coopers, tailors, dyers, washermen,
parasol-makers, coppersmiths, shoe-makers and lime manufacturers. The
registration books of the examination certificates issued to artisans and
their confirmation by the municipality also point towards a high degree of
specialisation of crafts. We come across certificates issued to canvas-makers,
tanners, cope-weavers, harness-fixers, sword-sharpeners, and many others.
The proceedings of the municipal council also contain lists of the workers
representatives elected year after year. Along with their names we are also
informed occasionally about the professions to which they belonged. Thus,
we come across new types of artisans, such as hatters, book-binders and
cutlers.73
The regulations of 1618 determine among other things that no artisan may
have a shop or even exercise his craft in any other way within the city or
its suburbs without obtaining license from the municipality. A fine of ten
xerafins was fixed against the defaulters.74 It was also determined that every
artisan should present surety before the municipality clerk,75 the goldsmiths
and silversmiths should have a registered mark recorded in the books of the
municipality and which they were bound to affix on any type of ornament
worked by them.76 The masons and carpenters had to present a guarantee
equivalent to one-third of the value of the work undertaken.77
The same regulations of 1618 stated that no artisan could be examined for
two different crafts, and no slave could be examined at all, but a slave could
work as a wage-worker for his master.78 No artisan could refuse service
under penalty of 2,000 ris.79 They were obliged to attend immediately to
the needs of any citizen of the category of squire (escudeiro) and above.
124
Goldsmiths and silversmiths were forbidden to work anywhere outside the

places assigned to them in the city under penalty of 50 xerafins.80 Washermen were warned not to lend the clothes of their clients to a third party
under pain of paying a fine of 5 xerafins. They were also required to wash
the clothes twice a week during summer and once a week during winter,
and not to use rough stone to beat the clothes on.81 A non-Christian tailor
owning a workshop was forbidden to have a Christian partner, or even to
have Christian apprentices and wage-workers.82 A shoe-maker was warned
never to turn a client away for want of leather or with any other excuse.83
In order to control the quality and prices of the wares the inspectors of every
craft had to make their rounds and destroy the articles which did not come
up to the expected standard. Fines were also established for those who did
not sell the goods at stipulated rates: 500 ris if caught once, 1,000 ris and
suspension from office if caught a second time, and 2,000 ris plus loss of
job if caught a third time.84
The fact that the majority of the artisans in Goa were non-Christians does
not appear to have prevented the Portuguese from introducing the organisation prevalent in Portugal, including the system of banners with patron
saints. Thus the barbers belonged to the banner of St. George and the
masons to that of St. Joseph.
On the basis of available evidence regarding the working of the guild of
barbers we could imagine also the relationship between the members of the
other professional guilds and their mukadams. A mudakam was elected by
the guild members, but the election and the terms of their allegiance to him
had to receive official sanction of the municipality. Apparently, the offices
of guild mukadams, like those of the guild inspectors and their clerks, and
the guild representatives to the municipal board continued to be restricted
to the Portuguese. There is no reference to a non-Christian exercising any of
those offices during the period of our study. According to the information
available about the guild of the barbers, they agreed to abide by the orders
of their mukadam in all the matters of their profession and to accept his
sentence in composing differences among them. The mukadam was to be
assisted by four elected arbiters, and anyone who disobeyed the mukadam
was liable to a fine of 10 cruzados each time for the confraternity of St.
George.85
To conclude the study of the guild organisation in Goa we could still mention
the House of Twenty-Four similar to that of Lisbon. It was a purely electoral
body representing different guilds, and its elected president known as Judge
of the People (juiz do povo) acted as a link between the guilds and the State
and municipal authorities. It was he, who presented before the municipal
board the four representatives sent to it by the House.86
Mode and quantum of payment: Details regarding the mode and quantum
of payment to Government servants during the seventeenth century contin-
125
ued to be regulated substantially by a standing order or regimento drawn by

Diogo Velho, the chief revenue superintendent, in 1576.87 A general revision
of wages and salaries was effected in 1636 to meet a severe rise in the cost
of living.88 Thereafter in the course of the seventeenth century no other
general revision took place, but increments were granted to individual cases
depending upon the urgency of the situation. Thus, for instance, the governor Ferno de Albuquerque raised the quarterly pay of the constables to 25
xerafins and of the gunners to 16 xerafins, and their maintenance allowance
was raised to 13 tangas per month in order to provide some incentive and to
remedy the shortage of artillery men.89 Similarly in 1681, the State Council
decided to check the defections of the crew of galley and deep sea ships
by raising the monthly allowance from 3 to 6 xerafins. After this reported
increment it was actually noticed that men who had gone over to the English
settlement of Bombay were coming back into Portuguese service.90
The pay procedure was controlled by three separate departments, namely
the General Registration Office (Matricula Geral), the House of Accounts
(Casa dos Contos) and the Factory (Feitoria). Everyone on the State payroll had to have his name, designation, employment order and nature of
salary registered in the muster roll of the General Registration Office. Even
facial marks for the purpose of identification were noted down in these
registers. The House of Accounts did the auditing of accounts of the various
departments and all the high-ranking officials had to submit to it their
quarterly, yearly and three-yearly accounts. When any of these officers
ended his term, a judicial inquiry was conducted to certify that he had
carried out his duties in keeping with his office regulations, and the House
of Accounts had to issue a clearance certificate stating that he owed no
dues to the State. If an officer was found to have effected any payments
not sanctioned by the Government, he was required to make good the
damage to the public exchequer at his own expense. The factor was the
official who was directly responsible before the House of Accounts. Every
Portuguese settlement in the State of India had an administrative system
based on division of powers. While the Captain was the military head and
had an overall supervisory authority, there was a Judge to attend to the
administration of justice and a Factor to keep the accounts and to pay the
State employees.
In the city of Goa and its immediate suburbs the payments were effected by
the Factor every three months (quartel) after checking the General Registry
and after being satisfied with the actual service records kept by an apontador
to whom every payee had to present every month the service certificate
issued by his departmental head. In the neighbouring provinces of Bardez
and Salcete, the muster-roll was kept by the clerk assisting the province
Collector (Recebedor) and the payments were effected by the Collector.91
The higher authority to whom an appeal could be directed regarding the
payment of salaries, or for that matter regarding any financial problems,
126
was the Chief Revenue Superintendent (Vedor Geral da Fazenda), whose

authority ranked practically next to that of the viceroy or governor.92
As regards the form of payment the Portuguese followed a somewhat complicated system: The basic pay of the military and administrative rank and
file was known as soldo, which varied with the social rank of the beneficiary.
The equivalent of soldo when it was paid to a non-Portuguese employee
bore the designation of musara. All those who received soldo or musara
were also entitled to a maintenance allowance called mantimento in case of
Portuguese beneficiaries, and batta in case of the natives. Mantimento and
batta were calculated monthly, but while the mantimento was paid either in
cash or kind, batta was always paid in kind.93
The high-ranking officials, who had their offices by appointment, received
their salary calculated yearly and was known as ordenado. These officials
were not entitled to mantimento. However most of these officials derived
other benefits. Those who did not have Government quarters were paid
aposentadoria or house-rent, the least of which amounted to about a seventh of the amount paid as salary and the highest reached even to one-third
of the salary.94 The crew of the Carreira ships and some high-ranking administrative officials of the House of Accounts, enjoyed the privilege of sending
to Portugal on their account certain partly or fully duty-free liberty chests
and a fixed number of slaves.95
In keeping with the system of Crown Patronage (Padroado Real) also Church
servants received their pay from the Government. The pay was ordenado
or congrua when paid to the individual parish priests, but in the case of
Religisou Houses there were lump sums assigned to them as ordinrias,
which were calculated on the basis of their expenses for the celebration of
Church worship and the maintenance of the inmates.96
In addition to these forms of payment the wage-workers, say at the royal
dockyard, were paid frias or daily wages, which around 1607 amounted
to 12,000 xerafins per year.97 The workers were counted twice a day by the
keeper of the muster-roll and any time they were found absent during the
working hours was taken into account for the purpose of deducting it from
their pay. The payment was made in public if it was a small sum and in
private if the amount was big.98 In case of the natives employed by the
State or by private individuals to take care of horses, it was regulated by the
Government that they should never be paid their monthly salary of three
golden pardaus in advance, because they were used to squandering the
amount with their vices, and those who were not from the locality would
often disappear without giving any notice. It was, therefore, determined
that those who hailed from outside Goa should not be paid more than the
budgerooks they needed for their daily maintenance and one pardau at the
end of the month. But those who had their families in Goa were allowed to
be paid one pardau for every ten days in advance.99
127
A rule to be followed in making the payments was that the earner should
receive it directly in person. This rule does not appear to have been strictly
enforced because Diogo do Couto, who was a witness to the administrative
abuses, described at length the prevailing practice of selling the soldos or negotiating with them in several other ways.100 There were however instances
of payment being made officially to the families of those who worked far
away of their homes. Thus, for instance, the families of Ganoba Rane and
his 400 men from Bardez, who had gone to fight for the Portuguese in Ceylon in 1639, received an allowance paid from the revenues of the Bardez
customs.101 So also it was determined by the Public Revenue Department
in 1668 that the wives of the pangelis or non-Christian native sailors, who
served in the high-sea fleets, should be paid an allowance of one vintm
per day during the absence of their husbands.102 These instances give us a
glimpse into the humanitarian aspect of the Portuguese pay-system.
The pay-system did not entirely lack a somewhat feudalistic approach in
the sense that at least until the early part of the seventeenth century the
religious orders engaged in the missionary work in the provinces of Bardez
and Salcete continued to administer the lands that were taken away from
the Hindu temples and donated to the Church. It was not without a stiff
legal fight that the Jesuits relinquished the lands which they possessed
in Salcete in 1646.103 But the Religious in the rural areas as well as in the
city wielded strong control over the population and constituted a veritable
empire within an empire. This was particularly true of the Jesuits, who were
known to organise popular resistance to State impositions which affected
their interests.104 The Religious had a real feudal type of hold upon the
villages in which they exercised their spiritual ministries, and much more
so in the villages which were given to them as grants.105 They would often
take village community lands on cheap leases and then sublet the lands for
every profitable rentals.106 In the suburban villages as well as in the city, the
Religious were the major clients of the fish-sellers, but as Captain Hamilton
has expressed it crudely, the Church was not feeding on fish miraculously,
for the poor fishers dare not sell till the Priesthood is first served.107
Another form of payment which continued in vogue during the seventeenth
century was that of granting monopoly rights to conduct trade voyages.
Thus, for instance, when the Jesuits represented to the Crown in 1644 that
their comrades in China had not received their pension for nearly thirty
years and that these arrears amounted to about 60,000 xerafins, it was decided by the Overseas Council in Lisbon that they could be paid one-fourth,
or 15,000 xerafins in cash, and in lieu of the rest they could have the profits
of a trade voyage to Mozambique.108
Finally, the State payments also took the form of moradias or houseallowances to all the fidalgos serving in India. In 1682, there were 108
fidalgos receiving a total amount of 221,191 ris by way of moradias. It
was decided by the Overseas Council that owing to difficulties of the exche-
128
quer that soldo and moradia should not be paid to the fidalgos at the same
time.109 Of the category of moradia, but larger sums were paid by way of
pensions (tenas and comedias) to widows of good many fidalgos and to
State guests.110
The salaries and allowances paid to all who were on State pay-roll at Goa
were drawn from the revenues of Goa itself. Each category of employees
had its salaries and allowances consignated in definite heads of revenue.
Thus, the employees of the royal hospital and of the House of Accounts
were paid from the import duties on betel and foodstuffs (mantimento e
betre), the officials of justice were paid from the Chancery income (renda
da Chancelaria), the ministers of the Holy Inquisition were paid from the
income derived from spice imports (renda de especiaria), the Archbishop
and his Chapter were paid from the quit-rents of Bardez (foros de Bardez),
the income of every toll-booth supported the garrison defending it, and so
on. There were comparatively few officials who had no definite types of
revenue to provide for their pay. In this group were surprisingly included the
viceroy, the vedor, the factor, the State treasurer, and some other important
officials, which suggests that those who controlled the moneys knew the
advantages of being out of the regular system. Perhaps the fluctuating values
of the various rendas in which salaries were consignated had repercussions
which affected the interests of ministers at the helm of the administration.111
The fact that nearly three-fourths of the total income of the territory went
to feed the white bureaucracy, with the second large fund absorbed by the
Church and the defence organisation, meant that there were only crumbs for
the natives and their development. That was how Portuguese colonialism
was draining the land.
The mode of payment to the labour employed by private individuals depended upon mutual agreement between the employer and employee. The
guilds of the workers surely played an important role in determining the
mode and quantum of payment, but there are instances when the city and
State authorities also interfered. The control of the city authorities is discussed at length in the next few pages. Here follow a couple of instances
which illustrate State regulation on the matter: A viceregal decree had ordered in the closing years of the sixteenth century that no employee would
be allowed to seek redress of any dues in courts of law without having a
contract signed with his employers determining all the terms of service and
remuneration.112 Another contemporary order prohibited the native Christian artisans to continue the practice of celebrating weddings for fifteen
days. The decree restricted such celebrations to a single day in order to put
an end to the abuse of the artisans who took work on contract basis and
after taking advance-money left them pending.113
As regards the quantum of payment, it is possible to have a clearer picture
of the salaries and wages paid to the Government employees. The highest
129
pay was received by the viceroy and that amounted to 24,000 xerafins a year
at the beginning of the seventeenth century and rose up to 24,463 xerafins
at the end of the same century. The next highest salary was drawn by the
Archbishop who was paid 12,000 xerafins through the seventeenth century.
The Chief Revenue Superintendent and the Chief Secretary ranked third
and each received nearly 2,500 xerafins. The Chief Inquisitor and the Judges
of the High Court were the next highest recipients with about 1,500 xerafins
each. Almost all the other salaries were below 500 xerafins each and the
least paid menial workers received between 15 and 24 xerafins. Apparently
no provisions of salary had improved the income of the salaried employees,
while there had been nearly a 10% rise in the prices of essential commodities
in the course of the century, particularly from 1630 onwards.114
Prices of rice and wheat in the city of Goa
As regards the remuneration of the private employment sector, available

information is quite scarce. In terms of quarterly payments in the course
of the seventeenth century a barber received five xerafins, a cobbler four
xerafins, a washerman seven xerafins, a cook three xerafins, a pandit fifteen
xerafins, a palanquin or parasol bearer six xerafins. It is also interesting to
know that a washerman was paid one xerafim per wash, a baker received
130
two xerafins to make bread of one khandi of wheat flour given to him, and a
rope-weaver worked on eight maunds of coir for a xerafim and three tangas.
There is still another type of payment indication: The building charges of a
mason were four xerafins per braa (= 3 x 10 x 10 spans), a painter was paid
one xerafim and 15 ris for whitewashing two rooms, a carpenter contractor
received seventy-one and a half xerafins for doing the ceiling of a chapel,
a blacksmith was paid seven xerafins for casting an iron grill, and basketweavers were paid one xerafim and half for weaving some mats. These are
the limited data culled from the rare books of the household accounts of the
seventeenth century monasteries of Goa city.115
It may be recalled that most of the hard menial labour was supplied by the
slaves. Female slaves earned money by selling goods of their masters and
by engaging themselves in prostitution. Although these slaves managed to
hide a part of their earnings, they had to place all their earnings before their
masters at the end of a day or a week. The French traveller Mocquet who
was in the city during 1607-10 met there a Siamese slave who was selling
goods in the market, and for that work he received a measure of rice a day
and occasionally two budgerooks for buying curry for his rice.116
Market organisation
The splendor of the city of Goa and its glories as the queen of the Oriental
marts find exhaustive description in the travelogues of Linschoten and
Pyrard who lived here long enough to observe the details of its market
organisation and functioning. Linschoten writes that in Goa there is holden
a daily assemblie or meeting together, as well of the citizens and inhabitant,
as of all nations throughout India, and of the countries bordering on the
same, which is like the meeting upon the Burse of Antwerpe, yet differeth
much from that for that hither in Goa there come as well gentlemen, as
merchants and others, and there are all kinds of Indian commodities to sell,
so that in a manner it is like a Faire.117
Pyrard is more detailed in his description of the city market, particularly
with its slave commodities for sale. With his French eye for female beauty,
Pyrard had found that many of the young slave girls brought from different
parts of India were very attractive, and he describes in a lascivious style the
possibility of buying some virgin slave girls after confirming their virginity
with the help of ladies available for the purpose. He sums up his impression of the city market by saying that it was an emporium and a port of
disembarkment for the whole of India.118
Some other finer details in the above travelogues catch our attention and
call for a more elaborate description of the market organisation in the Goa
131
city. The references to specified areas for shops and workshops, the presence of merchants of different nationalities, the existence of city brokers,
the practice of issuing monopoly rights for dealing in different kinds of
commodities and revenues, including the collection of market fines, the
fixation of pries of essential commodities, the licensing of money-exchequer
to help in speeding market transactions, the existence of a baratilha or postsunset market for selling stolen goods, all these point to a complex market
organisation.
It is clear from the proceeding survey of the various groups of the city population and their relative role in the city economy that neither of the two
economically dominant groups had administrative control over the market. This control was in the hands of the Portuguese married settlers who
were largely a multitude of consumers, while Portuguese Jews and native
Hindus controlled most of the economy as traders, merchants, tax-farmers
and artisans. In such circumstances the city administrators exercised their
privileged position to protect the interests of the large consumer segment
of the city population, protecting the other groups only to the extent that it
was unavoidable and necessary for keeping the consumers supplied with
the necessities as required by the town policy of provisionism.
In its bid to control the market, the municipal authorities clashed time and
again with the mercantilist State policies, and sometimes also with the personal interests of the viceroys in India. Thus, for instance, the municipality
was never fully allowed to meddle with the mechanism of the seaborne
trade. More than once, the request of the municipality to the Crown to let
it have its brokers to control the Goa-based trade had been set aside.119
The State authorities had also refused to consider seriously the repeated
complaints of the municipality against the all-absorbing business skill and
capacity of the Jewish businessmen.120
Clashes with the personal interests of the viceroys took place generally on
the issue of the small denomination currency which affected the market
prices. Too often, in course of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
viceroys and governors tried to make profits by using their own metal to
issue debased currency; and since the city market had to import most of
the essential commodities, price inflation was necessary sequel to absorb
the monetary debasement. The crisis was normally enhanced by the blackmarketeers who waited for the opportunity to put into flow more and more
fake currency, which was made easier by the rudimentary character of the
minting technique. Apparently, all complaints of the municipal authorities and all the royal orders issued to meet the problem do not appear
to have provided a satisfactory solution until the end of the period under
consideration.121
The municipality had developed a three-pronged market control mechanism, namely import control, production control and distribution control.
132
This was achieved through municipality posturas incorporated into viceregal decrees and confirmed by royal orders. The municipality had its own
full-fledged body of officials to implement them.
Import control was exercised with regard to essential food commodities
and raw materials for domestic production. All food items imported from
anywhere had to be disembarked and taken to the enclosure of the Customs
House (Terreiro de Mandovi) within six, or at the most fifteen days, after the
arrival of the grain or other material bringing vessels into the city port. Every
precaution was taken to prevent forestalling, engrossing or regrating in these
essential commodities. Thus, for instance, in December 1633, the city judge,
Gonalo Borges Veloso, was sent to Kanara settlements to conduct inquiry
into the abuses that were taking place at that end regarding the import of
rice into Goa. As a result of the judicial inquiry six Portuguese, one native
Christian and two non-Christian Brahmins were arrested and brought in
chains to Goa for being found guilty of re-selling the grain for much higher
prices.122 Care was also taken about convoying the grain-bringing vessels
right into the Goa port and no private vessel was allowed to approach them
at any stage of the way in order to prevent diversion of goods.123 These
preventive operations were carried out by a special body created after the
introduction of Collecta duty on food imports in 1623.124
The control over the import of raw materials utilised by the city artisans was
also essential. It directly benefited the town artisans, but also brought to
consumers a regular supply of goods at moderate prices. The immediate
benefit is evident from the fact that the cobblers and tanners themselves had
taken the initiative and come to an agreement with the men of the slaughterhouse. The former would provide the latter with advance money that would
be sufficient for them to buy cattle for one full year, and the latter in turn
were obliged to sell the hide to the former at a mutually agreed rate.125 In
order to prevent indiscriminate imports that might lead to competition
among the guild members the municipality also had regulations enacted
to the effect that no raw materials could be imported and sold without first
contacting the judge and inspector of the guild concerned.126
Production control was aimed at protecting the consumer against adulteration of goods and fraud. The inspectors for every guild were instructed
to tour the areas within their professional jurisdiction and to check the
quality or wares and destroy those which were found to be sub-standard.
To make this checking easier and to prevent competition among the guild
members it was required that all artisans of the same craft of all merchants
trading in similar goods should live along the roads assigned to them by the
municipality. During the seventeenth century there was apparently a strong
tendency on the part of certain artisan elements to evade the prevailing
control by choosing to have their workshops outside the areas assigned to
their profession.127
133
With regard to the standard quality of wares, it was either established in

the posturas or in the clauses of the licenses issued to the artisans. Thus,
for instance, we come across details regarding the measurements which
various roof-tiles had to have.128 Incidentally, these tile manufacturers were
not working in the city but in the suburban villages and in the neighbouring
province of Bardez. Hence, the production control extended even outside
the city limits.
Finally, the distribution control was carried out through price-fixation, and
through checks on weights and measures, at least in the case of essential
commodities. Thus, for instance, as soon as food-grains and oils were disembarked and taken to the enclosure of the Customes House, any importer
who did not have thirty khandis or more to show had the price fixed by
the judge of the market (juiz do terreiro), whose clerk issued the price-tags
with date of issue on them to be placed on the containers of grain or other
materials for sale. These price-tags were valid for two months in the case of
ghee, butter and oil.129 Attention was also paid in a special way to the supply
of beef and fish. There was a house with weights and scales where one could
have the commodities purchased re-weighed.130 The beef prices were regulated taking into account the representations of the meat-cutters regarding
the difficulties of obtaining cattle from the mainland.131 As regards fish, it
was determined in the municipality posturas that there should not be more
than one middleman between the fish-catchers and the consumers. Anyone
caught selling fish to another middleman was liable to a fine of ten xerafins
the first time and twenty xerafins the second time. If caught a third time, the
culprit lost his job and would be whipped for three hours at a public square
with the fish strung around his neck.132 Apparently this postura enacted
in1618 had not solved the problems connected with the fish supply. There
were licensed fish-vendors who were exploiting their monopoly rights by
disposing the greater and the best part of their fish straight from their residence for the benefit of the Convents and their well-wishers. The remaining
fish they would salt and dry without caring to send any fresh fish to the
market. In order to put an end to this severe inconvenience caused to the
general public the municipality determined in 1664 that there should not
be any more licensed fish vendors.133
In order to exercise the multiple controls described above the municipality
had three types of officials, namely almotacels, jurados and zeladores. Two
almotacels or market inspectors were appointed by the municipal board every two months, and their duties were to inspect the foodstuffs brought into
the town for sale; to see that they were sold at the market price when this was
fixed; to ensure that the vendors used standard weights and measures; and
to ensure that the artisans and journeymen did not charge more for their
labour than they were authorised by the municipal and guild regulations.134
The almotacels were helped in the task of inspection by four sworn-accusers
(jurados) who issued violation-chits to the culprits and collected surety
134
from them if they feared that the culprit might abscond. Once a week those
charged by the sworn-accusers were brought by the latter to market control room where the almotacels judged the cases and fined the violators
if necessary. The cash collected by way of fines was submitted to the city
attorney. A sworn-accuser was given one-third of the fines as his remuneration. Over and above the sworn-accusers and the almotacels there were two
zeladores or general superintendents elected once a year to check whether
the almotacels and the jurados were doing their duties conscientiously.135
Whenever the right of collecting the market fines was farmed out as renda
do verde, as it was done during most of the seventeenth century, the farmer
could arrest the violators of market regulations and produce them before
the almotacels in the market control room (cazinha). In case an almotacel was not available the tax-farmer could take the prisoner to the State
prison known as sala das bragas where he could keep the arrested party
for not more than twenty-four hours before bringing him to the competent
authorities.136 In order to curb the tendency of the tax-farmers to accuse
people without sufficient reason it was determined in the municipality posturas that no close relative of the tax-farmer could be allowed to act as
his clerk or sworn-accuser. If the almotacels suspected the character of
a sworn-accuser they could order the tax-farmer or his sworn-accuser to
produce two other witnesses, who had to be either Portuguese or native
Christians.137
R EFERENCES
1. Falco, Livro em que se contem toda a fazenda, 78 ff.; HAG: Ms 3068
(Regimento de Ordenados); APO-BP, T. IV, Vol. II, p. 1: 224 ff.; HAG: Mones
46A, fls. 113-7; Mones 54, fls. 24-39; Mones 55B. fls. 468-81v: It is clear
from these lists of State expenditure at various times during the seventeenth
century that almost all the income was spent on administrative bureaucracy,
ecclesiastics, and on military expeditions.
2. Arago, DGHM, III, 576-7: The only meager exports of Goa were coconuts, areca and salt. No items which constituted the mainstay of the
Portuguese Asiatic trade were obtained locally. Cf. AHU: India, Caixa 5,
doc. 32 (14.ii.1619): contains a suggestion made by the royal attorney in
India, Pedro Alvares Pereira, to the effect that the people of Goa should be
encouraged to grow pepper to provide cargo at least for one ship of the
Carreira every year. There is no evidence to prove that this suggestion was
ever taken up.
3. Walbank, The Decline of the Roman Empire in the West: presents a theory
of decline which reflects very much the situation that obtained in Goa.
135
4. HAG: Ms 860 (Cartas do alforria); Fonseca, An Historical and Archaeological Sketch of the City of Goa, 251; Wicki, O Livro do Pai dos Cristos,
318-9.
5. Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century, 95.
6. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 477.
7. HAG: Ms 7747 (Acordos da Camara, 1603-8), fl. 148v; Pissurlencar,
ACE, I, 129; Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa, 18; ARSJ, Goa 33, II, 648: gives a
description of the explosion in the Powder House on 22nd August, 1621.
It happened to be a Sunday, a market holiday, which accounted for lesser
number of people killed in the surroundings of the explosion area.
8. HAG: MS 1129 (Peties Despachadas do Conselho da Fazenda, n. 3), fls.
138v-9.
9. Pyrard, Viagem, II, 93.
10. Couto, O Soldado Prtico, 96.
11. Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 158; III, 12, 185: IV, 53, 62, 121. In 1660s the number
of the Portuguese soldiers at Goa was barely reaching 600.
12. HAG: Ms 1369 (Fianas, n. 1), fls. 40v, 165, 166v, 175; Ms 1371 (Fianas,
n. 2), fls. 146v, 148, 149v, 154-4v; Pissurlencar, ACE, I, 129.
13. App. A-8, A-11.
14. APO-CR, I, P. 2: 74, 81-2.
15. Magalhes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, 584;
Bulho Pato, DRI, I, 200.
16. Pissurlencar, ACE, IV, 434.
17. Pyrard, op. cit., 158; Frazo de Vasconcelos, Subsdios para a histria da
Carreira da India no tempo dos Filipes, passim.
18. AHU: India, Caixa 13, doc. 5 (i.i.1638): It is a detailed description of the
royal shipyard by the State Engineer, Manoel Homem de Pina. Cf. Pyrard,
op. cit., 35-7.
20. HAG: Mones 14, fls. 165v-6.
21. HAG: Ms. 1498 (Ordens Rgias), fls. 33-33v.
22. AHU: India, Caixa 17, doc. 89 (29.xii.1644).
23. AHU: Ms 33, fls. 43-43v; Caixa 11, doc. 53 (20.ii.1635).
24. Boxer, PSE, 299: Couto, op. cit., 94-5; APO-CR, V, 1330-1.
25. Boxer, op. cit., 299-300; Pissurlencar, ACE, II, 36; Pyrard, op. cit., 98-100.
136
26. HAG: Ms 7746 (Senado: Cartas Rgias), fl. 37v; App. A-11.
27. AR, I, 30-1; Pyrard, op. cit., 93-4.
28. APO-CR, V, 911; VI, 1171; Wicki, O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 77-8.
29. AR, II, 569, 571, 639-46.
30. Ibid., 545; AHU: India, Caixa 23 doc. 25 (13.ii.1655).
31. APO-CR, VI, 998, 1121; AR, I, 24, 30-1; II, 609-10, 573, 582.
32. APO-CR, VI, 1059-60; AHU: India, Caixa 4, doc. 147 (20.ii.1616); Pissurlencar, ACE, III, 251.
33. Pyrard, op. cit., 98-9.
34. HAG: Mss 7832, 7856, 7852: passim.
35. There were half a dozen of religious orders (Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustianians, Carmelites, Theatines), each having more than one
sumptuous edifice in the city. Cf. The Travels of Pietro della Valle, I, 155-6;
Mandelslos Travels, 62-71; Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, I, 143:
I have stood on a little Hill near the City, and have counted about eighty
Churches, Convents and Monasteries within view. Cf. Saldanha, Histria de
Goa, II, 60, 64, 84, 132: references to fire accidents in the Religious houses.
36. Wicki, DI, VIII, 316. It is also interesting to note that in the small and
dirty houses there lived 15 to 20 natives. It gives an idea of the household
members in the native inhabited areas of the city.
37. Pyrard, op. cit., 47-8; Falco, Livro, 82 ff., passim.
38. Pyrard, op. cit., 28; HAG Ms 7795 (Livro do Posturas), fl. 45.
39. HAG: Ms 7757 (Senado: Registos das Cartas), fls. 37-8.
40. Wheeler, Early Travels in India, 168; Pyrard, op. cit., 13.
41. Wheeler, op. cit. 168-9; Pyrard, op. cit., 54-6.
42. Pyrard, II, 13, 57; Wheeler, op. cit., 187.
43. Wheeler, op. cit., 179; Purard, II, 86; Comentarios de Garcia de y Figueroa,
I, 202-4; Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia, II, 26-8.
44. Wheeler, op. cit., 204; Fryer, op. cit., 27.
45. Pyrard, II, 100; Fryer, op. cit., 22; Boxer, op. cit., 300.
46.Wheeler, op. cit., 179; APO-CR, IV, 267; Mandelslos Travels, 81; Pyrard, II,
52.
47. Wicki, DI, XI, 364-5.
48. Linschoten, I, 230; Viriato de Albuquerque, O Senado de Goa, 423-5;
Wicki, O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, 190-1; Pissurlencar, Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa, 52.
137
49. HAG: Ms 7696 (Senado: Registos Gerais, 1609-23), fls. 47v-8, 119v; APF:
Scrit. Orig. 231, fls. 231 ff.
50. Comentarios de Garcia de y Figueroa, II, 487.
51. Wicki, DI, X, 401; Manucci, Storia do Mogor, III, 162-3.
52. Sen (ed.), Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri, 188.
53. Pyrard, II, 48.
54. AHU: India, Caixa 31, doc. 93 (13.i.1681); HAG: Mones 53, fls. 25v ff.
55. AR, II, 627-30, 651-2.
56. Pyrard, II, 50, 72.
57. Humbert, Some Answers of the Generals of the Society of Jesus to the
Province of Goa, AHSJ, July-December 1966: 336, 341.
58. Falco, Livro, 86, 91; HAG: Mones 85, fl. 59v.
59. APO-CR, III, P.1: 466; Pyrard, II, 85; AHU: India, Caixa 5, doc. 150
(6.xi.1618).
60. Boxer, Fidalgos Portugueses e Bailadeiras Indianas, in Revista da
Histria, n. 56. So Paulo, 1961: 83-105; Fryer, op. cit., 19; Manucci, op. cit.,
III, 278-9; Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri 199, Ajuda: Ms 51-VII-27.
61. Basham, The Wonder that was India, 219; Kosambi, The Culture and
Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline, 196.
62. Moraes, The Kadamba Kula, 283-6.
63. Wicki, DI, I, 86.
64. Wicki, DI, IV, 324.
65. Ibid., 686.
66. Langhan, As Corporaes dos Officios Mecnicos, I, xiii-xxi.
67. Ibid., xvii-xviii, xxi, xlvi-xlvii.
68. Ibid., lxiii.
69. Ibid., lxvii-lxviii.
70. Ibid., lxxiii-lxxiv.
71. HAG: Ms 7737 (Acordos e Assentos da Camara de Goa).
72. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas, 1808-1832) fl. 2. It is a 19th century
copy.
73. HAG: Mss 7750-7 (Cartas Patentes), 7696-7704 (Registos Gerais), 7738-40,
7747-8, 7765-6, 7786-7 (Acordos e Asentos do Senado).
138
74. HAG: Ms 7795, fl. 28v.

75. Ibid., fls. 49-50.
76. Ibid., fl. 20
77. Ibid., fl. 16v.
78. Ibid., fls. 16v-17.
79. Loc. cit.
80. Ibid., fl. 22.
81. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fl. 57.
82. Ibid., 55-55v; APO-CR, V, 1525.
83. HAG: Ms 7795, fl. 65.
84. Ibid., fl. 65v.
85. Appendix B-13.
86. Appendix B-15.
87. Pissurlencar (ed.), Regimentos das Fortalezas da India, 15 ff.; Aubin (ed.)
Le Orcamento do Estado da India de Antonio de Abreu, in STUDIA, n. 4,
Lisboa, Julho, 1959: 169-289.
88. HAG: Ms 3068 (Regimento de Ordenados, 1626), fl. 22. Rather than
raising the existing salaries, the purpose of the new Regimento was to cut
down the general expenditure.
89. APO-CR, VI, 1235.
90. HAG: Mones 46A, fl. 505.
91. Pissurlencar, op. cit., 140-1, 151-2; APO-CR, V, 1325 ff., 1181 ff., provide
details regarding the functioning of the Registration Office and of the House
of Accounts respectively.
92. HAG: Mones 53, fls. 49-52: a detailed description of the powers of
a Chief Revenue Comptroller in the Portuguese State of India during the
seventeenth century.
93. Boxer, PSE, 299; Wheeler, op. cit., 173.
94. HAG: Ms 3068, fl. 72; Cf. supra n. 1.
95. HAG: Ms 2358 (Alvars e Cartas Rgias, 1610-45), fl. 299; Mones 22A,
fls. 201-3; Cf. supra n. 1.
96. Cf. supra n. 1; Boxer, op. cit., 230-50.
97. Falco, op. cit., 90, HAG: Ms 2316, fl. 104 a (1683); blacksmiths at the
dockyard were paid 4 to 6 vintens/day each.
139
98. Pyrard, II, 36.

99. APO-CR, III, P. 2: 554-5.
100. Couto, O Soldado Prtico, 87 ff.
101. HAG: ACF, V, fls. 66-7.
102. HAG: ACF, II, fl. 190v.
103. HAG: ACF, VI, fls. 201-2.
104. AHU: India, Caixa 21, doc. 119 (22.xii.1651); Tdt: DRI. 35, fl. 50; App.
A-4.
105. Brotria Library (Lisboa): Box n. 7 contains photocopies of 17 folios of
MS containing complaints of the inhabitants of the Assolna village against
the Jesuit overlords.
106. App. A-4.
107. Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, I, 142. Cf. Appendix A-4.
108. AHU: India, Caixa 13, doc. 1 (1.i.1638); Caixa 16, doc. 99 (14.iii.1644).
109. AHU: India, Caixa 31, doc. 179 (25.i.1682).
110. AHU: Ms 219, fls., 14v, 15v, 26, 36, 38v-39v, 50.
111. Loc. cit.
112. APO-CR, III, p. 1: 469-70.
113. Ibid., 659-60.
114. Cf. supra n. 1, AHU, Caixa 27, doc. 78 (Jan 28, 1666); HAG: MS 7738; fl.
199v.
115. HAG: Mss 1202, 2088, 2740, 2765, 2785, 4397, 4395-6, 7876, 7878, 7880
(Papis dos Conventos Extintos).
116. Magalhes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, 584.
117. Wheeler, op. cit., 169.
118. Pyrard, II, 51, 58.
119. APO-CR, I, p. 2: 65-6; AHU: India, Caixa 16, doc. 168 (21.ix.1644).
120. APO-CR, I, p. 1: 102, 106, 112, 119, 121; p. 2: 44, 57, 64-5, 204-5:
AHU: India, Caixa 4, doc. 138 (6.i.1617): Caixa 6, doc. 32 (14.ii.1619); HAG:
Mones 20, fl. 28.
121. Arago, Descripo Geral e Histrica das Moedas, III, 515-6; 576-7.
122. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fl. 3v; Ms 7846 (Registo dos Alvars e
Provises), fls. 82v-4.
140
123. HAG: Ms 7758 (Senado: Termos de Assentos e Juramentos, fl. 231.

124. HAG: Ms 7738 (Acordos da Camara, 1629-32), fls. 213v-5.
125. HAG: Ms 7701 (Registos Gerais, 1648-57), fl. 58v.
126.HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fl. 58v.
127. HAG: Ms 7846 (Alvars e Provises de Sua Magestade e dos Vicereis), fls.
37-38v; Ms 7745 (Registos das Cartas Rgias, 1630-1710), fl. 5v.
128. HAG: Ms 7786 (Camara: Diversos, 1610-1704), 67-67v.
129. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fls. 3v-4.
130. APO-CR, II, 129; HAG: Ms 7697 (Senado: Registos Gerais, 1629-31), fls.
111-111v.
131. HAG: Ms 7695 (Senado: Registos Gerais, 1570-92), fl. 266; Ms 7738
(Acordos da Camara, 1629-32), fls. 342-3; Ms 7739 (Acordos da Camara,
1655-62), fl. 270; Ms 7757 (Senado: Registos Gerais, 1680-88), fl. 38.
132. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fl. 81.
133. App. B-11.
134. Boxer, PST, 7.
135. HAG: Ms 7701 (Senado: Registos Gerais, 1648-57), fls. 50-1v.
136. HAG: Ms 7836 (Senado: Livro de Termos, 1650-88), fls. 224-5.
137. HAG: Ms 7795 (Livro de Posturas), fls. 31-2v.
Chapter 8
Overview and Preview

was ever established for the benefit of the native
subjects. The empire initiated by Afonso de Albuquerque in the East
was no exception to this rule.
O COLONIAL EMPIRE
In his longest and most eloquent letter written to his king on 1st April, 1512,
we see how Goa was for him the key to control the East: There we have a
detailed enumeration of the factors that qualified Goa in his eyes for that
place in his strategy.1 Unlike the planners in distant Portugal envisaging a
floating empire, Albuquerque sees the need of grounding it: Your highness
ought not to entrust the safety of India to a fleet cruising the seas, because
much will be spent on small fleet for small returns. . . Your highness must
stick to the land and gain a firm foothold there, and only then will these
Muslims lose heart.2
Hence, the Portuguese maritime empire was not to be very watery in content.
It was to be very much land-based exploiting the land, people and resources
of the Estado da India. It has been tried in this monograph to show this
unfolding of Albuquerques vision: The native ganvkars who were pleased
with the new rulers, as the Portuguese chronicler of the Discoveries, Joo
de Barros, tells us, did not have to wait too long to see the beginning of a
systematic usurpation of their lands and exploitation of their labour, skills
and resources.3
One may point to vast bibliography on Golden Goa, but I wish to quote
a recent author, who has rightly, though inadvertently, identified the beneficiaries of the Portuguese imperial fortunes: For Latins the city was a
paradise, a lotus eating island of the blest, where you could sit on your verandah listening to music as the breeze blew in from the sea, with humble folk
within call to minister to your every wish. No wonder it was called Golden.4
The lot of the native masses is described in a Jesuit report of 1687: They
are very poor and surviving on the income of labour which brings in just
CHAPTER 8. OVERVIEW AND PREVIEW
142
enough for bare sustenance.5 We have this contrast after two centuries of
Portuguese dispensation and the situation did not change thereafter. Incidentally, the above quote refers to the thoroughly Christianised population
of Salcete taluka and it can make one question whether keeping the natives
poor was a way of realizing the Gospel beatitudes preached to them.
There is evidence in this book to show that not all blame for the native
woes can be laid at the feet of the colonial rulers. Willingness on the part of
the native subjects to collaborate was not lacking, but this factor is being
misinterpreted in the wake of Goas liberation from colonialism, threatening
thereby to continue the evils of colonialism and the exploitation of one
section of population by another.
The misinterpretation seeks to identify Goan Christian community with the
former colonial exploiters. It is important to expose this communal undercurrent simply because it is there, even though the politicians have their
reasons to play it down or even to deny its existence. Also the chief motive
for re-writing this History of Goa, as stated clearly in the Preface, demands
some clarity of historical analysis in the light of the present situation and
future development of the Goan society.
It is important, therefore, to recall that Goa was captured by Albuquerque
with the active support of the local Hindu population.6 More recently, late
Prof. Pissurlencars well-documented Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa
na India tried to prove to the Portuguese rulers in their post-Republican
mood of religious tolerance that the Hindu community of Goa had served
the colonial interests with unremitting zeal and constancy.7 Such a scholarly
advocacy did help to win for the Hindu community a greater participation
in public service during the concluding decades of the Portuguese regime,
but it also established the truth that may give little comfort to those who
wish to make political capital out of their little knowledge of the past.8
The native collaboration that we are trying to stress was not limited to military, diplomatic and political fields; without an all-out collaboration of the
Hindu business community and entrepreneurial houses in the vital areas of
revenue administration and Goa-based trade, the history of Portuguese colonial exploitation of Goa might have been different, if not short-circuited.9
The purpose of this study has not been to build any case in favour of anyone,
but neither is it intended to add to the bibliography that can be classified
as tourist brochure history which would be satisfied in focusing the stagelights upon some surface attractions, leaving in the dark the stark realities
of our colonial legacy.
I do not claim to have done full justice to this purpose, neither can this be
expected in a work of limited scope like a doctoral dissertation. However, it
will have achieved much if it drives home the need of following the trend of
re-orienting the investigation into Goas past with a purpose of helping the
reconstruction and development of Goan society.
CHAPTER 8. OVERVIEW AND PREVIEW
143
Medieval Goa has only a modest goal, namely to set a research trend and
to begin a discussion that may help us to cease to remain medieval. It can
be hoped that the Goa University will be interested in promoting wider and
deeper analysis into the socio-economic past of Goa in order to help the
efforts at socio-economic reconstruction of liberated Goa.
We need to recognise that in the course of the two decades after liberation,
Goans have been awakened from their medieval slumber. Also measures
have been adopted or initiated to do away with some socio-economic structures that have clearly outlived their usefulness, or appear positively harmful
in the new context. But there is still a long way to go, and a better understanding of our past should help us to move further and quicker without
fearing the danger of having to retrace our steps.
R EFERENCES
1. Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, I, ed. Bulho Pato. Lisboa, 1884; 29-65.
2. APO-BP, Bk IV, Vol. I, Part I: 389.
3. Barros, Dcada II, L05, Cap.0 10.
4. Collis, M., The Land of the Great Image, London, 1946: 32.
5. ARSJ: Goa 35, fls. 316-40.
6. Pissurlencar, Collaboradores Hindus de Afonso de Albuquerque, BIVG,
n. 49 (1941): 22-42.
7. Pissurlencar, Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa na India, Bastora, 1952.
8. Noronha, A. de, Os Indus de Goa e a Repblica Portuguesa, in A India
Portuguesa, Nova Goa, 1923: II, 211-368.
9. Pearson, M. N., Wealth and Power: Indian Groups in the Portuguese
Indian Economy, South Asia, n. 3 (Aug. 1973); De Souza, T.R., Glimpses
of Hindu Dominance of Goan Economy in the 17th Century, Indica XII
(March 1975): 27-35, Goa-based Portuguese Sea-borne Trade in the Early
Seventeenth Century, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, XII
(1975): 433-442.
Bibliographical Essay
HIS SURVEY OF SOURCES does not exhaust all the source-material that has
gone into the writing of this monograph. It is restricted to introducing

only the primary sources, both published and archival. All the important
and relevant secondary sources have been listed in the Bibliography.
The published primary sources have been discussed under four headings,
namely: 1. Official Chronicles; 2. Missionary Reports; 3. Travelogues; and
4. State Papers. Also the treatment of the archival sources is broken into: 1.
The Archival Sources in Goa; and 2. The Archival Sources in Europe. Each of
these two divisions is further subdivided into: 1. Papers from State Archives;
and 2. Papers from Private Collections.
Whatever primary sources are discussed in this Chapter have been consulted personally and their information has been utilised for writing this
monograph. Obviously, during these past three decades new studies have
become available, and I have tried to take note of some of them in this
new edition. None of these though make it necessary to change our earlier
analysis or conclusions.
A. Published primary sources

1. Official Chronicles
Castanhedas Histria do Descobrimento1 , Correas Lendas2 , and Barross
Dcadas3 are excellent chronicles written during the sixteenth century to
celebrate the maritime achievements of the Portuguese in the East. The
authors were self-appointed chroniclers, though patronised by the State.
However, it was at the end of the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese
had practically stopped making history in Asia that they seriously took to
writing it. Accordingly, a royal order of February 25, 1595 instructed the
viceroy Mathias de Albuquerque to create a Department of Archives and to
appoint Diogo do Couto its first Keeper and State Chronicler.4
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
145
Diogo do Couto (1542-1616) had been brought up in the royal court, but he
was not of noble birth and had to face rigorous opposition in a world where
promotion was the handmaid of blood. Couto came to India as an ordinary
soldier in 1559 and served for several years in the coastal fleets until he got
married and settled down in Goa with a cozier job as Keeper of Government
Stores.
This job and the style of the historical accounts he had begun publishing on
his own won for him a host of enemies. If it had not been for the personal
interest taken in him by the viceroy Dom Francisco da Gama (1597-1600),
Couto would have never obtained sanction of his appointment as the Keeper
of Archives and State Chronicler.5
On his own initiative Couto had begun writing the history of the Portuguese
in India following the style of the past chroniclers. He had started with
Dcada X, that is, with the accession of Philip II of Spain to the throne of
Portugal. It was a shrewd move designed to flatter the Crown.
When he sent the manuscript of this Dcada to the King, he also included
a request to be given officially the commission of resuming the writing
of Dcadas from where Barros had stopped his work. This request was
granted, but after much delay caused by the opposition and intrigues of
his enemies. His Dcadas rank from the fourth to the twelfth and cover the
period 1526-1600. The fact that he wrote also about contemporary events
and personalities and told truths bluntly was responsible for the loss and
mutilation of several manuscripts of his Dcadas.6
Couto has also left a pungent commentary upon his own formal history. It is
known as Dilogo do Soldado Prtico and exposes the rampant corruption
at all levels of administration. Undoubtedly one has to make allowance for
Coutos exaggerations and biting remarks against the system of administration which was responsible for his sufferings, but even so this work of Couto
stands out as a sincere and frank denunciation of injustice and corruption
in the Portuguese Indian administration.
Couto attributes the decline of the Portuguese power to corruption in administration and pleasure-seeking in personal lives. In his own peculiar
style Couto says that India turned turtle when the administrators stopped
carrying arms and embarking in fleets and chose instead the delights of Goa
city and the posts of public revenue comptrollers and chancellors of the
High Court. 7
He then recommends the return to the old fighting simplicity as the only way
of staying off a total collapse. It is to be noted however that after drawing a
bleak picture of the Portuguese Indian empire, Couto ends by repeating (as
the previous Chroniclers had done) that the presence of the Portuguese in
the East was by divine dispensation, and if the Portuguese would only renew
their faith in their mission, God was still powerful to thwart the designs of
the Gentiles and the Moors.8
146
Antonio Bocarro was a crypto-Jew from Portugal. He succeeded Couto as

State Chronicler and as Keeper of Goa Archives due to the far-sighted and
tolerant policy of the viceroy Count of Linhares (1629-35) in 1631. Bocarro
had come to India in 1615. When not taking part in the fleets, he was mostly
at Cochin, where he had married and settled down in 1624.
At Cochin, he had been drawn back into Judaism, which he finally decided
to abjure voluntarily, and on the advice of his Jesuit confessor went to Goa
to make his confession before the Inquisition. This happened in February
1624.
During his stay at Goa he was recommended to the viceroy Count of Linhares, who had no hesitation about according favours to the Cristos Novos
(or converts from Judaism) hated by the public. He was officially appointed
chronicler and successor to Couto on May 9, 1631. He held the post until
his death in 1642 or 1643.9
Among other works of lesser importance, Bocarro wrote Dcada XIII covering the years 1612-17, that is, the five years of the viceroyalty of D. Jernimo
de Azevedo.10 In reality Bocarros Dcada supplies information also for the
period 1609-12 of the rule of Ruy Loureno. This work of Bocarro was not
published until 1876.
The narrative is largely concentrated on Portuguese naval engagements in
the Gulf of Cambay and there is very little on Goa. The only noteworthy
information is about the introduction of compulsory military training for
the natives in the villages of Salcete. All men above the age of eighteen and
below the age of sixty were organised into companies and imparted military
training in their respective villages.
Twice a year general parades were held at Rachol, where the Captain of
Salcete taluka had his fortified residence.11 These developments give us
some idea of the impact of the colonial wars of the Portuguese upon the
lives of the Goan people.
Bocarros more valuable contribution is his encyclopaedic book containing
designs of all the forts, towns, settlements in the Oriental State of India along
with descriptions of their sites and of all they contain, such as artillery, garrisons, population, income and expenditure, depths of the sea approaches,
neighbouring princes in the hinterland, their strength and our relations
with them, and whatever else that is subject to the Crown of Spain.
The author has done full justice to the lengthy title of his work, and much
of the statistical information it supplies regarding trade, wages and prices
is unobtainable elsewhere. The Book was improved upon by his collaborator Pero Barreto Rezende, the Secretary of the General Registration office
(matricola geral), who added maps to Bocarros descriptions of the various
Portuguese eastern settlements.
147
At least four manuscripts of this work have been so far traced in four different Archives of Europe: the Public Library of Evora (Portugal), the British
Museum, the National Library of Madrid, and the National Library of Paris.12
Only the Evora Ms. has been edited by A. B. de Bragana Pereira in his Arquivo Portugus Oriental, but a more a more critical edition remains a prime
desideratum.13
Following the death of Bocarro, the Archives at Goa did not find a worthy
successor to continue his work. A certain Francisco Moniz de Carvalho
occupied the post for nearly three decades, but he was apparently kept in
office for being old (over sixty) and paralytic.14 Hence, the Department of
Archives had become a haven for parasites. As reported to Lisbon in 1655,
the said archivist continued in office until he was seventy years old and had
produced no significant piece of writing.15
In a letter dated January 15, 1667, the viceroy requested the Crown to let
him find a Jesuit or some other talented Religious to resume the writing of
official history with a nominal stipend of 100 cruzados. The same letter also
described the pitiable condition of the Archives Office.16 A certain Antnio
Gil Preto was then appointed as Chronicler, but no work of his pen has come
to our notice.17 The job of the Keeper of the Archives was separated from
that of State Chronicler, and c. 1669 a certain Antonio de Mattos Soeiro was
appointed to serve in this post during his life-time.18
2. Missionary reports
It is necessary to distinguish here between reports proper and contemporary
missionary histories. To the former category belong the Documenta Indica
edited by J. Wicki, S.J. and the Documentao para a Histria das Misses do
Padroado Portugus do Oriente: India edited by A da Silva Rego.
The Documenta Indica is the more carefully edited of the two and contains
Jesuit missionary reports preserved in the Jesuit Roman Archives. It also
includes corroborative and illustrative reports obtained from other repositories, chiefly from the Historical Archives of Goa. Although these reports,
like those in the Documentao, belong exclusively to the sixteenth century,
they have been most useful to reconstruct the indispensable background to
the present study.
The documentation for the history of the Portuguese Crown Patronage in
India is drawn substantially from the Archives of Lisbon and Goa, but it
also includes several documents already published elsewhere. Officially,
the period covered by this publication does not go beyond the sixteenth
century, but it does include documents which refer to the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.19
As regards the second category of the missionary accounts, there are three
important missionary histories composed in Goa during the seventeenth
148
century. The first of these is Sebastio Gonalvess Primeira Parte da Histria

dos Religiosos da Companhia de Jesus (Part One of the History of the Society
of Jesus), written during the years 1604-19.
The second one in chronological order of composition is Fr. Paulo de
Trindades Conquista Espiritual do Oriente (Spiritual conquest of the East)
written during 1630-36. And lastly Francisco de Souzas Oriente Conquistado
a Jesu Christo pelos Padres da Companhia de Jesus (The Conquest of the East
for Jesus Christ by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus) written during the last
decade of the seventeenth century.20
All the three missionary authors had spent most of their lives in India, particularly at Goa, and they were in close contact with the ordinary run of
the people to whom they sought to preach the message of the Gospels. Sebastio Gonalves was a Portuguese and Francisco de Souza a Brazillian.
They wrote about the missionary achievements of the Society of Jesus in the
East during the sixteenth century.
The work of Sebastio Gonalves remained unpublished until recent times
because of too many and lengthy digressions of non-religious nature.21 However, it is precisely because of these digressions that the work of Gonalves
was useful for our purpose. He informs us, for instance, that the yearly
land revenue of the Salcete and Bardez talukas was 60,000 and 15 to 20,000
pardaus respectively22 , that the rate of interest on loans in the villages of
Goa was calculated on monthly basis at fifty per cent23 , that Margo was
the chief village of Salcete and was frequented for cloths and foodstuffs24 ,
and many other details regarding local beliefs and customs.
Francisco de Souza does not carry his ecclesiastical history beyond 1585, but
provides several references to events which took place even in the closing
decades of the seventeenth century, and includes large tracts dealing with
secular history.
He records, for instance, Barros account about the origin of the Goan village communities, and then goes further, explaining the actual mode of
functioning of those institutions.25 He also refers to large scale mortality in
Salcete following the invasion of Goa by the Maratha ruler Sambhaji in 1683,
and he places the population of that province at the end of the seventeenth
century at somewhere around 70,000.26
While the Jesuits had concentrated their missionary efforts in Salcete, the
province of Bardez was a preserve of the Franciscan friars. The narrative
of the Franciscan successes constitutes the subject matter of Fr. Paulo de
Trindades Spiritual Conquest of the East.
Only the first volume is relevant for our study of Goa, while the other two
volumes cover the story of the Franciscan missions elsewhere in the East.
The author provides many side-lights which have proved useful for the study
of the socio-economic history of Goa.
149
There are, for instance, village-wise population figures for the convert population of Bardez, based on the Baptism registers.27 We are also informed that
Bardez taluka was made up originally of forty-eight villages and that some
of these were gradually incorporated into others and the total number was
reduced to forty villages, all of which paid to the State treasury an annual
land revenue of 31,842 tangas brancas, each such tanga being equivalent to
a half xerafim or 150 ris.28
3. Travelogues
Recorded impressions of European travelers who visited the city of Goa
between the closing decades of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
also constitute valuable evidence for reconstructing the past of Goa.
These travelogues complement the missionary accounts by adding descriptions of urban life to the missionary portrayals of the rural life. Unlike the
tourists of our days, the Europeans who visited Goa in the seventeenth
century were not attracted by the idyllic beauty of the Goan villages; by and
large they restricted their movements and observation to the city walls. This
was probably due to the Government policy of checking the free movement
of foreigners, particularly Europeans other than Portuguese, as well as by
the difficulties of communication, both of language and of transport.
However, what they describe at length, namely life in the city of Goa, they do
most vividly, enabling us to flesh out the dry bones of archival records. Eye
witness accounts of European travelers help also to verify whether many
of the legislative enactments recorded in the State Papers were relevant
and effective. Hence, a study based exclusively on State Papers, without
taking into account such contemporary eye witness reports, runs the risk of
presenting a picture very much divorced from the reality.
Fortunately, there exist accounts by European travelers who visited Goa,
at more or less regular intervals, during the entire span of the seventeenth
century.
One of the most detailed and picturesque account of the city of Goa left
by the Frenchman Pyrard de Laval, who was in Goa during the opening
decade of the seventeenth century. His description can only be matched by
another slightly earlier account, that of the Dutchman, John Huyghen van
Linschoten.29 Both of them saw the city at its zenith and lived there longer
than any other traveller.
The Italian nobleman, Pietro della Valle, who came to Goa in 1623 already
noticed signs of decline.30 The picture of growing misery and unrest in the
city and of an aristocracy straining to cover it up with a show of extravagance
is what strikes us in the accounts of the French jeweler, Tavernier31 , the
Dutch nobleman, Madelslo32 , the Italian doctor, Manucci33 , The French
150
clergyman, Abbe Carr34 , the English doctor, Fryer35 , the Calvinist Scot
free-trader, Hamilton36 , and the Italian doctor, Careri37 .
These travelers belonged to different walks of life and their varying interests
led them to observe life in the city of Goa from different perspectives. Some
of them like Tavernier, Manucci and Hamilton visited Goa more than once.
These facts add weight to the evidence of their recorded impressions.
4. State Papers
Under this category we have fourteen collections of published documentation. Some of these publications have already become rare and are not
easily available for consultation.
Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa na India (The Agents of Portuguese
Diplomacy in India), ed. P.S.S. Pissurlencar, Bastora, 1952. The work includes 477 documents drawn chiefly from the Historical Archives of Goa
to illustrate the collaboration of the non-Christian natives of Goa with the
Portuguese Indian administration. The documents also serve for the study
of the relations of the Portuguese in India with their neighbouring rulers
during seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Archivo Portuguez-Oriental (Portuguese Oriental Archive), ed. J. H. da
Cunha Rivara, 10 volumes, Nova Goa, 1857-76. The collection is divided into
six fascicles. Most of the documents belong to the sixteenth century. The
documents have not been compiled under any strict classification. On the
whole, fascicles I and II refer to the municipal administration of the Goa city;
fascicles III, V and VI cover general administrative affairs in India; and fascicle IV deals exclusively with the decrees of the church synods held at Goa
between 1567-1606. The series is very carefully edited and is an invaluable
publication. It has salvaged many of the sixteenth century records of the
Historical Archives of Goa which are not easily legible today. Unfortunately,
nowhere in India is this series easily available in good shape and in complete
form. I got my friend, late Mr. Jetley of AES (Delhi) interested in reprinting
it, just like several other rare publications of interest to Goa and of difficult
access by making available to him for the purpose of reprinting the copies
in the XCHR collection. It was a way of ensuring that the first reader of the
books in a very fragile and brittle condition would not be their last reader!
Arquivo Portugus Oriental (Portuguese Oriental Archive), ed. A.B. de Bragana Pereira, 10 volumes, Bastora (Goa), 1936-40. This series of documents
is not to be confused with its name sake above. It is totally different and
concentrates on the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. For the seventeenth
century it contains the Book of Bocarro mentioned earlier. The classification of this series in Tomes and Volumes is utterly disorderly and the job of
editing is done very shabbily.
151
Archivo da Relao de Goa (Archive of the Goa High Court), ed. J.I. de
Abranches Garcia, 2 volumes, Nova Goa, 1872-74. The author had in mind
four volumes covering seventeenth to nineteenth centuries (ending in 1836).
However, the two parts he published did not go beyond the seventeenth
century. The compilation does not follow any criterion of classification,
neither is there any sort of index for easy reference. The documentation
contained is most useful for a socio-economic study. The originals of the
published documentation are preserved in the Historical Archives in Goa.
Assentos do Conselho do Estado (Proceedings of the State Council), ed. P.S.S.
Pissurlencar, 5 volumes, Bastora, 1953-57. The State Council was established
in the beginning of the seventeenth century as an advisory body to the
viceroy or governor of Goa. The MSS of the proceedings of this council are
preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa. The present series includes
these proceedings for the period 1618-1750. The documents are edited
fairly meticulously and the footnotes are very helpful. These documents
are valuable for the study of all aspects of the Portuguese administration
of India. A Supplementary Volume with two parts was by Dr V.T. Gune,
while Director of the Archives. Part I contains a subject index and a table
of contents to the five volumes edited by Pissurlencar, and Part II includes
proceedings for the years 1624-27, not included in Volume I of Pissurlencar.
Colleco de tratados e concertos de pazes (Collection of treaties and concerts
of peace), ed. J. F. J. Biker, 14 volumes, Lisboa, 1881-87. It is an indispensable
series for the study of the Portuguese relations with the native rulers of Asia
and East Africa. The collection includes many other relevant documents
beside treaties and concerts. Though the title indicates the period covered
only up to eighteenth century, several documents belonging to the nineteenth century are included as well. The documents have been carefully
reproduced. An AES (New Delhi) reprint was made available in 1995 with
an Introduction by Antnio Vasconcelos de Saldanha, translated by me into
English.
Descripo Geral e Histrica das Moedas (A General and Historical Description of Coins), ed. A. C. Teixeira de Arago, Vol. III, Lisboa, 1880. Its Documentary Appendix is more important. The author has compiled practically
all the available legislation referring to coinage in Portuguese India during
the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The documents for the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries have been drawn chiefly from the MSS of the Historical Archives of Goa. The documents for the earlier period have been
reproduced second-hand from the Archivo Portuguez-Oriental of Cunha
Rivara.
Documentao Ultramarina Portuguesa (Documentation on the Portuguese
Overseas Dominions), ed. Centre of the Overseas Historical Studies, 5 volumes, Lisboa, 1660-67. Three more volumes of this series were published as
Coleco de So Loureno in 1973-1983. The editing of the first two of these
152
3 volumes was undertaken by Elaine Sanceau. The third volume came after
her death, but still with her annotations.The documents refer to a variety of
topics bearing on the Portuguese activities in the East and West Indies from
sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The documents published are chiefly
from the archival repositories in Europe, mostly outside Portugal.
Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livros das Mones: (Documents remitted from India or the Books of Seasonal Correspondence), ed. R. A. de
Bulho Pato, Lisboa, 1880-1935. Documentos Remettidos da India is a series
of 62 MSS codices kept in the National Archives of Lisbon (Torre do Tombo)
and once belonged to the Mones collection of the Historical Archives of
Goa. They cover the years 1605-19. This publication was done for the purpose of filling in the gap of nearly twelve years between the last Dcada of
Couto and the Dcada of Bocarro, as well as to seek confirmation of the
story told by Bocarro in his chroncle. The publication of this series has been
resumed by A. da Silva Rego and some more volumes have been added to
the existing five.
Ensaio Histrico da Lingua Concani (Historical Essay on Konkani Language),
ed. J.H. da Cunha Rivara, Nova Goa, 1858. The documentary appendix to
this publication carries 90 documents drawn from the Mones MSS of
Goa Historical Archives. They cover the period extending from seventeenth
to eighteenth centuries. All the selected documents throw light upon the
impact of the religious activities of the missionaries upon the customs
and traditions of Goan society. The publication is invaluable owing to this
judicious selection of documents and a careful editing.
Leis Peculiares das Communidades Agrcolas das Ilhas Salcete e Bardez (Legislation proper to the village communities of Tiswadi, Salcete and Bardez).
ed. F. N. Xavier, 2 volumes, Nova Goa, 1852-55. These were issued as forming Volume V of a periodical named Gabinette Litterario das Fontainhas
and published by the same author. The two volumes include almost all
the important State enactments regarding the administration of the village
communities of the Old Conquests of Goa during the period extending from
the sixteenth to the first-half of the nineteenth centuries. The documents
are largely taken from the Mones and Assentos do Conselho da Fazenda
MSS of the Historical Archives of Goa. The editing is on the whole accurate,
but the author does not always bother to give references to the originals.
O Livro do Pai dos Cristos (The Book of the Father of Christians), ed. J.
Wicki, Lisboa, 1969. Father of the Christians was a State official, generally
a religious priest, appointed to look after the welfare of the catechumens
and new converts to Christianity in Portuguese India during the sixteenth
to eighteenth centuries. Since it was an official post many legislative enactments relating to his work are found in the State papers of the Historical
Archives of Goa. These, plus two MSS of a manual of duties of the Father of
the Christians available in the same Archives (MSS 7693, 9529) have been
153
published together by J. Wicki in the present publication. The work is extremely valuable for studying the impact of conversions to Christianity upon
the Goan society.
Os Portugueses no Oriente (The Portuguese in the East), ed. E.A. de S
Nogueira Pinto de Balsemo, 3 volumes, Nova Goa, 1881-82. The three volumes of this work cover the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The first volume is devoted almost exclusively to celebrating Portuguese
military deeds and the documents of this volume are drawn from the chronicles of Correia, Barros and Couto. The second and third volumes include
fairly large number of documents taken from the Mones collection of the
Historical Archives of Goa. These documents are not limited to matters of
political nature alone. They cover also Portuguese policy matters regarding
Goan society and economic life. The documents are reproduced in full and
are arranged chronologically into a historical pattern.
O Senado de Goa: Memria Histrico-Archaeolgica (the Municipal Council
of Goa: An Historical and Archaeological Recollection), ed. A.C.B. Viriato de
Albuquerque, Nova Goa, 1909. After a brief introduction of the history of the
establishment and functioning of the Municipal Council at Goa, the author
reproduces 249 documents covering the period 1518-1907 but without any
chronological order. The documents of the earlier period have been taken
from Cunha Rivaras Archivo Portuguez-Oriental. There are altogether fortyfive documents for the seventeenth century scattered all over the volume,
and these are drawn from MSS 7846 and 7795 of the Historical Archives of
Goa.
B. Archival sources
I (a) State papers from the Historical Archives of Goa
Documentation from the Historical Archives of Goa constitutes the staple
of the present monograph. The historical Archives of Goa was till recently
little explored mine of historical information. It was the preparation of this
thesis that got at least one scholar to spend three continuous years scanning
almost every single codex for the seventeenth century. There was much that
did not serve the purpose. Much time and energy of the scholars could have
been economised if there had been better aids for the consultation of these
archival holdings.38
It is possible here to comment only on few select collections of the Goa
Archives which have proved most useful for the present study.
1.Proceedings of the Public Revenue Council (Assentos do Conselho da
Fazenda): Seventeen volumes of this series cover the seventeenth century
154
from 1613 onwards. There is a twin series with records of the same Council, entitled Peties Despachadas (Replies to the Applications) with four
codices for the seventeenth century. Each volume has an average number
of 300 folios. A brief introduction to the organisation of the Portuguese
fiscal administration is essential for understanding the importance of the
proceedings of the meetings of the Public Revenue Council. The entire
gamut of trade and fiscal administration of the Portuguese dominions in the
East was controlled by a House of Accounts (Casa dos Contos) presided over
by a Comptroller General of Finance (Vedor Geral da Fazenda). However,
the administrative work had grown so complex in course of the sixteenth
century that in 1589 a new constitution (regimento) was given to the House
of Accounts. The new standing order created a Board and Court of Accounts (Meza e Tribunal dos Contos) in order to expedite the business and
check corruption. The Board was to be presided over by the viceroy, and its
membership included the Comptroller of Accounts (Vedor dos Contos) and
two seniormost accountants of the House. In 1615, this Board underwent
a change in its composition changing its designation to Public Revenue
Council. 39 The membership of the new Council included the viceroy, the
chancellor of the High Court, the comptroller general of finance, the chief
superintendent of accounts (Provedor-mor dos Contos), the royal attorney
(Procurador da Coroa), the chief custodian of the property of the dead and
absent (Provedor-mor dos Defuntos e Ausentes), and the Clerk of Public
Revenue Department (Escrivo da Fazenda). The Council had its regular
meetings on Wednesday evenings, and the members received no special remuneration for this service until in 1668. It was decided in the same Council
that every member should be given 1 per cent from the increase in the State
revenues that were farmed out and from the booty of the vessels captured
for violating the Portuguese sea monopoly.40
The MSS in question contain original papers with signatures of the Council
members. Most of the documents bear headings which sum up the nature
of the issues discussed. Only a few volumes have fragmentary tables of
contents at the beginning or at the end of the codices. The sixth volume is
badly damaged and rendered illegible, and the four volumes of the Peties
Despachadas make hard reading, but the others are in good shape and
reading condition.
The Assentos deal with such matters as seaborne and coastal trade, moneyminting and exchange rates, employment and regulation of salaries, grants
to individuals and to religious institutions, administration of customs and
other revenues, village communities of Goa, gifts sent to and received from
the neighbouring princes, ship building, and several other topics. The series
of Peties Despachadas is more interesting for the study of the local history
as it furnishes many more details about the local revenues and hinterland
trade of Goa. Unfortunately, it begins only in 1682 and extends up to 1693.
155
2. Records of the farmed revenues (Arrematao das Rendas)
The Portuguese in India took up the practice of farming out the rights of
collecting State revenues from the Adil Shahi administration. Right from
the days of the conquest of Goa the revenue-farmers were natives, generally
Hindus. The highest bidder had to pay the amount to the Government
in quarterly instalments after presenting two kinds of sureties (fianas),
namely one-third of the total value of the farmed revenue in the form of
mortgages, and one-tenth of the value in cash.
The Hindu tax-farmers normally got their friends and well-wishers to stand
surety for them in return for temptingly high interest rates.41 These rendas
or non-agricultural revenues were collected on imports of tobacco, cloths,
foodstuffs, and several other minor items. Goa port customs and minting
rights were also farmed out occasionally.42 The contracts were triennial
and the terms of such contracts are available in fragmented form for the
seventeenth century. Thus, we have MSS 656 (1658-68), 2320 (1669-1756)
containing terms of contracts for those years, and MSS 1369-71 (1626-53)
containing statements of the sureties presented by the tax-farmers during
the period indicated.
3.Land and revenue registers (Tombos e Forais)

The title of these MSS can be misleading to one who is not conversant with
the land regulations that prevailed in Goa. Each village community was the
owner of all the land within the limits of the village and paid a lump sum of
land revenue (foro) which was the joint responsibility of all the constituent
members of the village community. It kept its own record of village lands
and lands distributed through bidding or through grants.
The need for Government to keep Tombos and Forais did not arise until
after there had been an encroachment upon the village ownership rights
regarding the village lands that had been traditionally set aside for the
upkeep of temples and worship. With the initiation of the conversion drive
and the consequent demolition of Hindu temples, many village lands were
taken away from the village communitys control and either handed over
to the missionaries to administer, or were administered by the State and
their produce ascribed to religious purposes. The Tombos and Forais are the
registers of these so-called namassy lands. They also include records of the
traditional obligations of individual villages in the form of offerings to the
temples and temple servants.
New registers were prepared in each of the three talukas during the seventeenth century because the earlier ones were found to have been incomplete
156
owing to the reluctance of the village elders to declare truthfully all that had
been associated with the temples.
Thus, we have MSS 7594-5, which are two copies of the Foral of the Goa
islands (1567), and MSS 3069, 7646, which are two copies of another Foral
of the same taluka drawn up in 1646. There are two copies of the Foral of
Salcete, namely MSS 3070-71, for the year 1567. A new Foral of the same
taluka was prepared in 1622 (MSS 7583-85, in 3 volumes). No Foral of the
sixteenth century for Bardez is extant, but there are two codices, namely
MSS 7587-88, prepared in 1647.
In addition to these Forais there are MSS 7598 and 3031, which are two
copies of a general register of all State revenues from the three talukas
(Tombo das Rendas) drawn by the superintendent of accounts, Francisco
Paes, in 1595. It is complete regarding the information about the revenues
of Salcete and Tisvadi during the pre-Portuguese period, but it provides only
limited and sketchy information about the situation in Bardez.43 It may be
mentioned in this connection that from among all the Forais listed above,
only the MSS 7588 gives on fls. 209-209v a complete list of land revenues
payable by each village of Bardez taluka. It also lists the values of the other
revenues (rendas) collected from the same taluka, thereby making up in
some way for the lack of information about Bardez land revenues.
4.Village community records (Assentos, Memoriais e Correntes das Communidades)

Proceedings and account books were issued to the village clerks by the Revenue Department (Fazenda) every October with numbered and endorsed
pages. There were also memo-books issued by the taluka Captains in Bardez
and Salcete. These books consisted ordinarily of sixty-two folios and had to
be deposited by the village clerks and accountants with the issuing authorities at the end of the year.
As the designations of the books indicate, they constitute first-hand sources
of information regarding the working of the village communities of Goa.
Unfortunately, such books belonging to the seventeenth century and preserved in the historical Archives of Goa do no cover more than half a dozen
villages of Tisvadi, a couple of villages of Salcete, and one lone village of
Bardez. As far as the number of these codices is concerned, there is MS
8000 for Aldona (in Bardez) covering the period 1595-1605 and written in
the Halekanad script and Marathi language. The two villages of Salcete for
which there are extant records are Donkuly and Kortaly. There are eleven
codices (MSS 102-4014) for the former, covering the years 1629-95. For
the latter we have forty-one codices (MSS 10224-64) extending from 1614
to 1691. In both these series of records there are gaps in the periods indicated. As for Tisvadi, there are twenty-four codices (MSS 10016-10038)
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for Azosy (1582-1695), twenty-nine codices (MSS 10041-46, 10056-60) for

Korly (1607-82), one volume for Gancy (MS 10141 for 1683-85), four volumes
(MSS 10148-51) for Goa Velha (1603-52), and five codices (MSS 10188-90,
10193-4) for Lesser Neura (1600-07, 1646-66). Many of these books covering
the closing decades of the sixteenth century and the first two decades of the
seventeenth century and the first two decades of the seventeenth century
are written in the Halekanad script and Marathi language.44
5.Papers of the suppressed convents (Papis dos Conventos

Extintos)
These MSS constitute one of the largest collections of the Historical Archives
of Goa. They were salvaged from the monasteries of Old Goa when these
were suppressed in 1835.45 Its lack of classification makes it hard to consult
this collection. After much donkey work it was possible to trace some
codices of this collection containing deeds of the bequests left to different
religious monasteries in the form of lands and cash during sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.46 Thus, MSS 830, 2819, 3029, 4512, 7594 can serve to
give us an idea of the quick accumulation of wealth by the religious orders in
Goa. The same collection also includes invaluably codices with household
accounts of certain monasteries. Thus, MSS 1202, 2088, 2740, 2765, 2785,
4397, 4395-4396, 7876, 7878, 7880, provide us with rare information about
the prices of different market commodities and about wages paid to different
categories of labour in the course of the seventeenth century. It is possible
to base estimates of living cost on these records. The lifestyle of the monks
cannot be compared with that of the ordinary run of the Goan people then,
but the practice of poverty by the monks did not allow them to be too
extravagant either.
These records of the monasteries also contain abundant references on some
other topics which were intimately connected with the economic life of the
place. Thus, there is information about the interest collected by the monks
on loans provided by them, about the exchange of commodities between
missionary settlements, and about their possession of bonded labour.
6. Records of the Goa Municipal Council (Senado da Camara)

This is another very extensive series of MSS in the Historical Archives of Goa.
It is classified into nearly two dozen sub-series, but only half the number of
these sub-series contain codices belonging to the seventeenth century.
Thus, we have the Proceedings and Resolutions of the Municipal Council
(Accordos e Assentos do Senado de Goa) in nine volumes (MSS 7738-40,
158
7747-48, 7765-66, 7786-87) for the years 1597-1709. For the Municipal
Market Regulations (Almotaaria) there is only MS 7795, which is a late
nineteenth century copy of the market regulations enacted in 1618. It is
the only precious survival of its kind for the seventeenth century. There are
five distinct series of records that contain the correspondence between the
Municipal Council and the Government, both local and home Government,
and a whole lot of decrees, instructions and provisions issued by the Government to the Municipality (Cartas, alvars, provises, correspondncia
diversa: MSS 7743-46, 7725, 7846-47, 7862, 7865).
Another four distinct sub-series contain documentation regarding the regulations to be observed by city merchants, artisans, tax-farmers, contractors
of the Public Works, and sureties to be kept by all of them (Assentos e Juramentos, Termos das Obras, Arrematao das Rendas, Fianas: MSS 7758,
7760-61, 7837, 7832, 7838, 7852, 7856, 7836).
Two sub-series, entitled Letters Patent (Cartas Patentes: MSS 775057) and
Miscellaneous Records (Registos Gerais: MSS 7696-7704) consist of codices
with texts of licenses and work-permits issued to merchants and artisans of
the city.
Finally, there is MS 7809 with details about the convoy-tax (Collecta) introduced in 1623 for gathering funds to finance the building and maintaining
of a fleet that would convoy the vessels that brought food grains to Goa from
the ports of Kanara.
Most of the codices of this collection are well preserved, but the handwriting in many of them is not easily decipherable, and this fact reduces to a
large extent the satisfaction which this collection provides a scholar with its
valuable contents. Just like the other five series described above, also the
records of the Goa Municipal Council have been left substantially untapped
until now.
I (b) Private records in Goa

The difficulties of detecting and consulting records in private possession
are well known to scholars. Our persistent efforts to trace documentation
in private collections in order to make up for the lack of information for
the village communities of Bardez in the Historical Archives of Goa were
rewarded with happy discovery of nine codices. They are of the same type
described above, and they belonged to the collection of the late J. Avelino
Soares from Uskai (Bardez). His sister-in-law has donated the collection to
Mariano Dias, the agent of the Mapusa Branch of Bank of India (now retired
and living at Alto Porvorim, near Clergy Home). Among these codices, there
is one for Bastora (1679), one for Kanaka (1649), two for Paliem (1589-92,
1654), one for Punala (1650), one for Siuly (1671-72), and three for Sirula
159
(1660-61, 1672, 1673-74). Of the two codices for Paliem, the earlier one is
in the Haleganad script. All the other codices are written in the Portuguese
language.
II (a) Records in the State archives abroad

Most of the time at our disposal in Portugal was spent particularly in the
Overseas Historical Archives (Arquivo Histrico Ultramarino) of Lisbon. It
was also possible to pay a short visit to the National Library of Madrid.
However, our plans to spend a couple of months at British Museum were
frustrated by the British immigration authorities. These months were then
quite profitably spent in consulting the private archives of the Jesuit Curia
and of the Propaganda Fide in Rome.
To begin with, we have the Overseas Historical Archives in Lisbon, which
is rich in documentation for the seventeenth century and thereafter. The
importance of this documentation can be gauged from the position occupied by the Overseas Council (Conselho Ultramarino) in the structure of the
Portuguese administration of its overseas dominions, including India.47
The Overseas Council was created in 1643, following the restoration of the
independence of the Portuguese Crown in 1640. This new Council was
only a resurrected form of an earlier India Council (Conselho da India)
established by Philip II of Spain in 1604 for looking after the administration
of the Portuguese dominions in India.48 It was an advisory body to assist
the crown in matters relating to appointments and other administrative
matters.
The India Council was suppressed in 1614 due to clash of powers with other
administrative bodies, such as the Crown Board of Justice (Desembargo do
Pao) and the Public Revenue Council (Conselho da Fazenda), both with
say in the administration of the overseas dominions. With the creation of
the Overseas Council all such powers were attributed to it. The change of
the name perhaps suggests the decreasing importance of India during the
seventeenth century as the centre of Portuguese trade.
The Overseas Council handled all the correspondence from the overseas,
both incoming and outgoing. The first bundle of correspondence arriving
in (primeira via) from the overseas was generally sent directly to the Crown,
but the other copies sent in different ships were read and discussed by the
Councilors.
They noted down their views (consulta or pareceres) on the matter, and submitted them for the consideration and final approval of the Crown. Hence,
although a great majority of the documents from the Overseas Historical
Archives are just copies of the documents found in the Mones collection of the Historical Archives of Goa, this additional feature of pareceres
recorded along the margins make these documents more valuable.
160
Among the bound codices there is abundant documentation of the history

of the Portuguese Goa-based trade during the seventeenth century (MSS
31-78), as well as for the fiscal administration of Goa (MSS 218-19, 346, 500).
This latter group of codices includes rare information about the income
and expenditure of the Portuguese administration of Goa during the years
1623-27, 1630-36. Besides, MS 218 is the only traced accounts book of the
Goa factory for the early seventeenth century, and it completes to some
extent the information supplied by another lone MS 2316 of the Historical
Archives of Goa for the latter half of the seventeenth century.49
Very useful information is contained also in forty-two steel drawers (Caixas
da India), each of them containing an average number of 200 files of loose
documents. The number of papers in these files varies from a single paper
to a large-sized bundle. These documents include official correspondence
with the Indian administration, as well as open and secret reports sent from
India by individuals serving there and by the procurator of the village communities of Goa.50 These thirty-eight Caixas cover the entire seventeenth
century.
The National Archives of Lisbon (Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo)
housed in the palace where functions the Portuguese parliament is presently
a big mess of un-catalogued records and working on them is impossible
with any economy of time. This situation has greatly changed for the better
since late 1980s with the transfer of the National Archives to new premises
with most modern facilities and adequate personnel resources. But in 1974,
and with limited time at disposal, it was possible to consult the MSS of the
Documentos Remettidos da India which number sixty-two codices in all and
belong to the seventeenth century. There was another useful series of three
codices entitled Junta da Fazenda do Estado da India: Registo de Alvars,
Provises e Patentes (1617-93), containing copies of several legislative enactments relating to the fiscal administration of the Portuguese in India during
the seventeenth century.
The National Library of Lisbon possesses two unpublished MSS (1783, 1978)
containing very important information for the economic history of Goa.
The first of these MSS contained details about the income and expenditure
of the Goa administration for the years 1598-1600, and the second MS is
Pero Barreto Rezendes enlarged and revised version of Bocarros Book.
At the Ajuda Library of Lisbon it was possible to trace a precious codex
(MS 46. VIII. 20) with information about weights, measures and currency
employed in the Portuguese trade transactions during the first quarters of
the seventeenth century.
161
II (b) Records from private collections abroad

The Library of the Jesuit journal Brotria in Lisbon had, among other precious documents relating to Jesuit activity in India during the seventeenth
century, some photocopies of records which had once belonged to the Jesuit Province of Goa and are at present found in the Archive Generale du
Royaume Belgique.
The photocopies contain reports of the joint pastoral visits by the Archbishop of Goa and the Jesuit Provincial Superior of Goa to the parishes of
Salcete taluka in 1596, 1604, 1618, 1637 and 1650.
In these reports we have invaluable information for the socio-economic
history of Salcete during the period covered by them. They denounce several
social and economic evils regarded as contrary to a Christian conscience,
and call upon the parish priests to eradicate such errors and abuses within
their respective jurisdiction.
At Rome, the Jesuit Roman Archives had much to hold attention. Since J.
Wicki has not yet completed the editing of the sixteenth century records
pertaining to Indian missions in his Documenta Indica, the documentation
for the seventeenth century had to be consulted in manuscript form. The
publication of this series ended in 1988 with Vol. XVIII (1595-1597).
Annual letters sent to the General Superior of the Society of Jesus in Rome
and many other private accounts about things in India make up the contents
of the so-called Goa collection. There are interesting documents also in
the Fondo Gesuitico, which is a collection of Jesuit papers entrusted by the
Italian Government to the care of the management of the Jesuit Roman
Archives and are housed in the same premises.
The documents in these two collections of Jesuit records are written in Latin,
Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. These documents contain particularly
useful evidence for a study of rural life in Goa.51
Finally, a very brief visit to the Archive of the Congregation de Propaganda
Fide was worth the trouble. In its collection of Scritture Originali, there
were many references to the activities of the Goan native Bishop Matheus
de Castro, who was very vocal in 1650s against the oppression of the Portuguese rule at Goa. The same collection contained a long and curious
report of a Theatine missionary in 1663 describing various social and religious malpractices prevailing at Goa.52
R EFERENCES
1. His father was the first judge of the city of Goa. Castanhedas chronicle
of the Portuguese discovery and conquest of India extends to 1541. Cf.
162
Ana Paula Menino Avelar, Ferno Lopes de Castanheda: Historiador dos

Portugueses na ndia ou Cronista do Governo de Nuno da Cunha? Lisboa,
Edies Cosmos, 1997. This is the latest and well documented research on
this chronicler.
2. Gaspar Correa was secretary to Afonso de Albuquerque. His Lendas or
Account of India provides more details than any other chronicle of this
period. His story concludes with the year 1550.
3. Joo de Barros never visited India. He was Crown Agent at the India
House in Lisbon. Barros Dcadas excel by the geographical precision of
their narratives, which do not extend beyond 1526. Cf. C.R. Boxer, Joo de
Barros: Portuguese Humanist and Historian of Asia, Delhi, Concept, 1981
[XCHR Studies Series, N1]; Portuguese translation by Teotonio R. de Souza,
Joo de Barros: Humanista Portugus e Historiador da sia, Lisboa, CEPESA,
2002, with updated bibliography.
4. APO-CR, III, 497.
5. Soldado Prtico, xx.
6. Ibid., xxiii-xxv.
7. Ibid., 143.
8. Ibid., 246.
9. HAG: MS 1041 (Consultas, n. 1), fls. 29-31; It lists Bocarros services in
India from the date of his arrival in 1615.
10. Tdt: DRI: 33, fl. 266 contains two titles of the books written by Bocarro
and sent to the Crown in 1636. One of these dealt with reformation of the
State of India, and the other was a biography of Sancho de Vasconcellos.
For a good assessment of Bocarros works, as well as of other Portuguese
Indian chroniclers, cf. C.R. Boxer Antonio Bocarro and the Livro do Estado
da India Orental: A bio-bibliographical note, Garcia de Orta, 1956 (special
issue): 203-15; C.R. Boxer, Three Historians of Portuguese India (Barros,
Couto and Bocarro), Boletim do Instituto Portugus de Hongkong (July,
1948): 13-44; I.A. Macgregor, in Some Aspects of Portuguese Historical Writing
of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries on South East Asia, ed. D.G.E.
Hall, London, 1961, 172-99; J. B. Harrison, Five Portuguese Historians, in
Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon, ed. C.A. Philips, London, 1967,
155-69.
11. Bocarro, Dcada XIII, I, 234.
12. The four traced MSS are in Evora Public Library, MS.CXV/2-1; British
Museum, Sloane MS 197: National Library of Madrid, MSS 1190 and R-202;
National Library of Paris, Fond Portugais MS 1.
13. APO-BP, Bk. IV, Vol. II, Pts. 1-3, Bastora, 1937-38. The edition includes
maps of the Portuguese settlements drawn by Pero Barreto Rezende, and
these have been reproduced from the Paris Codex.
163
14. TdT: DRI. 57, fl. 312.

15. HAG: Mones 25, fl. 86.
17. Ibid., doc. 201.
19. DMP, vols. V, VII, XI, XII contain documents for the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in the form of histories of the Franciscan, Dominican
and Augustinian Orders written at the request of the Royal Academy of
Sciences (Lisbon) at the closing of the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
The original of these records are today preserved in the National Library of
Lisbon.
20. The introductions to the histories of Gonalves and Trindade, edited by
Wicki and Felix Lopes respectively, provide abundant information about the
lives and work of those two authors. We find no such data in the available
Bombay edition of Francisco de Souzas Oriente Conquistado. Therefore,
for his biodata cf. John Correia-Afonso, Jesuit Letters and Indian History,
123-25.
21. SG. I, xxvi-xxix; OC, I, 3.
22. SG, III, 12.
23. Ibid., 15.
24. Ibid., 91.
25. OC, I, 103-104.
26. Loc. cit.
27. CEO, I, 292-302. Summing up the village-wise totals provided by him we
come to 27,000 as the number of Christians in Bardez c. 1635.
28. Ibid., I, 275.
29. Pyrard de Laval arrived in Goa in June 1608 and left Goa in January 1610.
Owing to the difficulty of obtaining the English edition of his travelogue we
follow the Portuguese translation.
30. Pietro della Valle arrived in Goa on April 8, 1623. He spent nearly one
year at Goa.
31. Jean-Baptista Tavernier visited Goa twice. First time at the close of the
year 1641, and again at the beginning of the year 1648. His first visit was of
one weeks duration, but his second visit lasted for about two months.
32. John Albert von Mandelslo came up to Ispahan in the company of an
embassy sent by the duke of Holstein to Muscovy and Persia. He arrived
164
in Surat in April 1638 and then came to Goa in the company of the English
factor of Surat, William Methwold. He stayed at Goa for ten days.
33.Nicolao Manucci reached Goa in May 1667 and left after a long stay of
fifteen months. He returned in 1682 or early 1683. On this occasion he acted
as a go-between the Portuguese administration of Goa and the Maratha
ruler Sambhaji. For these good services he was made Knight of Santhiago.
Cf. Storia do Mogor, I, Ix; HAG: ACF, XV, fl. 31.
34. Abb Carr reached Goa on the eve of Christmas in 1672. He left a
few days later. His mission was to seek the release of all Frenchmen in
Portuguese hands and to send them to San Thome (Mylapore), which the
French had just captured and was being counter-attacked by the Dutch and
the Muslims of Golkonda.
35. John Fryer was a doctor in the service of the East India Company of the
English. He arrived in Goa at the end of 1675 and left after a few days on the
New Year day. He refers to the impact of Shivajis activities in the Konkan
upon the Portuguese coastal trade.
36. Alexander Hamilton paid two short visits to Goa in 1692 and 1704. His
account is couched in scurrilous language which reflects the attitude of a
fanatic Protestant against Catholics.
37. Gemelli Careri was a globe-trotter like Tavernier. He reached Goa in
1695 and spent little over a month there.
38. Pissurlencars Roteiro and Gunes Guide are surely of some help to the
scholars who wish to consult the Portuguese records of the Goa Archives,
but more useful to scholars are the short and descriptive articles on some
of the important collections of this article, such as Boxers A Glimpse of
the Goa Archives, Pearsons The Goa Archives and Indian History, T.R. de
Souzas Goa Based Portuguese Seaborne Trade in the Early Seventeenth
Century. Here we must praise the efforts of the C.E.H.U. (Centre of Overseas Historical Studies, Lisbon) to calendar some important series of records
from the Goa Archives. Fifty-seven volumes of Mones; six volumes of Reis
Vizinhos, and two volumes of Segredos were thus covered in the Boletim da
Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, nn. 1-45, 1954-71. Cf. also De Souza,
T.R., Portuguese Source-material in the Goa Archives for the Economic
History of Konkan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, in Sources
of The History of India, I, ed. S.P. Sen (Calcutta, 1978) 426-441; De Souza,
T.R., Portuguese Records for Indian History at Goa and Lisbon, The Indian
Archives, XXV, n. 1 (1976): 24-36; Gune, V.T., Aids to the Study of the Portuguese sources of history from Goa Archives, Colloquium, I. n. 1 (1978):
12-15.
39. Amancio Gracias, Subsdios para a histria economico-financeira da
India Portuguesa, 84-86. Cf. APO-CR, V, 1181-1246: Regimento of 1589 for
the House of Accounts.
165
40. HAG: Mones 19A, fl. 298; ACF, XI, fls. 150, 153v-54.
41.APO-CR, Suppl. 2, 64-65, 174-75: The Hindu tax-farmers promised to pay
to their guarantors the highest permissible rate of interest, 10%.
42. During most of the seventeenth century the revenue of the Goa port
customs was administered by the Public Revenue Department without
farming out. As regards the minting rights, these were always retained by
the Government as far as the minting of small currency was concerned,
because it was an important source of profiteering for the Government
officials. The minting of gold and silver, the import of which was not easy to
control, was farmed out to individuals. Cf. HAG: MS 7761 (Livro de Termos,
Assentos e Juramentos), fls. 95v-96v; MS 779 (Cartas e Ordens, n. 1). Fl. 41.
43. HAG: 7598, fl. 86v: The compiler of the Tombo states that he could not
trace in the archives of the House of Accounts any records of the revenues
collected from Bardez. All that he could find was a short note in Kannada
script written by Azu Naik, who had been collector of that taluka, indicating
the amounts collected under some heads of revenue. This MS has been
edited by Pissurlencar as Tombo da Ilha de Goa e das Terras de Salcete e
Bardez with excellent explanatory endnotes.
44. Ghantkar, An Introduction to Goan Marathi Records: In the Foreword the
author thanks T.R. De Souza, S.J., for preparing his book for publication. I
must confess that the help rendered was also a way of my having access to
these oldest extant documents of the Goan village communities.
45. Meersman, The Goa Archives and the History of the Franciscans in
India, 171.
46. Cf App. A-3.
47. Marcello Caetano, O Conselho Ultramarino. It is sketchy, but excellent
and the only well documented history of this Council.
48. Mendes da Luz, O Conselho da India. It is a detailed and well documented study of this Council.
49. De Souza, T.R., Goa-Based Portuguese Seaborne Trade in the Early
Seventeenth Century, 435-36.
50. Cf. App. A-4, A-8.I h.
51. Schurhammer, Die Anfange des Romischen Archives der Gesellschaft
Jesu; Lamalle, La Documentation dhistoire missionaire dans le Fondo
Gesuitico aux Archives Romaines de la Compagnie de Jesus.
52. Combaluzier, Un inventaire des Archives de la Propaganda; Kowalsky,
Inventario dell Archivo Storico della S. Congregazione de Propaganda Fide.
Cf App. B-10.
Part III
Appendices
166
A PPENDIX A-1
ARSJ: Goa 32, II, Fls. 689-90; Goa 34, II, Fls. 510-11
What is meant by ganvkar and how did it originate in Salcete?
1. Salcete was originally an uninhabited and uncultivated region. Then
some persons arrived there and with the helping hands they could find they
cleared the wild growth, tilled the land and cultivated it. Very soon they
made substantial progress and the area thus occupied developed into a
village. Sixty-six villages of Salcete were thus established by them, who came
to be known as ganvkars, which meant governors and lords.
2. As the ganvkars continued working in their respective villages, they
decided to have partners in administration. These were to be their own
sons, who were many because they had many wives. They made their sons
ganvkars like unto themselves. Thus all the ganvkars of Salcete belonged
to the same family stock in each individual village. All these ganvkars met
regularly in the presence of the village clerk and took concerted action
relating to the collection of the land-revenue payable to the divan, which
means king, and relating to anything pertaining to the welfare of the village.
All the ganvkars were equal in power and none can individually decide
anything of the administration, neither can they do so collectively if one
required for the quorum is missing or if any of those present expresses
dissent.
3. As the number of the sons, grandsons and great grandsons of the first
ganvkars multiplied, it was established that all of them need not participate
in the village council meetings, but if they wished to attend they could
rightfully do so and even exercise their veto power. It was necessary, however,
and sufficient that all the clans were present at such meetings through their
representatives. When all the assembled ganvkars were of one mind about
any proposed issue, the clerk declared it to be a nem by raising his hand,
and the entire village was then bound to carry it out with total obedience.
167
168
4. While the village administration was being run along these lines, some
external foes conquered the lands of Salcete and compelled the ganvkars
to pay tribute. The latter saw no other alternative but to submit, and the
ganvkars of each village agreed to pay their share of the tribute. The ganvkars
of twelve villages were then organised into a General Assembly (camara
geral) that would be responsible for the payment of the said tribute by all
the villages. With these alterations, the people were left in peace to till their
lands and to enjoy their rights and privileges.
5. Once we have an idea of the origin, powers and nature of ganvkars, let
us take a concrete example: In Karmona village, there are lands that belong
to the Jesuit house of novitiate training and were bequeathed to it by its
founder Gaspar Viegas. This property carried with it the right of a halfganvkari, whereby its owners were entitled to attend the meetings of the
village council and to veto any unjust decisions which might be taken by the
other ganvkars against the individual interests of the land owners or against
the common weal of the village.
6. The said village of Karmona is governed and administered by eight ganvkars among whom the village was originally parceled out. One of these
ganvkars was Anta Naik by name. By means of money and skill he had come
into possession of nearly a third of the village. At the time of the great siege
of Goa by Adil Khan and his invasion of Salcete nearly thirty years back this
ganvkar shifted his allegiance to the Muslims and did all the harm he could
do to these lands. Hence, he was declared rebel and his properties were
confiscated and bestowed upon the captain of Salcete, Miguel Dias Peixoto.
The latter sold them to Ferno dAires, collector of the taluka, who in turn
sold them to Gaspar Viegas, who bequeathed them to the Jesuit Novitiate.
7. The said property is big in size, consists of many plots of land, and its
income amounts to one-third of the total revenue of the village. If such a
property did not have the half-ganvkari attached to it, The Society of Jesus
would only suffer loss by keeping it. The losses would compel the Society
to dispose of the property and sell it. Owing to their bad habits and evil
ways of administration the ganvkars have already sold or alienated most
of the property they had inherited. The little they still hold is insignificant
compared with what we have in the village. This fact excites their jealousy
and leads to sanctioning in council meetings all sorts of extraordinary
expenses. We are then obliged to contribute pro rata with one-third, while
all the rest of the ganvkars who number over three hundred, contribute with
the remaining two-thirds. It is in this context that our right to half-ganvkari
is precious. It enables our Procurator to attend the village council meetings
and to veto the unjust proposals of the ganvkars. Until now such an
intervention has not been necessary, because the ganvkars are aware of
the power in our hands and have been behaving themselves. In normal
circumstances we do not exercise our right, neither do we attend the village
council meeting.
169
[It is most likely that this account was written by Sebastio Gonalves, S.J.,
who wrote the history of the Goa-based Jesuits in 1604-19. Cf. Bibliographical Essay.]
A PPENDIX A-2
HAG: Ms 1184 (Provises dos Vicereis), fls. 19v-20
1. In response to a communication sent by the chief thanadar through his
nayak Simo Garcia the ganvkars of the eight principal villages of Tisvadi,
namely Diogo de Noronha and Ambrosio de Almeida, ganvkars of Neura,
Jorge Florim, ganvkar of Gancim, Garcia de Mello, ganvkar of Ella, Martim
Mascarenhas from Azossim, Joo de Sousa and Diogo de Sousa, ganvkars
of Karambolim, Diogo de Mello, ganvkar of Batim, Bartolomeu Dias and
Manoel Gonalves, ganvkars of Kalapur, and no one from Morombim, met
at the residence of the chief thanadar, Ferno Lobo de Menezes, on 23rd
August, 1604, and took the following nem:
2. Increasingly great harm is being caused to the villages of Tisvadi in the
recent years because ganvkars have been selling their ancestral rights and
privileges of administering the villages to wealthy and powerful strangers.
The poor ganvkars are allured by the rich and influential outsiders with
temptingly large sums of money, and it is made difficult for the village
council to exercise its right of pre-emption. The intrusion by these externs
has become a source of hatred and disharmony in the villages.
3. All the above mentioned chief ganvkars of the general assembly decided
that no individual ganvkars may in future sell, exchange, grant or alienate
their rights and privileges in violation of the Charter. No such transaction
will be deemed valid in future without the consent of the entire village
council. However, the rights and jon, which have already been alienated will
not be affected by this decision. But in future, if any ganvkar or kulkarni is
unable to pay his dues to the State or to village, only the entire body of the
village ganvkars will have right to sell or auction the jon of the debtor to any
other member of the village community to be enjoyed to him only during
his life-time, after which is shall revert to the village.
4. The nem was announced by the chief ganvkar of Neura, Diogo de
Noronha, and it was endorsed by all the other chief ganvkars with their
signatures. I, Andre de Olanda, clerk of the general assembly, recorded the
170
171
proceedings.
[This nem received the approval of the viceroy Ayres de Saldanha on

Aug. 30 1604. Cf. Ibid., fls. 18v-19; APO-CR, V. 1375-80. The royal
confirmation was addressed in a letter to the viceroy Conde de Redondo on
April 3, 1618, and it was proclaimed in Goa on Nov. 29, 1618. Cf. APO-CR, V,
1387-90.]
A PPENDIX A-3
HAG: Ms 3041 (Papis dos Conventos Extintos), fl. 275
[The original is written in the sixteenth century writing-style. We have
expanded the abbreviations and provided the translation in English.]
Transcription
Dizemos ns Dso1 Mourato e Antonio mourato e Dsa2 de Souza molher / de
tonio3 Mourato m.ores4 nesta alldea de Nellur tras 5 de Bardes q 6 he / verdade
q ho sor7 Gpar8 Mes 9 de llemos nos eprestou 10 quatro pdaos 11 xes 12 liquidos /
da mui (?) e graa p13 vivermos no palmar do dito sor de munda c a obri/gaso de munduquares e sendo cazo q em tempo allgum nos queiramos / yr
do ditto seu palmar lhe pagaremos os ditos quatro pdaos xes fiquando sempre
obrigados o 14 q ns vamos o 15 q nos elle despida / entregar lhe a sua caza assy
como nollos entregou e ffzdo 16 o contrai-/ ro tudo asima dito lhe pagaremos
todas as perdas e danos gastos / e custas q nisso tiver e fizermos p nossa culpa
sem a isso ter-/mos q alegar couza alguma q nos boa seja no nos valha ao p
/ de juizo nen fora dele mais q pagar e cprir a risqua tudo / asima dito e p de
tudo passarmos na verdade e sermos ctentes / ns assinamos aqui e pedimos
a Bras Dias q este o fizese e assinase / como testa 17 c as mais q de prezte 18
estavo Vantu Naiq e / Naru Sinai ttpvo19 da dita aldeia. Hoje vinte e seis
de setembro / de seis sentos e quatorze anos e eu Bras Dias asino pola dita /
domingas de souza p 20 ela me pedir e no saber fzer21 me asiney aquy. De
Ato 22 + Mourato Bras Dias de Dso + Mourato de Naru Sinay testa de
Vantu Naiq testa
Elaboration of abbreviations:
1.dso =Domingos; 2. dsa =Domingas; 3. antonio=Antnio; 4. mores =
moradores; 5. tras = terras; 6. q = que; 7. sor = senhor, 8. gpar = Gaspar; 9. mes = Mendes; 10. eprestou=emprestou; 11. pdaos = pardaos; 12.
xes = xerafins; 13. pa = para; 14. o = ou ; 16. ffzdo = fazendo; 17. testa =
testemunha; 18. prezte = prezente; 19. ttpvo=escrivo; p. = por; 21. fzer =
fazer; 22. Ato =Antnio.
172
173
Translation
We, Domingos Mourato, Antonio Mourato and Domingas de Souza, wife
of Antonio Mourato, resident of the Nellur village Bardez, state it to be true
that Mr. Gaspar Mendes de Lemos gave us a free loan of four xerafins under
condition that we live in his palm-grove as mundkars. In case we decide
to leave the place, or he for some reason asks us to move out, we shall in
either case be obliged to repay the loan at his residence. If we do anything
to the contrary of what has been laid down, we take it upon us to make good
whatever losses, damage, expenses he may incur due to our fault, and we
shall have no right to complain or to be heard in or outside court without
first repaying the debt in full and fulfilling all the terms. We state all this to
be true and acceptable to us. We sign here and request Bras Dias to draw
up this deed and sign as witness along with the others here present, namely
Vantu Naik and Naru Sinay, the clerk of the said village. Today, 26th day of
September, 1614. I, Brs Dias, signs here for Domingas de Souza, who was
unable to sign and requested me to do it for her.
+ Cross mark of Antonio Mourato
Brs Dias, signature
+ Cross mark of Domingos Mourato
Naru Sinay, signature in Kannada
Ventu Naik, signature in Kannada
[This document landed into the archive of the Augustinian Monastery of Our Lady of Grace (Old Goa) when Gaspar Mendes de Lemos and his
wife Antonio de Abreu made their will in favour of the Monastery and left
the above mentioned palm-grove, as well as an additional sum of 5,000
xerafins, as a bequest. The friars were required to build a Chapel dedicated
to St. Joseph in the Church of the Convent and to celebrate one daily mass
for the repose of the souls of the donors. For the terms of the will Cf. HAG:
Ms 2039, fl. 242-5 (2nd Oct., 1618).]
A PPENDIX A-4
AHU: Ms India, Box n. 6, File n. 29 (12th February, 1619)
My Lord
1. I was sent to be present during the auctioning of the village paddy fields
at Serula in Bardez, where this is done every three years. The manner in
which it was conducted this year will be present to Your Majesty from the
enclosures. I have tried to put the administration of the village in order and
to promote the increase of its revenue.
2. The ganvkars of Mapusa and Colvale have appealed to the High Court
against their taulka collector, Manoel da Silva, and his brother-in-law,
Loureno Pinto, for taking for themselves some of the best paddy fields
of those villages and for other sorts of injustices they describe in their memorandum, a copy of which goes along with this letter to Your Majesty. I have
been asked to look into this matter which implies violation of clause 10 of
the Charter. The said clause enables the ganvkars to give in lease or to make
a grant in perpetuity only of the waste lands of the village and not of paddy
fields. I am already beginning to face opposition and pulls along my path of
solving this case.
3. After observing how the paddy fields of Salcete and Bardez are presently
fragmented and usurped by influential persons, it was decided by the Public
Revenue Council that all the paddy fields should be restored to the village
communities in order to ensure a regular and full payment of land revenue
to the public exchequer. The problem is more serious in Salcete, because
while in Bardez the village communities are the owners of the lands, in
Salcete the ownership lies with the Crown and the fields are leased out to
the villages triennially. They either accept the leases or abandon the lands
depending upon the condition of the fields. If the fields are fragmented they
choose not to accept the leases and the land-revenue suffers. It is necessary,
therefore, that the lands remain entire, without letting small pieces to be
given as grants or to be usurped by individuals.
174
175
4. It is true from what I have seen that the people of Bardez are oppressed
by their taluka collector, by the Father of the Christians, and by the parish
priests. The collector goes round visiting the villages and makes them
pay for his stay and travel, plus the expenses of the naiks and peons who
accompany him. Besides, he demands from them a contribution known
as pachori in violation of clause 34 of the Charter. This happens because
Your Majesty has allowed the Archbishop to appoint the collector, and he
gives this job to his favourites against whom the poor peasants do not dare
to speak. Neither do the Parish Priests take any action because they are
subjects of the Archbishop. Now that I am trying to handle the issue, the
Archbishop has already notified the High Court that he and Manoel da Silva
have no trust in me. The situation has reached such a stage that even the
officials entrusted with the work of the House of Accounts do not do their
duty responsibly.
5. It is harmful to the public exchequer to have the collector of Bardez
appointed by the Archbishop. We know from experience that two such collectors in the past have been found guilty of defalcation and the Archbishop
and his Chapter had to be paid two thousand pardaos taken from other
revenues of Bardez which belong to the public exchequer. Your Majesty
would do well by setting aside the revenue of certain villages for the Archbishop, and the latter could then appoint his collector to those areas. The
public exchequer should not then be held responsible for any fault in the
collection of the revenues, because otherwise what his collectors rob has to
be made good by the public treasury. . . There is no need either of having
an independent collector for the rest of Bardez, because it is close to Goa
and the State Treasurer or the Chief Revenue Superintendent can send a
collector from there. In case a separate collector is retained he should submit the collection of the Treasury every month without fail. This will cut
short many abuses and the villages will be less oppressed, as it has been
observed during the term of office of Manoel Amado, whose accounts have
been found to be in good order.
6. The Father of the Christians is also a source of oppressions to the people. Your Majesty pays him a salary of one hundred xerafins. He spends
half a xerafim per day on his palanquin bearers alone. Besides, he spends
lavishly on presents to the Archbishop, Inquisitors and Judges, and provides
sumptuous meals to the viceroys (not to the Count Viceroy) when they visit
Bardez. He even had two thousand xerafins to lend to the Archbishop and
this sum has been repaid to him when Manoel Amado was collector. The
Father of the Christians is a friar of the Order of St. Francis and all the
money that he spends so lavishly comes from the people. The only remedy
to this evil would be to have this Father of the Christians changed every
three years. The present one has been in office for several years and will do
his best to prevent his transfer. I am an eye witness to his excesses and to
his scandalous behavior.
176
7. The Parish Priests also oppress the people pressing them to contribute to
their many projects and other works, as one can see from the records of the
village council proceedings. Every time the faithful come to the Church to
fulfil their religious obligations, they are requested to pass nem sanctioning contributions. The Parish Priests do this by getting some friendly and
influential ganvakrs to coax the others into approving such contributions.
Those who ultimately pay are the poor people, because the more influential
know how to evade that. This practice goes against clause 34 of the Charter,
and this abuse can be stopped by ordering a revision of the village records
of the past few years and by punishing the ganvkars and the clerks who
cooperated with the abuse of the Parish Priests. It will serve as a lesson to
all the villages if the action is taken just in a few villages.
8. The abuses take a slightly different form in Salcete, where the village
books are generally loaded with nem sanctioning contributions for dances,
flowers, celebrations in honour of judges, fidalgos, visitors of the Jesuit
Order, and so on. The paddy fields which these priests take on lease are
entered in the village records as paying just a fraction of their real value, and
they sublet them for a much higher rental. The truth could be brought to
light by questioning their tenants and by comparing the new and the old
village records. This has been happening ever since the Count Viceroy took
office. The Fathers have acquired the island of Raia by way of grant, but
against the disposition of clause 10 of the Charter. They pay only seventy
tangas as rent, but the land is worth over a thousand xerafins. The Fathers
are also in possession of another two villages which were confiscated from
their rebel inhabitants. Your Majesty has already ordered that they should
not belong to the Fathers any more.
9. Most unbelievable is the cruel fashion in which these Fathers treat thepeople of Salcete. It was brought to my notice by Antnio Carneiro de Arago
that when he had been to Salcete along with Dom Loureno da Cunha and
Dr. Antnio Barreto da Silva, a Father had ordered the canarins of the locality to supply fish every day. Once they happened to send him less fish, and
for that crime they were put into an enclosed place and mercilessly flogged
in the presence of the above mentioned Antnio Carneiro and the other
distinguished visitors. The natives do not dare to complain, and even the
Portuguese people and the State Ministers remain silent, because they fear
to have these Fathers against them. The Fathers were feared because of their
ability to write terrible accusations to the home authorities in Portugal.
10. In order to maintain their monopoly of exploiting the villages and to
keep the Portuguese laymen from encroaching upon their preserve, the
Fathers got round the general assembly of Salcete to request Your Majesty
to issue a proclamation forbidding any Portuguese to acquire the rights of
ganvkars (Cf. Appendix A-2). Such a proclamation has been issued and it
has come for the good of the people. The Fathers realised it too late that
177
the new law has done more harm than good to their interests, because they
were the ones who enjoyed the privileges of ganvkars in most cases.
11. These Fathers are past-masters in the art of extorting money from
the people. This year Your Majesty has passed a law excusing the native
Christians from the payment of tithes. The request for the exemption went
from the Fathers who received their commission from the people. They do
such things and pretend to serve the people. In reality they do business at
their expense. May God protect Your Majesty.
Goa, 12th February, 1619.
(Pedro Alvares Pereira)
[The producer of this report was one of the ten Judges of the Goa High Court.
IN 1619 he was also acting as Crown Attorney in India. It was in this capacity
that he was in a position to know the facts he reports.
In HAG: Mones 13 A, fls. 112v there is a report sent by the viceroy Count
of Linhares to Portugal on Jan. 6, 1630. It includes information about Pedro
Alvares Pereira and his work. He is described as an intelligent, practical and
expert official in Indian affairs.]
A PPENDIX A-5
HAG: MS 1161 (Assentos do Conselho da Fazenda, n. 3), fls. 63-5
1. On March 14, 1629, the Bishop Governor and the Minister-Delegates of

the Public Revenue Council met together to consider the contents of a royal
letter dated March 15, 1628, and addressed to the viceroy Dom Francisco
Mascarenhas. The letter included copy of a report sent to the king by the
Chief Judge, Dr. Bento de Baena Sanches, regarding the problems created
in the village communities of Tisvadi, Salcete and Bardez by the ethnic
Portuguese and some other influential persons. The letter read as follow:
2. My friend Dom Francisco Mascarenhas, viceroy of India. I, King, send
you greetings. When Count of Vidigueira was there as viceroy he wrote to
me on March 4, 1626, and also enclosed a report drawn by the Chief Judge,
Dr. Bento da Baena Sanches, on how the natives of the Goa Islands and
of the neighbouring talukas were disturbed with the interference of the
ethnic Portuguese in their village administration. I wish that the charters
granted to the natives should be honoured and whatever has been done
against them should be declared null and void. I also wish that you take up
the report of the Chief Judge for discussion in the Public Revenue Council
and also seek the opinion of the Chief Judge, Crown Judge, and the chief
ganvkars of the Goa Islands on this issue. I shall await the report of the
discussion along with individual opinions in order to take a final decision.
Written at Lisbon on March 15, 1628. The King.
3. The villages of the Goa Island and of its adjacent provinces of Salcete and
Bardez have their Charter and are governed by very old customs. According
to one of these customs it is only the male descendants of a ganvkar that
acquire the rights and privileges of a ganvkar by inheritance and these rights
and privileges of a ganvkar revert to the village community after the death
of an individual ganvakr. Hence, no female or no one outside the lineage of
the ganvkars of a village can claim such rights and privileges in that village.
4. According to the report submitted by the Chief Judge, the above mentioned custom was violated in different ways: Viceroys had made grants of
178
179
ganvkari to private persons who were not of the male lineage of ganvkars,
and some were allowed to have those rights by inheritance from females.
Some had acquired these rights by way of mortgage from their debtors. The
intruders were influential Portuguese and sometimes some powerful natives. Though the lands are by rule freely auctioned to the highest bidders,
the influential people often threatened the others and did not allow raising
of bids. The lands which they thus took for cheap rental were sublet by them
to the poorer ganvkars for excessively high rents.
5. There is another administrative custom in these villages by which the
village is given the right of pre-emption. Yet another custom gives every individual ganvkar right to veto and nullify any decision of the village council.
Hence, it so happens that when the village community wishes to take a land
property for itself in order to deprive an unwanted exploiter from having
it, the latter generally finds some ganvkar, who is then bribed to block the
proceedings of the village council and thereby allow the exploiter to have
his way and acquisition. That is how village lands are transferred to aliens
and the villages are made incapable of paying their full rents.
6. It is essential for the welfare and conservation of the village communities
that a law is enacted forbidding any outsiders from having active or passive
say in the auctioning of the village lands to which jon are annexed. It is also
necessary to have the auctioned properties assessed by the land evaluation
officers of the Goa city in order to curb those who bid very high in order to
make it difficult for the villages to exercise their right of pre-emption. It is
also necessary that in future the village decisions be taken by majority and
not by unanimity.
7. The chief ganvkars were convoked and shown the report of the Chief
Judge and the recorded opinions of the members of the Public Revenue
Council. The chief ganvkars kept the papers with them for some days,
discussed the matter in their own council, and came back to the Public
Revenue Council to submit their views. They agreed with all the suggestions
of the Councillors, excepting the suggestion for suppressing the veto power
of individual ganvakrs.
8. The Public Revenue Council arrived at the conclusion that the viceroy
should issue a provisional declaration for safeguarding the stipulations of
the Charter until a definitive legislation could come from the Crown. This
would ensure protection of the village communities and the land revenue
paid to the exchequer would remain undiminished.
9. These proceedings of the Public Revenue Council were recorded by Luis
Fernandes at the order of the Secretary of the Council, Manoel Pereyra de S.
Miguel. The Bishop-Governor and the other Councillors signed the draft.
(Signatures)
180
[A copy of this important document is also found in HAG: Mones 13 A,
fls. 41-43v. This document is found published in F.N. Xaviers Colleco das
Leis Peculiares das Comunidades, II, Nova Goa, 1852: pp. 29-32, without
reference to the original sources.]
A PPENDIX A-6
HAG: MS 10204 (Donkuly village records), fls. 10v-11
(Photocopy of the original in Halakanad. Transliterated by G.

Ghantkar into Devnagiri script.)
181
182
183
Words of Portuguese origin in the vernacular text

Reference to folio & line
Word
Port.form.
Meaning
fl. 10v, 1.4

ibid., 1.5
ibid., 1.16
ibid., 1.18
ibid., 1.19
fl.11, 1.4
ibid., 1.14
Pabasatu
Sinoru
Kapitana
Lehuru
Kadernara
Lovada
Taladara
(in) Povoao
Senhor
Capito
Livro
Encadernar
Louvado
Trasladar
(in) Village
Sir
Captain
Book
to bind
Arbiter
to copy
184
Gist of the Document
The ganvkars of Donkuly village of Salcete met in council on April 17, 1629
to make arrangements for the periodic surveying of the village lands. This
periodic survey was conducted once every twenty-five years. Joo da Costa
agreed to supply a bound book weighing a maund and half, plus loose paper
weighing another maund for the purpose of survey registration. He agreed to
supply these items for the lowest bid of nine bargany. Similarly, Domingos
da Silva Vaglo Naiks bid of two bargany and ten leaes was accepted for
supplying three bamboos cut to the size of the standard measuring rod kept
at Madganv. The council appointed five men as arbiters during the survey
operations which would begin at a site called Aksan kullagar on April 28.
The job of announcing this decision of the council to the entire village was
taken up by Antonio Silva Marta Naik for a remuneration of three and half
leaes.
Appendix A-7
HAG: MS 10204 (Donkuly Village Records), fls. 23-23v
(Photocopy of the original in Halakanad. Transliterated into
Devanagari script by G. Ghantkar)
185
186
187
1. Words of Portuguese origin in the text

Ref. to folio and line
Word
Port.form
Meaning
fl. 23, 1.15

ibid., 1.16
ibid., 1.19
Lehura
Lovada
Hatiota
Livro
Louvado
Fatiota
Book
Arbiter
Permanent grant
2. Personal Names of Portuguese Origin
188
Reference
fl.23,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
fl.23v,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.9-10
1.10
1.10-11
1.11
1.5
1.11
1.20
Names
Domingos Silva Pagul Naik, Belchior DAlmeida
Francisco de Brito, Pedro Colao, Antonio Gonalo
Antonio Costa Marat Naik, Pedro Colao
Joo de Cruz, Domingos Silva Pagul Naik
Joo Garcia
Adrio Costa, Alvaro Pereira
Salvador Velho Ram Naik
J Jernimo Mendes Mad Naik, Belchior dAlmeida
Antnio
Mathias
Gaspar Simo
Gist of the Document
Ganvkars of Donkuly village met on August 1, 1629, to determine some more

details regarding the land survey of the village. They established that in case
of additional land found in possession of any person, the following norms
should be observed in levying taxes and fines: If the extra land belongs to
the category of variable rent, the owner is to pay one xerafim and one larim,
whether the land is productive or fallow. If it falls in the category of fixed
rent, then the owner is to pay four larins per each palm tree, and two larins
per each empty pit.
Ganvkars also determined the following remuneration rates: Each of the
four padekars helping with the measuring rods would receive one bargany
a day. The daily allowance to the Government official would be four larins,
to his naik one larim and to his peon thirty duddu. The palanquin-bearer
would be paid one and half larins.
A PPENDIX A-8
AHU: MS India, Box n. 15, File n. 110 (29 Decemmber, 1643)
Memorandum presented by the General Assembly of Salcete Village
Communities to King John IV of Portugal in 1642
1. The chief ganvkars of the General Assembly are and have always been
the real proprietors of their lands. They govern the people and their village
communities in accordance with their old customs and usages, which were
respected even by tyrants who took possession of these lands. When the
king of Kanara extended his sway to these lands, he came to an agreement
with the people, who would pay him an annual tribute of 95,000 tangas
brancas, 1 bargany and 23 leaes. These figures may be checked in the land
revenue registers of this territory. The Muslim rule that followed confirmed
and fulfilled the obligations of the old contract and it did not interfere with
the local administration, but in keeping with the tradition of the Muslim rule
the people of Salcete had to pay heavy additional impositions repugnant
to the people. However, there was a thanadar, which means captain, who
visited the villages every three years to see if any damage to crops warranted
remission in the payment of land revenue. This practice still continues and
the Chief Revenue Superintendent ratifies the old contract in each village.
All this was recorded in the land revenue registers and land survey books
that were kept in the temples. When the Portuguese burnt down the temples,
the records of our old practices disappeared with them.
2. In the olden days fewer lands were cultivated, and even though the land
products were valued more than today, people were unable to pay the quit
rents with the income of their lands. This situation had forced several village
communities to abandon the lands, which the Government then tried to
farm out to individuals, but it never received higher revenue than what
the villages had been paying. The viceroys then insisted that the General
Assembly should bear the responsibility of meeting the deficit and take care
of the villages that faced the difficulty of paying their quit rents in full. In
189
190
order to raise money to cover such deficit the General Assembly was forced
to tax the non-agricultural profession, such as the fisherfolk and toddytappers. Also shares, of a kind known as jon was introduced. The collection
of these contributions was done so ruthlessly that incapacity to pay them
meant the loss of whatever few belongings a debtor had, such as cattle, seed,
or any household goods found to be his. No remission was granted even if
there was good reason for it, such as drought or famines, which have been
afflicting these lands for several years now. This sort of cruelty is something
irreconcilable with the Christian faith.
3. The Spanish-rule added insult to injury by imposing a fresh tribute called
Collecta, which this region is paying for the last fifteen years, and 149,167
xerafins have already been paid so far at the rate of 9,994.5 xerafins per year.
This tribute was collected with threats of imprisonment, galley-work, and
so on, forcing many to abandon their families and find means of paying the
tribute. When the war of Ceylon was going on, the poor people of Salcete
were required to contribute with 17,000 xerafins for purchasing negroes to
be sent to that island. The viceroy Count of Linhares also collected a sum
of 6,000 xerafins for building a fort at Kamboly in Kanara. Nearly 10,000
xerafins were collected by imposing a tax called Collecta de Parangues on
boats that brought foodstuffs to Salcete.
4. As if all the above burdens were not enough to break this people, five
additional taxes have been introduced, and their collection is entrusted to
Hindu tax-farmers, who exercise all forms of cruelties to extort money from
the people. This yearly income of these new taxes is as follows: Customs
5,600 xerafins approximately; Tobacco 10,500 xerafins; Arrack 4,200
xerafins; and Chancery 200 xerafins. It was also through violence that the
Government took away from the village communities those lands they had
set aside in the olden days for maintaining the temples and cult. These
namassy lands are divided in three portions: The income of one portion
amounts to 5,000 xerafins a year. It is collected by the taluka collector and
paid as salary to the Parish Priests and other ministers of religion. The
second portion lying in ten most fertile villages of Salcete has an annual
income of 7,000 xerafins. These lands have been donated to the Fathers
of the Society of Jesus. The third portion is given on lease to different
individuals, and only the rent they pay every year amounts to 1,900 xerafins.
In this way the village communities are deprived of nearly 35,300 xerafins
every years, and there is no way of obtaining justice.
5. At the time when the viceroy Pero da Silva began forcing the natives
of Salcete to serve in the fort garrisons at Mormuganv and elsewhere, the
cultivation of lands began to suffer owing to lack of hands to work in the
fields. The viceroy then promised exemption from this military service if
the villages would commit themselves to pay 12,000 xerafins. However,
once the sum was paid he forgot all about his promises and the people
continued to be drafted for military service. And these native soldiers had
191
to be maintained with funds drawn from the villages. In the meantime there
had been no reduction in land revenue.
6. The village communities of Salcete have erected and furnished twentyfour churches. The cost of each varies between six and nine thousand
xerafins. The celebration of religious services and other feasts, as well as the
support of confraternities, take away much money from the people.
7. The whole territory of Salcete has a length of four leagues in the NorthSouth direction and its breadth East-West is of a league and half. Nearly
two-thirds of this land are covered by chains of hills and only one-third
is available for cultivation. Five of the most fertile villages are bestowed
upon fidalgos and the Jesuit Fathers, who do not care to pay their dues to
the General Assembly. The entire land was brought under cultivation by
the efforts of the natives, and today it does not give them more than 6%
profit, and this without including all kinds of taxes they are required to pay.
Coconuts are the most important produce of these lands, but their value is
gone down so much that it is next to impossible to cover the rent on palm
groves.
8. The tax-farmers, as we said earlier, are mostly Hindus and these have
wide powers to exert pressures. The tobacco-tax farmer is perhaps the most
powerful and the most feared in Salcete. He moves about with bands of
poor Christian vagabonds who are always willing to bear false witness in
his favour. The tax-farmer can thus accuse anyone of dealing illegally with
tobacco and force him to pay fines. Most of the accused do not normally
have means to pay these fines and they prefer to flee from the country. The
said tax-farmers show no respect for the decency of the women who take
goods to sell at fairs. Body-searching is done at the toll-booths without any
consideration for women, either married or unmarried. Many Christian
families have already left this territory and are now cultivating lands in the
Muslim country with more peace and for less rent.
9. Another problem of this land is the tendency of its inhabitants to sue
each other in courts for the most silly reasons and to spend their meager
savings in such activity.
10. Over and above there are the Ministers of Public Treasury demanding
tithes from the natives of Salcete. This comes in addition to land revenue,
which amounts to more than double tithes.
11. It is a miracle if this small region which does not produce more than rice
and coconuts can satisfy so many demands. This is possible only because of
the administrative talent of its Brahmin inhabitants. Many of them migrate
in order to find a better livelihood (and even this is forbidden to them).
When they return with their savings, they invest a part in divine cult which
they regard as good investment, and the rest they spend on their poor
parents and relatives, or on redeeming whatever properties they may have
inherited from their parents.
192
12. It is very painful to realise that when our people were Hindus they were
better honoured and respected by the Hindu and Muslim rulers, but after
conversion we have lost much of our self-respect. A Portuguese nobleman
or Minister shows greater respect to a low caste Hindu than to a Christian
of high caste. It happens quite often that a Hindu is given a chair to sit and
a native Christian stands. This attitude of the Portuguese has made many
Christians in the recent years to go to the city with the headgear and the
tunic of the kind the Hindus wear. There is no way of talking to Hindus
about conversion anymore, because they reply that they are not in hurry to
lose their self-respect.
13. It is impossible for the people to find justice in this land, because of the
enemies who are too powerful: Firstly, there are the viceroys who always
require more money for the needs of the State. Secondly, the Ministers of
the Public Exchequer keep sending the helpless tax-payers from one court
of justice to another, if they go to seek justice. Finally, the Fathers of the
Society of Jesus are the toughest of the lot, and even the viceroys do not dare
to take them to task. We request Your Majesty to find remedy to our ills. We
wish that the Holy Inquisition be entrusted with the task of conducting a
secret inquiry into all that has been exposed in this memorandum, because
no one else can dig into this dirt without fearing reprisals.
14. We humbly prostrate before Your Majestys feet and beg for justice. May
Our Lord keep Your Majesty to see many successes and victories and the
growth of the kingdom.
Salcete, 22 December, 1642.
Another Memorandum presented this year, 1643
15. We had written to Your Majesty last year and expressed our joy over the
royal succession of Your Majesty. We are enclosing a copy of the memorandum which had been sent with that letter last year. We are still awaiting reply.
We humbly plead before Your Majesty, Father and Lord of this Christendom,
to look upon the sufferings and miseries of this people.
16. The king of Portugal had agreed to honour the contract which this
General Assembly had made with the Kanara and Muslim rulers prior to the
arrival of the Portuguese, but utter disregard was shown and several new
impositions were levied. These have been described in the memorandum
sent to Your Majesty last year, a copy of which is attached to this one. Just
now there is insistence that we should pay tithes while we cannot pay even
the quit rents in full. This old contract never mentioned the obligation of
paying tithes. Besides, there is another reason for not paying them: Lands
that belonged to villages were usurped and given in grant to the Society of
Jesus and to many fidalgos.
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17. The Government had exempted us in the past from the payment of these
tithes in order to allure us into Christianity. But we insist that the demand
of tithes is unjust and undue. We request Your Majesty that if any inquiry
is to be conducted in this matter it should be entrusted to the Board of
Conscience formed by the officials of the Holy Inquisition, because that is
the only body that can be trusted with the mission of doing justice fearlessly.
18. While we were under no obligation to accept any additional taxes, five
new taxes have been clamped on us, and their collection is farmed out to
Hindus, whose tyranny has forced over three hundred Christians, including
men, women and children, to migrate to the Muslim country of the neighbourhood. Your Majesty must grant these people an opportunity to return
and express their grievances before the Board of Conscience, and their cases
should be decided orally. This will prevent their souls being lost among the
infidels.
19. We request Your Majesty to issue a new law restoring to us all our old
rights and privileges, which had always been of the General Assemblies of
all the eighteen provinces of the Konkan. Besides, to this General Assembly
belong the most noble Brahmins of the East. We also wish that all the
privileges granted to the municipal council of Goa town be extended to this
General Assembly.
20. Yet another law should be enacted to put an end to several new practices
introduced by Captains, Judges, Collectors, Clerks of the Rachol fort, and by
the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, all of whom have usurped many lands and
never bother to pay their share of contributions to the village communities.
This matter may also be placed before the Board of Conscience.
21. The viceroys and the governors often summon the General Assembly
(which consists of not less than twenty-five members) to his presence and
demand money grants with threats of imprisonment and forced labour in
galleys. It was in this manner that the past viceroys extorted over 200,000
xerafins. Also this form of oppression could be investigated by the Board of
Conscience.
22. Another serious evil that destroys this people is their bad habit of suing
each other in courts of law for no serious reasons. The Judge of this region
is ordinarily an idiot, and the clerks who assist him are satisfied with the
information they gather from witness who are generally unreliable. There
are too many miserable people in this land who are only too eager to bear
false witness in order to earn a paltry little sum. A law was enacted recently
disallowing the natives to take their grievances to court, except in four
cases, namely, murder, crippling, breach of oath and false witnessing. Even
when they are allowed to go to courts, the Judge should not take a case
without demanding a deposit of three hundred xerafins. This law is no
more observed, and there are many languishing in prisons. Hence, it is
urgent that serious action should be taken against the clerks who assist the
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Criminal Judge. They should be sacked from office if they admit any cases
in contravention of the established regulations. With regard to civil suits
every village community or the General Assembly is to be empowered to
elect two honest men in each village to act as justices of peace for a term
lasting one year. These should have jurisdiction over all cases involving up
to 500 xerafins as fines.
In cases of disagreement between the two arbiters, the Parish Priest may
be called to break the stalemate. The cases heard in the village may be
allowed to appear to the Crown Judge in India, but he should judge these
cases verbally, because the people are poor and cannot endure the expenses
involved in the long drawn court procedures.
23. This memorandum was drafted by me, Francisco Mascarenhas, Secretary of the General Assembly. It bears my signature, and so also of our two
procurators, namely Father Antonio de Pinho and Father Estevao da Gama,
and of two chief ganvkars, Domingos de Mello and Joo Vaz.
(Signatures)
(Two more paragraphs follow written with same hand and ink.)
24. Viceroy Pero da Silva had ordered galleons to be built here and the
contractors were allowed to cut down jackfruit trees and other fruit-bearing
trees from the properties belonging to private individuals without bothering
about just compensation. The galleons caught fire and were burnt when
they entered the bay.
25. We had more things to say about the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, but
we deem it prudent to wait until someone of us can go personally to Your
Majesty. These Fathers also plan to send some petitions to Your Majesty
through our procurators. We pray that Your Majesty should consider their
needs as fictitious and their demands as harmful to the people.
A PPENDIX A-9
Functions of Village Watchmen
(Collection of the late Mr. Avelino Soares, kindly ceded for

reference by Mariano Dias : Siuly Village records for the years
1671, fl. 3)
1. The following ganvkars of Siuly met at the fort of Reis of Nerul on December 12, 1671, namely Baltazar de Noronha of the first vote, Diogo Fernandes
of the second vote, Mateus Fernandes of the third vote, Domingos Fernandes
of the fourth vote, Pascoal de Mello of the fifth vote, Domingos Fernandes
of the sixth vote, and some more ganvkars and Kulacari. They ordered me,
Antonio de Nazar, clerk of the village, to record the proceedings relating to
the appointment of the village watchmen and to announce the nem.
2. The watchmen to be appointed were to follow instructions of the taluka
Captain in all things that pertain to the service of the Crown. In case of a
murder or any serious disturbance in the village, the watchmen were to
render all possible assistance to the assaulted party or parties and take the
malefactors and the victims to the presence of the Judge. It would be also
their duty to arrest slaves who run away from their masters and to keep the
Captain informed about any outsiders entering the village, particularly if
such outsiders hail from the mainland. Their duty will be able to help the
crown officials when they visit the village. Finally, the watchmen should
arrest as thief anyone moving outdoors after eight oclock in the evening
without a lit torch in hands.
3. Each ward will have its watchman, and in case of a theft the watchman
of that area will be held responsible for the damage and required to compensate the loss as per the following rates: 7 tangas for hundred coconuts,
one tanga for one bunch of coconuts, half a tanga for a bunch of arecanuts,
12 ris for a palm sapling, 12 ris for a coconut of barika quality, 45 ris
for a jackfruit of barika type, and half a tanga for one of jirasal type, and
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196
half a xerafim for a bunch of plantains. The value of the goods lost will be
discounted from the watchmans pay and given to the party that suffered
the loss. This discounting and compensation will be done by the village
clerk after obtaining sworn information from the coconut pluckers.
4. The musara of all the watchmen together will be 243 tangas brancas,
which they will receive at the time of settling the yearly accounts: Their duty
will begin from the first day of November, and it will be their responsibility
to pay for the extra services of the previous years watchmen. The sharing
of the musara among the various watchmen will be as follows: 50 tangas
brancas to Francisco Drago, the watchman of the Tallony Palchovado Pinaly
ward; 30 tgs. br. to the same for watching Gaunsavado; 40 tgs. br. to Baltazar
Fernandes, the watchman of the Lakshetichovado; 40 tgs. br. to Diogo
Fernandes and Miguel de Noronha, the watchmen of Partavado; and 43
tgs. br. to Gaspar Barros and Domingos Fernandes, the watchman of the
Tarchybatty ward.
5. The coconut pluckers will be paid by the palm-grove owners at the rate
of three coconuts for every hundred plucked in the groves leased out for
fixed rent. In the case of the groves paying flexible rent the pluckers will
receive one coconut per every two tangas of rent. The following coconut
pluckers have been sworn to work in the following wards: Gaspar and Luis
in Palchovado Tallony Pinaly, Antonio Fernandes in Gaunsavado, Manoel
Fernandes and Andre Pereira in Bamonvado, Francisco son of Antonio and
Manoel son of Lakhu in Lakhsetychovado, Luis Coelho Narana son of Baizem
in Tarchybatty. These pluckers are officially appointed and the clerks will
issue compensation certificates to the owners after hearing these men.
6. If the terlu do not meet the palm-grove owners and take up their duty,
the handing over of the charge to watch will be done by the proprietors
in the presence of the village clerk and two ganvkars after cutting off the
empty sely of the palm trees. The watchmen may conduct a search of
the village shops when there is theft of coconuts, but they will have to
pay for the loss without excuses when the tax collector produces clerks
certificates demanding compensation. Only after making the payment the
watchmen may represent their case and apply for justice. These conditions
were accepted by the new watchmen who signed this agreement along with
the Captain and the ganvkars in council. I, secretary of the council, drafted
the proceedings and signed with others.
(Signatures)
Appendix A-10
Functions of Village Tax-Collector
(Collection of the late A. Soares, kindly ceded for reference by Mariano Dias:
Sirula Village records for 1674, fls. 66v-37)
1. Ganvkars of eighteen votes of Sirula village gathered in council on February 16, 1674, in the presence of the taluka Captain, Agostinho Pereira, to
farm out the office of potekar for the present year, beginning on November
1, 1673, and ending on the last day of October, 1674. This meeting was
announced in accordance with the village custom.
2. The duty of the potekar will be to collect the land revenue or any other
dues from the ganvkars in twelve instalments. The collection is to be made
monthly and submitted to the taluka collector at his own expense. The
amount collected should be noted down in a proper register and only then
the village clerk will issue him receipts. The collection should begin on the
25th day of every month and should be submitted to the taluka collector by
the end of the month. The monthly collection should be collected at the
rate of four zoitolle per share (tanga branca) and the collection should be
completed before the end of the month. If someone is unable to pay, his
goods and cattle may be mortgaged to satisfy the debt, and the debtor will
go to prison until the debt is paid in full. If the belongings of the debtor
are not sufficient to meet the debt, his sureties are to be tackled. If a wrong
person is imprisoned, the tax-collector will be liable to pay compensation at
the rate of one bargany per day. If the cattle of an innocent person is taken
away by mistake, the following compensation will be paid by the potekar:
eight xerafins for a pair of oxen, eight xerafins for a cow, and twelve xerafins
for a milk giving buffalo.
3. No debtor may transfer any shares to creditors title by way of chadvana.
The clerks shall not permit such transfers under fine or penalty of losing
their personal goods to satisfy such illicit transfers. The clerks should submit
a complete list of the tax-payers to the tax-collector by the end of April, and
failing to do so they will make good whatever expenses may be incurred by
the visit of naiks and peons of taluka collector.
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4. The tax-collector will only receive his salary. He will collect the dues from
the Portuguese and from anyone who owes due to the village. The village
will not auction the goods of any debtor, neither will the tax-collector do it
even with the permission of any Minister. He may only imprison the debtor
or his sureties and demand satisfaction of the debt. The extra expenses
incurred by him in forcible exaction will be paid to him in the sixth and the
twelfth instalments. If naiks and peons of the collector visit the village in
connection with the payment delay, the expenses of such visits will be borne
by the tax-collector and not by the village. The tax-collector shall not collect
any more than noted in the list given by the clerks. If he collects more than
six zoitolle extra, he may be required to pay back one and a half xerafins. If
the surplus collection does not exceed six zoitolle, the defrauded party will
receive compensation by auctioning some goods of the tax-collector.
5. Once the clerks submit the list of debts to be collected, no alteration
may be made in the collection. If the clerks refuse to submit the list, the
tax-collector may confiscate their goods and ask the village community
to provide new clerks. No tax-payer may be required to pay the dues in
advance, and any such advance payments may be declared invalid even if
the tax-collector has issued receipts.
6. Whoever accepts to be tax-collector shall present four persons as sureties.
These have to be ganvkars, landed proprietors and acceptable to the village
council. The tax-collectors functions will be to collect the dues from the
villages, to collect receipts from the collector, and to demand lists of debtors
from the clerks, without requiring the village community to take action in
any of these operations. He may produce the clerks before the Captain if
they do not give him complete lists.
7. The office of tax-collector was farmed out under the above conditions, and
the lowest bid was that of Gaspar de Noronha, son of Manoel de Noronha,
a ganvkar of the village. He agreed to take up the job for a stipend of 94
tangas brancas and presented his four sureties, namely Antonio de Souza,
son of Madana Parbu, Antonio de Noronha, son of Madana Parbhu, Ventura
Noronha, son of Manoel Noronha, and Antonio de Noronha, son of Gaspar
de Noronha, all of whom agreed individually and jointly to present their
own persons and belongings as surety for the tax-collector, and with this
assurance they all signed.
8. The new tax-collector also agreed to collect the revenue of the village
shop, oil-presses, and palm-sugar, all of which constitute the so-called renda
do mantimento or tax on foodstuffs. This contract for tax collection will last
one year beginning with September 1673. The income of the shop amounts
to 153 xerafins, 4 tangas, and 15 ris, but he should pay only the village share
as per the distribution made by the General Assembly. Thirty-two xerafins
and three tangas already paid to the taluka collector must be discounted.
In case of any delay in the payment of the shop-tax to the collector, the tax-
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collector will be responsible for the payment of fines. He may not demand
any increase in his stipend.
9. All that were present signed here with me and the taluka collector.
(18 signatures)
Appendix A-11
HAG: Mones 54, fls. 55-57
Information sent to the Crown by the Governor Dom Rodrigo
da Costa responding to a list of complaints submitted to the
Crown by the General Assembly of the Village Communities of
Bardez.
1. They pretend to be loyal and faithful subjects of Your Majesty, but their
behavior has always proved the contrary to be true. When our enemy Sambhaji invaded Bardez the natives abandoned the defence of Tivy and went
away. Some of them moved out of the country with their families and settled
in the country of the queen of Kanar, disregarding their faith and the good
upbringing they had received in the lands of Your Majesty. Again, when the
Muslim Abdul Hakim invaded the lands of Bardez many influential members of the General Assembly rebelled against our rule and tried to hand over
the territory to the enemy. Their complaints are false and not in keeping
with their profession of loyalty and fidelity to Your Majesty.
2. They accuse the Government of taking away their lands and bestowing
them upon private individuals. They are referring to the lands which had
belonged to their temples. There is information available on this issue in
the Secretariat. The lands that once belonged to the temples have been
now given to the Churches, and the Churches have in some instances made
grants of them to individuals, most of whom are natives.
3. They say that with the exception of the Customs revenue all the other
taxes are new impositions. I must say that taxes on foodstuffs, tobacco,
arrack and tithes are least fifty years old. Only the salt-tax is of more recent
origin.
4. The General Assembly writes that the viceroy Count of Alvor had rejected
a request of the Captain of Bardez for a raise in his salary, but that now the
viceroy in the Revenue Council had come to the conclusion that an increase
was justified and necessary to prevent the Captain from exacting money
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201
from the people. They complain that the villages have to contribute now
3,392 xerafins to Captains pay during a triennium. It is true that the opinion
of the General Assembly was not sought, but if they wanted to object there
are ways of seeking redress in India. What they want in reality is to have
Captains and Judges who are subservient to them. It is their inability to do
this that is annoying them at present.
5. They say that Bardez supplies four thousand armed men to garrison the
fortifications of Tivy. This number is exaggerated, because the whole of
Bardez does not have more than fifteen thousand men who can take up
arms, and of these only some have been selected to serve at Tivy. They
complain that the population of Bardez is reduced by half owing to the
introduction of compulsory military service. If this service was not made
compulsory none of them would have come up voluntarily. These natives
are cowards and useless as soldiers. Six hundred Portuguese men excel the
whole lot of these natives, who desert the battlefield at the first opportunity
to do so. There is no information about 60,000 xerafins they claim to have
spent during the last wars. It is only when the natives were recruited to
assist in the defence of Tivy that the villages began contributing with money
for the maintenance of their men. It is not true that the natives of Bardez
spent 4,000 xerafins per year during the last three years. Only the villages
of Kandoli, Kalangut, Arpora, Nagoa and Anjuna, which lie by the seashore
between the Aguada fort and Chapora fort, supplied 215 men paid by them
to keep night-watch over the beach during the summer season. They paid
them at the rate of 40 ris per day.
6. They complain that despite their misery 36,000 xerafins were collected
from them for digging the trenches of the Tivy fortifications. The records
show 31,104 xerafins, 2 tangas and 40 ris as the total collection made
during Count of Alvors term of viceroyalty. Only 11,179 xerafins have been
spent, and the remaining money is kept in the safe of Reis Magos College
of the Franciscans. The three keys of the safe are with the Chief Revenue
Superintendent, with the Captain of Bardez and with the Rector of the
College. When the Captain Manoel Gomes died, the General Assembly
suggested that the safe should be entrusted to two or three chief ganvkars.
This suggestion, if accepted, would give them an excellent opportunity to
swallow the funds as they did when the fort of Chapora and the fort of St.
Thomas in Tivy were under construction.
7. It is not true that the natives alone paid for the construction of Chapora
fort and fort of St. Thomas. The Portuguese contributed with half the
amount. All the expenses in Bardez are shared this way. It is true that natives
pay for a team of six men at the Aguada fort. Their duty is to warn the
Captain whenever an unidentified boat approaches the coast. Each of these
men is paid a xerafim and half per month, which amounts to 108 xerafins
for the six men during a year.
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8. They accuse the ministers, fort captain and other military rank and file
of oppressing the local inhabitants by taking away forcibly their foodstuffs,
such as coconuts, fowls, pigs, ghee, oil, and so on, without paying even
one-fourth of the market value. Also mango trees and other fruit trees are
said to be cut down by the soldiers. These are false and exaggerated reports.
It is obvious that the military men living in those areas have to survive and
they need to eat. It is true that they try to buy foodstuffs for moderate rates
and cut down some plants for firewood. It is not true that there is scarcity
of foodstuff. Most of the natives are thriving by hoarding foodstuffs at the
harvest time even by selling gold ornaments of their wives and children, and
selling them later for very high profits. The Captains have sought to check
their greed by keeping the prices of the essential commodities moderately
low in order to prevent sufferings of the poor people.
9. The General Assembly gives two reasons for the scarcity of foodstuffs.
Firstly, the regions beyond Ghats and of Kanara were affected by the
Maratha-Mughal conflict. Secondly, the merchants who normally brought
the foodgrain were unhappy with the tax on import of foodgrain imposed
by the Goa Municipality. Without external supplies, the rice production of
Bardez is not sufficient for more than four months of the year. I am inclined
to believe that there is no real scarcity, and I could cite cases of foodgrain
being smuggled from Bardez into the mainland.
10. No ministers or Government officials levy any tributes or act in any way
against the interests of the natives without consulting the opinion of the
General Assembly.
11. They complain that the Captains and Judges of Bardez have often shown
contempt for the General Assembly and village councils by treating them
like private individuals and by subjecting them to insults and even beatings.
I must say that they often allege that the business which they are called to
transact does not touch their interests and refuse to attend the meetings
when they are called. Quite often the chief ganvkars send useless substitutes
to represent them by paying one tanga per day. The Captains were forced
to take action in order to put an end to such insolent behavior when it was
repeated more than thrice.
12. They complain that the Captain of the Aguada and Reis Magos forts were
taking coconuts forcibly for one-fourth of the market price. It is obvious
that the soldiers need coconuts during winter. In order to prevent abuses
described above, the Government fixed a moderate rate for the coconuts,
that is, 25 xerafins for a thousand coconuts. The people complain because
they could sell them in the market for 30 xerafins or so. If they have any
objections regarding the duty collected at the river passage between Bardez
and Panjim, they are welcome to seek justice.
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[HAG: Mones 54, fl. 50 contains a letter of the King of Portugal to the
Governor in India dated 16 March, 1689, enclosing a copy of the complaints
sent by the General Assembly of Bardez and instructing the Governor to reply
to each of those complaints. The list of complaints has been published by F.N.
Xavier in Bosquejo Histrico das Communidades (Nova Goa, 1852), II, 65-6
without reference to the original source. These complaints can be inferred
from the replies given in the document reproduced in this Appendix.]
Appendix A-12
AHU: India, Box n. 41, File n. 32 (11 January, 1698)
1. Years ago the Board of the Holy Inquisition had imposed a ban upon
the native Christians of this territory from going over to the mainland to
cultivate lands. It was done to avoid many inconveniences resulting therefrom to the Christian souls which were led astray into idolatry and beliefs of
Hinduism. It was also done to respond to the clamours and complaints of
the pastors of souls, who had found out that under the pretext of cultivation
many of their parishioners were staying on in the mainland for years together without attending to their spiritual obligations, that is, without mass
and holy sacraments of the Church.
2. This was confirmed to be true by the information available to this Board,
and particularly by a visitation of the Inquisitor Manoel Joo Vieira to the
lands of Salcete in the year 1693. He found a multitude of Christians fallen
away from their faith: Many had stayed on in the mainland for ten, fifteen
and twenty years; there were among them men married to Hindu women
and vice versa, led to it by death of one of the partners while there; many
children of ten, twelve and fifteen years of age were yet to be baptised. These
were then properly instructed in faith and given Baptism.
3. In addition to the above reasons, there were also complaints of the
General Assemblies of the villages, which were finding it difficult to cultivate
lands owing revenue to the State due to shortage of labour, which went to
the mainland in large numbers, carrying their cattle along.
4. In the mainland, and for that matter even in our own territory where there
are non-Christian peasants, the fields are not cultivated without previous
ceremonies, offerings and sacrifices to idols, praying for good harvests. A
temple-servant called mully performs these acts of worship to the devil
by offering rice, coconuts, plantains and cocks. The heads of these birds
are chopped and their blood sprinkled over the fields. Also some coconutmilk and boiled rice were strewn during this ritual. The performer of these
ceremonies gets possessed by devil and tells the cultivators there present
whether the harvest will be good or bad. The cultivators are moved by their
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desire for good crops to make their profession of faith in the idols, to whom
they vow to offer a portion of their crops. This we call tithes, but these
idolaters call it namassy. All the peasants are bound to observe this practice
under threat of being deprived of their fields. This ritual is performed several
times during a year, such as at the harvest time, maintenance of clay-levees
that protect the fields, and so on. Many Christians of this territory take
delight in visiting the idols under pretext of cultivation. These idols are
considered to be protective-deities of different villages of our territory, from
where they were taken out at the time of conversion drive.
5. These were the motives that compelled the Board to ban cultivation of
fields in the mainland by our Christian natives. But from what we have
observed during the last couple of years, there appears to have been little
correction. For this reason we imposed a stricter ban, after obtaining a
positive response from the State authorities. There are, however, persons
interested in gifts from the rich Hindus owning fields in the mainland, and
these interested parties are trying their best to get a relaxation of the ban
by spreading false reports that the ban is responsible for the famine prevailing these days. Such has been the claim of the city councilors, who have
represented to us and have also written to Your Majesty and to the Chief
Inquisitor.
6. The said councillors argue that a similar ban should have been imposed
also on the Christians who go with their oxen caravans to the kingdoms
of Golkonda, Bijapur and Balghat, because they too are said to be visiting
Hindu temples along their way. To this we reply that we have no sufficient
reason to impose such a ban on them, while we can say definitely that the
said cultivators are openly indulging in idolatry.
7. The councillors also claim that the customs of Bardez and Salcete were
formerly yielding eight to nine thousand xerafins each every year, and dried
up as a consequence of our ban. We can say that this reasoning is utterly
false, because the cultivation of the mainland never brought income to our
Customs. We only see food-grains going from our territory to the mainland.
In the olden times many goods were being exported from this territory and
in the return the caravans brought cloths and several other goods which
enriched the Customs and the population of this territory. The harm to the
Customs is rather caused by the recent establishment of a Board of Trade
and a Trade Company.
8. The same councillors also say that the mainland is today under Muslim
domination and that no Hindu worship is permitted. It is known to us,
however, that the Muslim Governor residing at Ponda fort has no more than
a hundred Muslims in his retinue, and he has no power to interfere with
the religious practices of the Hindu inhabitants of that region. We can see
crowds of Hindus gathering at the river. That Governor leases the lands to
dessais, to each one his district, and the latter then sublet the lands to others
206
for cultivation and payment of revenue. It is clear also to everyone that no
food-grains from there enter this territory, while boat-loads are smuggled
out of our lands to the mainland by bribing heavily the border guards. This
is unexplainable if there is abundance of foodrains in the mainland.
9. The truth is that private interests are seeking covers. We believe that our
problems are rather caused by other factors: There is the absence of shipconvoys that were organised in the past years to fetch goods from North
and South. At least three such trips were effected between September and
May every year, as Count of Alvor and D. Fernando Martins Mascarenhas de
Lencastre, who governed this State, could testify. Presently nothing is being
done to keep up this beneficent measure, and the merchants are scared
to take risks, because the Maratha pirates are scouring the coast from our
Northern Province till the South.
10. We would suffer less if there was more control at the border checkposts and greater control by the boats guarding the river passages. Not just
foodstuffs but even gunpowder, ammunitions and other kinds of goods
are smuggled out. The present shortage of foodstuffs is caused also to
some extent by the ships that went to the straits loaded with them. Thus,
for instance, the carrack Our Lady of Glory left with twenty-five thousand
fardles of rice and was nearly sinking with this load. Similarly, the carrack
Our Lady of Conception left the ports of the Northern Province heavily
loaded. Both these carracks met Arab enemy boats on their way and only
miraculously managed to escape. The enemy had nearly boarded one of
them, when some grenades dropped into the enemy boat frightened the
crew, which pulled off without any exchange of artillery fire.
11. Large number of gentiles in our territory is also an important cause of
our misery. There are almost thirty thousand of them, who offer no hopes
of conversion and are destroying the faith of those who have it. We had
requested in 1691 that they be thrown out, but the reply we got was that
Your Majesty had the matter under consideration and that we would be
informed of the decision in due time. These gentiles live in certain suburbs
of the city, known as challes, which are closed to any outsiders and well
guarded at nights. In spite of several legislative measures they still bring
their bottos (bhats) to conduct their rituals by bribing the officials of the
border posts. This demonstrates a failure in the mission entrusted by God
to our Portuguese nation.
12. These are the truths which we state taking God as our witness. If contrary
reports reach the presence of Your Majesty such as letters from the city
councillors or other interested individuals, we beg Your Majesty to keep in
mind for Gods sake the obligation of protecting this head of Christianity in
the East. May God keep Your Majesty. Goa, 11 January, 1698.
Very loyal vassals and devoted well-wishers of Your Majesty,
207
(Signatures)
Manoel Joo Vieira
Fr. Manoel dAffonso (?)
Appendix B-1
HAG: Ms 7695 (Registos Gerais do Senado), fls. 147v-8
1. The aldermen, judges, officers and the majority of the knights and citizens,
who are connected with the administration of the city and were summoned
for the meeting in accordance with tradition and customs of the city, met
together in the Town Hall on November 12, 1578. Antonio Fernandes, the
presiding alderman of the month, told the assembly that there were irregularities in the election procedure and as a result persons that had never
served the city were elected to serve in the high positions and those who had
served were elected for the lower posts which they were reluctant to accept.
Since much harm resulted from such disorders to the service of God and
to the common weal, and since it was the obligation of the city to compel
anyone elected for an office to accept it, he proposed to all the assembled to
consider the wisdom of coming to an agreement that no citizen should be
elected in future for the post of alderman without having served earlier in
the capacity of almotacel and procurator, or as justice of peace. Only under
this condition may someone be elected alderman. A person that votes for
one who does not satisfy the above condition will pay a fine of one hundred
pardaos for the defence works, and the aldermen and officials to whom it
belongs to invest the newly-elected in office will not do so under the same
penalty. In order that the electors may know who are eligible, the Secretary
of the Council will read out to them the full text of this accord at the time
of elections. This accord will not be applicable to fidalgo candidates who
may be elected aldermen without having served the two offices or either of
them. This is in keeping with the privileges and tradition of Lisbon city and
are applicable to this city as well.
2. It was also determined that if anyone in future is elected to serve a city
office and refuses to accept it, such a person will be disqualified for holding
any office in future, neither will he have any say in the meetings convoked
to discuss city affairs. In addition to these penalties, he will also incur the
criminal and civil penalties established in an accord of 1575 and confirmed
by the Governor Antonio Moniz Barreto.
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209
3.With the exception of two dissenting voices the rest of those present agreed
to enforce the terms of this accord, which was thus approved, and I, the
Secretary, was ordered by the alderman to draft it. It was also added to
the above terms that the Secretary of the Council would draw up a list of
the conditions of eligibility and place it before the electors at the time of
elections. I, Joo Mendes de Carvalho, Secretary of the Municipal Council
recorded this accord.
(Signatures)
Appendix B-2
HAG: Ms Mones 5, fls. 54v-55v
1. I, King, make it known to all who see this decree that I am informed about
cruel tortures to which slaves and captives are subjected in the city of Goa
and other cities, fortresses and places of Portuguese Indies, about many
slaves who die during or after such cruelties, and about their masters who
try to hide such evil deeds by burying the victims inside their houses and
compounds. I wish to put an end to such cases of homicide and inhuman
tortures, and I wish to have the culprits punished as they deserve. Hence,
I order my viceroy in India and his successors to hold judicial inquiries
every year into the behavior of the slave-owners. These inquiries will be
conducted in Goa by the Chancellor of the High Court, and in other cities
and fortresses by their respective Crown Judges.
2.When culprits are detected, action should be taken against them as directed by the ordinances and the laws of this country, and no one, be it man
or woman, shall go unpunished. The viceroys should diligently observe if
the Judges entrusted with this task carry it out without negligence or laxity.
I also order that my officials of justice when informed about any slaves
being ill-treated of subjected to unbearable and shameful torments should
look into the matter and proceed summarily. The ill-treated slaves may be
taken away from their masters. The masters may be required to contribute
towards the maintenance of the slaves thus taken away until a final decision
is taken in the case, whether the master should give up his right to the slave
or whether he can have him back.
3.This decree shall be considered as a proclamation issued in my name and
approved by the Chancery Court, even if there is an ordinance that defends
the contrary. This decree shall be recorded in the books of the High Court of
Goa, and it shall be announced from all the public places in the city in order
that if may come to the notice of all. Francisco Matoso wrote this at Madrid
on January 26, 1599. Antonio Moniz da Fonseca ordered it to be written.
The King.
210
Appendix B-3
HAG: Ms 7751: (Treslados das Cartas Patentes) fls. 251v-2
1. King Phillip, by the grace of God, King of Portugal and of Algarves, Lord of
Guinea, and of the conquest, navigation and commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia,
India, and of the kingdom of Maluco, etc. I make it known to all who see this
letter of appointment and to those who must take congnizance of it that I
am pleased with the good record of service of William Fernandes, a married
settler of the Goa city and working as a slave-retriever. He has been doing
his job faithfully, diligently and satisfactorily. I wish, therefore, to extend
his service by another three years, during which period he may draw all the
perquisites and allowances that are incidental to his job and will submit the
surety that is required of him.
2. I notify and command to my Captain of the said city and to all officials
and others to whom this may concern, that they should obey and fulfil it
in its entirety and have it obeyed and executed in the same manner. They
shall allow him to serve this office for another three years without raising
any doubt or objection thereto, and he shall be given an oath on the Holy
Gospels by the Secretary of the Municipal Council in order that he may
exercise his office well and truthfully as it befits the service of God and of
the Crown. Given in the Municipal Chamber and issued with my seal on
December 11, 1601. Francisco Alvares wrote it, and I, Affonso Monteiro,
Secretary of the Municipality ordered it to be written.
211
Appendix B-4
HAG: Ms 7765 (Assentos da Camara), fls. 124v-126v
1. On 12th February, 1601, the Captain of the city, the aldermen, the other
officials of Municipality, and myself Antonio Monteiro, the Secretary of the
Council, met in the Municipality chamber of this very noble and very loyal
city of fidalgos, knights and citizens associated with the government and
administration of this city. The Judge of the House of the Twenty-four and
the majority of its members also attended the meeting.
2. The presiding alderman, Nuno Velho de Macedo, told the assembly that the
viceroy Aires de Saldanha had requested the Council to consider the urgent need
of water supply to the city, particularly during the summer months of April, May
and a part of June, when most of the wells dried up. The viceroy had urged that
the Municipality must consider having water tanks and fountains such as were
common in the towns and cities of Portugal and elsewhere in Europe. This could be
undertaken, the alderman explained, with moderate expenditure by utilizing the
water of Timayas tank which lay above Trindade and contained abundant water all
through the year. However, since the undertaking would not fit within the bounds of
the normal budget of the city, it would be necessary to finance it with funds from 1%
additional Customs revenue.
3. After listening to the proposals there ensued differences of opinion among the
assembled regarding the place to which the water from the reservoir should be
directed. The justice of peace then directed those present to take oath and express
their opinion in private through a secret ballot. It was decided by sixty-three votes
to take up the work and to finance it with 1% revenue. They also decided that the
water should be directed to the old pillory which was considered as more central.
A majority of fifty-three stood for this location. These resolutions were endorsed
by the Captain, the alderman, the other officials of the city, and by all the others
present. I, the Secretary of the Council, Afonso Monteiro, recorded the proceedings.
(Signatures)
[In HAG: Mones 7, fl. 120 there is a letter of the King dated February 15, 1603, approving the project and disapproving the utilisation of funds
from 1% revenue.]
212
Appendix B-5
HAG: Ms 7765 (Assentos da Camara), fls. 144-144v
1. On November 3, 1601, the city Captain, the aldermen, and the other
officials of the Municipality met in session. The city attorney, Francisco
Serro, told the assembly that he was directed by the viceroy to bring to their
notice that the streets and lanes were dirty. This fact, he told them, was the
cause of diseases and of discredit to the city administration. He proposed
that the town beadles could be warned to diligently check this evil in the
wards assigned to each of them under penalty of losing their jobs or any
other punishment which the Municipality might deem necessary. These
beadles would watch day and night and apprehend those who threw dirt on
the streets.
2.The assembled then sent for the following beadles, namely Francisco Dalgado, beadle of the High Court, Manoel Peixoto, beadle of the House of
Accounts, Antonio Gonalves, beadle of the Customs House, Aleixo Giro,
town constable, and Manoel Rodrigues da Costa, beadle assisting the market inspectors, and Francisco Gonalves, town beadle. To all of them was
announced what the viceroy had to say, and different wards and suburbs of
the city were immediately assigned to each of them. I, the Secretary of the
Municipal Council recorded the proceedings, and the Captain, the aldermen
and the other officials of the Municipality signed this act of accord.
(Signatures)
213
Appendix B-6
HAG: Ms 7765 (Assentos da Camara), fls. 145v-146v
1. The Captain of the city, aldermen and the other officials of the city,
excepting Manoel de Moura, an alderman that was absent, gathered in the
Municipality House on the last day of December, 1601, which is also the
eve of the New Year 1602. The assembly sent for the persons with whom
the keys of election coffer were kept. These persons did not come but sent
the keys. Raising the matter of drawing lots for the officers who are to serve
in the government of the city during the coming year, it was resolved to
ask the viceroy not to act contrarily to what was laid down in the royal
ordinance concerning the drawing of lots by a little boy, and that he should
not make distinction between the first, second and third years as some
previous viceroys did. It was the alderman of the centre, Nuno de Macedo,
who approached the viceroy and requested him to respect the statutes of
the city and to abide by the instructions of the Crown in this regard. The
viceroy replied that although he had already separated the lots for the three
years, he would agree to the drawing of the lots by a little boy.
2. Coming back to the Municipal House the coffer was taken out of the
cupboard, and being opened, a little Portuguese boy was asked to draw
a lot from the aldermens compartment, and among those named were
Dom Diogo Coutinho, Balthazar Roiz dAlvelos and Ruy da Costa Travassos.
Continuing the procedure, Antonio Sidro and Barnabe Lobo were elected
justices of peace, and Salvador Ribeiro as city attorney. All of them were
called, excepting Barnabe Lobo, who was serving in the fleet of the Malabar coast. Those who came were Ruy da Costa Travasso, Antonio Sidro,
and Salvador Ribeiro, and each was made to swear by the Holy Gospels
that he would well and truthfully serve the office for which he was elected,
guarding the rights of the people by leaving aside hatred and favouritism,
by keeping secrecy about matters discussed in the Municipality chamber,
and by seeking the observance and satisfaction of the rights, privileges and
liberties granted to the city. All this they promised to undertake, and I,
the Secretary of the Municipal Council drew up this act of election, which
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the outgoing and the incoming officials endorsed with their signatures.
Affonso Monteiro.
(Signatures)
[Only an extract of this document was translated and published by C.R. Boxer
in his Portuguese Society in the Tropics (Minnesota, 1965): 159-60.]
Appendix B-7
HAG: Ms Mones 12, fls. 66v-67.
1.There is a great deal of chicanery and bribery in the elections of the Municipality officials and it normally happens that fellows with little aptitude
are elected while those who would do a better job seldom seek to be elected.
Great harm is caused to the public and to the Crown by these unfit officials
who try to meddle with everything. Their incessant petitions and complaints
are the biggest headache for the State. The viceroys and the captains have
to bear it, and it looks as if there is nothing else to be attended to besides the
petty complaints of these Municipality councils. With their restlessness they
rouse the public and oftentimes give rise to serious situations. All this could
be avoided if the Municipality officials were elected with greater discretion
from among men with greater administrative experience.
2. I must say that these Municipalities constitute a severe headache, and
after considering what remedy could cure it, it occurred to me that I should
order that they should send to me the lists of their candidates. The final
appointment should then depend on me, but I shall do it in consultation
with the Chancellor of the High Court, the Crown Judge and the procurator
of the city. I am decided to introduce this procedure form the coming year
and this practice shall be maintained as long as Your Majesty does not order
anything to the contrary. If Your Majesty approves of this step, I shall be
pleased to have a decree of confirmation. Goa, 23rd December, 1613.
216
Appendix B-8
HAG: MS 7846 (Alvars e Provises de S. MAGe e Vreis), fls. 36v-7
1. Dom Francisco da Gama, Count of Vidigueira, member of His Majestys
Council and gentleman of his Court, Admiral, Viceroy and Captain General
of India. I make it known to all who see this edict that I wish to enforce the
instruction of the Crown dated February 12, 1622, regarding the assignment
of separate streets to different artisans according to their professions. Along
with the royal instruction I also have in mind a resolution adopted by the
city council to the same effect, as well as the views expressed by the Crown
Judges of the High Court who assist me in the government.
2. I wish that all the goldsmiths, silversmiths, canvas manufacturers, alchemists, melters of all sorts of metals, locksmiths, coppersmiths and cutlers should live and have their workshops opening on to the public streets.
Hence, they many not continue to live and work away from the public
streets, but where the customers may find them more easily and the judges
of their respective professions can check the quality of their work. In case
the old streets are not sufficient or the assignment is not clear, we wish that
within a month from the publication of this edict they should have their
difficulties represented and solved.
3. I also wish that in conformity with the resolution of the Municipal Council
and the opinion of the Judges the foodstuff sellers or any other licensed
vendors may not sell their goods in private residences, because this practice
causes much loss to public exchequer and many other inconveniences to
the public.
4. Anyone violating this order will be subjected to whipping and to cash-fine
of fifty cruzados, half of it to the Municipal Council and the other half to the
denouncer. I, Joo de Souza Lacerda, Secretary of the Municipal Council,
endorsed this copy of the edict. Goa, 22nd July, 1623.
(Signature)
217
Appendix B-9
HAG: Ms Ordens Rgias, n. 2: fls. 8v-9v
1.In my correspondence during last couple of years I have informed Your
Majesty about the bad administration of this city. This results from the fact
that the alderman, the judges, the procurators and the other officials of the
city are ordinarily elected from among those who can spend large sums
of money in bribes which they soon recover from the blood of the poor
people. This they do through a channel controlled by them, namely the
supervision of the operation of supplying foodstuffs to the city population.
This year we faced a wide-scattered famine all over India and I had taken
precautionary measures and ordered vast supplies of foodgrain which could
be sold for a price that could be lower than in the years of plenty. However,
when the supplies arrived, I was aboard the fleet and could not personally
supervise the distribution of the foodgrain, which the city officials, their
friends and businessmen diverted in bulk to their private godowns, and
they did not take their stocks to the shops in spite of my threats to take
action against them. It was then that some wealthy banianes who dwell in
the city offered to bring in foodgrain if the Government would give them
an advance sum of 18,000 xerafins against a good surety, and they agreed
to repay the advanced amount within four to five months. The State and
Revenue Councils approved the idea and accepted their proposal. Large
supplies of rice were made available to the public in the city and in its
adjacent provinces. This forced the hoarders to bring out their stocks and
sell them at low rates.
2.Also in the Northern Province, the Municipalities committed such abuses
and in view of this it is urgent that Your Majesty should take action against
them. I am of the opinion that it will neither serve Your Majesty nor the
common good of the people to keep these municipalities in India. We
have the example of Mozambique and Diu which are better administered
without them. The same is true of Ceylon, Tanger and Mazagaon, where
several fidalgos have served as Captains and they will be able to testify
before Your Majesty if they could have governed those places well with
Municipalities. In order to discharge a duty of my conscience, I wish to
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inform Your Majesty that these cities will be lost if some urgent action is
not taken to remedy this situation, because no good can last where there is
neither truth nor justice. May God protect the Catholic and royal presence
of Your Majesty because of the Christendom and the need of your subjects.
Goa, August 6, 1631. The Viceroy.
[Cf. HAG: Ms Livro Verde, n. 1: fl. 226 contains a royal letter dated
February 24, 1633, instructing the viceroy not to suppress the municipalities,
but to take action against their abuses.
Cf. Ibid., fl. 244: A royal letter of 25th March, 1636, instructing the viceroy to
punish the fidalgos found guilty of smuggling foodgrain.]
Appendix B-10
APF: Ms Le Scritture Originali Riferite nelle Congregazione Generali, Vol. 231, fls. 231-2
1. I intend to describe to Your Lordship some of the barbarities that are
committed here against male and female slaves, but I prefer to leave Your
Lordship to imaging the rest. I shall not touch upon the problem of legality
or illegality of the captivity, but let it be known to Your Lordship that most
of these slaves were either kidnapped or sold. Neither am I going to refer
to some unusual practices in dealing with the slaves. I shall expatiate only
upon the cruelties that are ordinarily perpetrated against the slaves. They
are given very little rice to eat, and even this short ration is often reduced to
its half or third in order to make them pay for a broken pot or decanter or
dish or anything of this sort.
2. There are very few tolerant masters who make concession for some
breakages during the course of a year, but for extra breakages the slaves are
made to pay by reducing their meager diet. It is not unusual to punish the
carelessness of the slaves with imprisonment, or by putting them into stocks,
or by caning them face downwards under a ladder. It is to be noted that
the cruelty of the females who own slaves is most extravagant. The cruelty
against this sort of slave-girls is comparable only to the barbarities that were
employed by tyrants towards martyrs. They often empty cauldron of boiling
water or drop liquefied sealing-wax upon the bare bodies of these slaves.
They also flog them until they collapse and then apply restoratives in order
to prolong their tortures. The fury of the slave-owning females exceeds all
bounds when they are excited by jealousy, and then they prod them with
heated iron rods and spikes and subject them to the kind of torture which I
feel disgusted to write about.
3. Let me conclude this account with reference to just one more inhuman
practice of these slave owners: They discard their slaves without mercy
when they fall sick and leave them to die like beasts without any medical
attention or without sacraments. These masters do not feel any scruple
about this, because they do not really have any regard for the souls of these
miserable creatures.
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[The above extract is taken from a long report in Italian, dated April
10, 1663, sent to the Apostolic Nuntion of Naples by a Theatine missionary,
Antonio Lubelli, who spent some time in Goa on his way to the mission of
Golkonda. The author ends his report with a request to keep his authorship
secret, because he fears that a revelation of it could be detrimental to the
interests of his Order in Goa. The report also described several other social
and religious malpractices prevalent in Goa.]
Appendix B-11
HAG: Ms 7760 (Assentos e Juramentos), fls. 13-14
1. On June 14, 1664, the aldermen, other officials of the city, and myself
Manoel Soares de Castel Branco, Secretary of the city council, met together
in the Municipality Chamber of the city to consider the complaints of the
people regarding the scarcity of fish supply. This scarcity was caused by the
fact that there were only a few fish sellers licensed by the Municipality and
these were exploiting their monopoly right by disposing the greater part and
the best part of their fish stocks at the of Convents and their well-wishers.
The remaining fish they would dry and salt without caring to send any fresh
fish to the public market. As the complaints of the people were not just
of recent origin, it was decided to take some immediate steps to curb this
abuse of the fish sellers.
2. It was decided accordingly that there should be no more a fixed number
of licensed fish sellers and anyone who wished to sell fish in the market
could do so after paying the surety required by the Municipality regulations.
It was also made clear that no fish seller should dispose of fish from the
residence for the benefit of Convents or any other person; but that all fish
should be brought to the public market and sold there. Anyone violating
this order would be subject to the payment of a fine of ten xerafins plus
other penalties laid down in the ordinances against the profiteers.
3. In order to make this resolution known to all, an edict was issued and
announced from the public places and registered in the office of the market
inspector. This resolution was recorded by me, Secretary of the city council,
and endorsed by all the officials gathered in council session.
(Signatures)
[Cf. App. A-4, & 9 refer to fish supply to the priests of Salcete. We read also in A.
Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies. Ed. Foster (London, 1930), I, 142: The
Church feeds mostly on fish, but not miraculously, for the poor fishers dare sell none
till priesthood is first served, so that the laity eat stale or stinking fish. ]
222
Appendix B-12
AHU: Ms India, Box n. 26, File n. 227
Prices of Foodgrain (1666)
1. The price of a bale of jirasal rice weighing two and half maunds shall
not exceed nine tangas. A khandi of the same rice may be sold for fourteen
xerafins and two tangas.
2. A bale of chamasal rice weighing the same shall not be sold for more
than eight tangas, and the price of a khandi will be twelve xerafins and four
tangas.
3. A bele of black rice weighing the same shall not be sold for more than
seven tangas, and the price of a khandi shall not exceed eleven xerafins and
one tanga.
4. Twenty ris (=1/3 of tangas) shall be deducted from the price of each bale,
if the rice is not from Mangalore, Basrur or Stone River region (= Kallar in
Kerala?)
5. The price of a khandi of wheat is not to exceed thirteen and half xerafins.
6. A khandi of mungo shall not be sold formore than twelve xerafins.
7. A khandi of beans and lentils shall not be sold for more than thirteen
xerafins.
8. A khandi of nachini shall not cost over eight xerafins.
9. All the foodgrain sellers shall abide by these price-rates fixed by the
Municipality. Goa, October 8, 1666.
[N.B. We could find no other such price-list for the seventeenth century in the
Municipality records of the Goa Archives.]
223
Appendix B-13
HAG: Ms 7759 (Registos Gerais do Senado), fl. 60v
1. Some barbers came to the notarial office, which I, Vicente Soares de
Castel Branco, as Secretary of the Municipality Council am authorised to
run, and they brought with them a petition addressed to the Council along
with the dispatch they had received. The contents of the petition and the
dispatch were as follows:
2. Juze de Chaves was the mukadam of barbers, both Christian and non-Christian.
This mukadam had died and there was none to resolve their differences. They were
now agreed to appoint Manoel do Rozario to govern their affairs as their mukadam.
Hence, they wished to renew in the presence of the public notary the deed of their
allegiance to the new mukadam and requested accordingly that the Municipality
should instruct the Secretary of the Municipality to attend to them.
3. The Municipality satisfied their request and instructed the Secretary to record
their ratification of allegiance to Manoel do Rozario as their new mukadam under
the same conditions as before. This dispatch was issued from the Municipality office
on December 29, 1681. (signatures)
4. After the barbers had been directed to take oath in accordance with their pagan
rite, they promised to render total obedience to Manoel do Rozario and to live in
peace and harmony among themselves. They also agreed that anyone who failed
to live up to this promise would be required to pay a fine of ten cruzados to their
brotherhood of St. George. They also gave Manoel do Rozario and four other arbiters
powers to produce before justice for punishment any barber who may deserve it.
5. They expressed their satisfaction regarding all these terms which they had laid
down for themselves and promised to abide by them. They and their witnesses
signed, and Tome Fernandes, the clerk of this notarial office, recorded their accord.
I, Vicente Soares de Castel Branco, ordered the recording.
[Symbols and signatures]
[Cf. HAG: Ms 7734, fls. 39v-40 contains the text of the license issued to Manoel do
Rozario to function as mukadam. The names of the four arbiters are given as Zaugi,
Santanna, Bassanna and Tukuji. The document is dated April 30, 1689.]
224
Appendix B-14
HAG: Ms 7846 (Alvars e Provises de S. Mage e Vreis ), fl. 169
1.Dom Rodrigo da Costa, of His Majestys Council, Governor and Captain
General of India. I make it known to all who see this edict that the procurator
of the city of Goa came to me with a copy of the joint resolution adopted
by the Municipality and the General Assembly of the village communities
of Tisvadi on Sept. 13, 1687. This resolution was adopted by them at my
instance, and it disposed that the said General Assembly will take measures
to control the paddy grown in the villages in the manner suggested by the
Municipality.
2.After letting the ganvkars and cultivators take the quantity of paddy they
need for their sustenance and for seed, the excess is to be gathered in a
central pool of each village at places assigned by the General Assembly, and
from this central pool the grain is to be sold to the needy in the village until
the arrival of the first shipment of rice from Kanara. The prices will be fixed
by the General Assembly in accordance with the rates determined by the
Municipality. These rice stocks of the villages should be made to last as long
as possible, but if they get over before the first supplies from Kanara arrive,
the General Assembly will call upon the Goa Municipality to remedy the
situation.
3. It was also determined in the same resolution that no ganvkar or cultivator
may sell his produce to anyone except to the central pool of the village.
Anyone caught violating this order was to pay a fine of hundred xerafins,
half of it to the denouncer and the other half to meet the expenses of grain
transportation. Goa Municipality will allow the General Assembly and the
ganvkars of each village to import foodgrain from Kanara, but they shall pay
Collecta tax and the dues of the tax-farmer and stock the grain at places fixed
by the General Assembly. They need not take the rice to the city, but may
take it straight to the villages in order to save the expenses of transportation.
The villages will then distribute the foodgrain among the licensed vendors
of the village fair-price shops, where it will be sold at prices fixed by the Goa
Municipality. The resolution also stated that the Goa Municipality would
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provide the villages with certain quotas of foodgrain that would arrive in the
two shipments from Kanara.
4. I wish to confirm the said joint resolutions, and I notify accordingly the
Chief Revenue Superintendent, the aldermen and the other officials of the
city, the chief ganvkars of the General Assembly of Tisvadi, and all those
who must take congnizance of it, and I command that they should obey and
observe this decree in its entirety and have it so enforced without raising
any doubt to anything contained therein. This shall be considered as a letter
of proclamation promulgated in the name of His Majesty, and the effect of
this decree shall last more than a year even though article 40 of the Second
Book of the Ordinances disposes differently. This decree has passed through
the Chancery Court and has paid 2000 ris fee of mea anata. This payment
is recorded on fl. 20 of the entry book of the receiving accountant Joseph
Coelho. Joseph da Sylva wrote this in Goa on 30th October, 1687. The Chief
Secretary, Luis Goncalves Cotta ordered the writing. Dom Rodrigo da
Costa.
Appendix B-15
HAG: MS 7757 (Registos Gerais do Senado), fl. 182 (last fl.)
1. The majority of the officials of the House of Twenty-four complained that
there were irregularities in the new election of the House held on the feast
day of St. Thomas, the Apostle. Joseph da Silva had conducted the elections
in the absence of the House Judge, Manoel Ribeiro, and he had got round
many members of the House to vote for the said Manoel Ribeiro, who was
ending his term as House Judge and had already served as Superintendent
of weights six year earlier. The said Joseph da Silva had also no right to be in
the House, because he had no workshop of his own, neither did he exercise
any office of artisan. Besides, being a bachelor he had no right to deprive a
poor married citizen of his meager means of sustenance. All these reasons
were sufficient to disqualify him, neither could the elections be considered
fair after all the dishonesties that were committed.
2. In view of the above described irregularities the officials of the House
of Twenty-four requested the noble senate of the city to inquire into the
behavior of the clerk who collaborated with the said Joseph da Silva in
canvassing votes. The senate was asked to nullify the results of the election
that was held and to order a fresh election in presence of a person deputed
for the purpose. (Follows the decision of the Municipality council on the
matter:)
3. We have looked into the representation of the House of Twenty-four.
Its officials say that according to the statutes of their House the following
categories of artisans are not eligible for an office in the House: One serving
as Judge or as clerk of a guild; someone holding the office of president of a
brotherhood of artisans; someone having no workshop of his own at least
six months prior to the date of elections; one who has served an office up to
two months prior to the elections; and finally, one serving as House Judge
or as Secretary of the House.
4. Since in the present case the accused was serving as House Judge and
unqualified persons were allowed to participate in voting, we declare the
election to be null and void, and we order a fresh election under the direction of the alderman Manoel da Cunha de Mello. He will also conduct
227
228
the election of a new Secretary, because the present one has failed in his
duty. In case there are no candidates of any particular group of artisans, the
Municipality Council shall be informed in order to take necessary measures.
This decision shall be registered in the Municipality book for the notice of
the posterity.
Given in the Municipality Chamber on 24th December, 1687.
(Signatures)
Glossary
The cross-mark ( + ) indicates words of Portuguese origin, the remaining

words being of local vernacular derivation.
Adau: Income of the village community (BHC-JMS, III, 42).

Adauvechu: Balance sheet of the village community (HAG: MS 10031, Azosy
(1671), fls. 4-5).
Agasalhados+: Places allotted to crew members in a ship for carrying their
personal goods.
Alardo+: Roll-call.
Almotacel+: Market inspector.
Alvar+: Ordinance issued by king, viceroy or any other high ranking official
valid for a period of one year without need of royal confirmation.
Aposentadoria+: House allowances.
Arratel: A lb. wt.
Arrematao das Rendas+: Farming out of monopoly rights to collect nonagricultural revenues.
Arroba: A quarter of quintal.
Avasary: Pre-announcement of a meeting of the village council (HAG: MS
10227, fl. 16v).
Bacalia: Payment of the revenue to the village community for a debtor
against mortgage and interested to be collected at the harvest time (HAG:
MS 10254, fl. 13).
Bale: 2 maunds, (eight in a khandi) measure for grain.
Bandeira+: Ceremonial banner of a craft guild.
229
GLOSSARY
230
Bandy: A piece of reclaimed land (HAG: MS 10037, fl. 14).

Bangasal: Large godown for storing victuals (GLA I, 95-6).
Baratilha+: Blackmarket which functioned in the city of Goa after sunset
(Pyrard, II, 54).
Bargany: Small silver coin worth one-fourth of tanga branca (GLA, I, 99).
Bhartani: Responsibility of a village tax collector to pay for the defaulters
(HAG: MS 10023, fl. Iv).
Bhatkula: List of debtors drawn by the village clerk, submitted to the tax
collector for enforcement (HAG: MS 10228, fl. 31).
Bhaus: An association of the cultivators of reclaimed lands for providing
necessary labour for the upkeep of protective bunds. (HAG: MS 10038, fl.
15).
Bonobo: A contribution payable to the State by a village community in the
form of hay (HAG: MS 10028, fl. 14).
Braa+: Three hundred cubic spans as a measurement of masonry work.
Canada+: Portuguese measure for liquids. Equivalent to three English pints.
Canarins: Native Christians of Goa.
Cartaz+: Safe-conduct for navigation issued to non-Portuguese ships by
Portuguese authorities against payment of a fee.
Casados+: Portuguese married settlers in Goa city.
Castios+: Portuguese of pure breed residing in Goa (GLA, I, 229).
Caugula: Justice of peace in a village (HAG: MS 10045, fl. 32).
Cazinha+: Office of the market inspector in the city of Goa (HAG: MS 7836,
fl. 225).
Chadavana: Illegal transfer of the ownership of properties. Cf. App. A-7.
Collecta+: Tax on import of foodstuffs introduced in 1623 for financing the
equipment of galleons to escort grain bring vessels (AHU: India, Caixa 31,
doc. 41; HAG: MS 7809, passim)
Consulado+: Two per cent customs duty on precious stones for financing
war against the Dutch (AHU, India, Caixa 4, doc. 208).
Desembargo do Pao+: Royal board of justice and highest court of appeal.
Dhastudoddo: Annual balance sheet of the village.
Doddo: Weight for arecanuts in Salcete. Five doddes made a maund. Equivalent to seven (7) lbs wt.
Dubhaxi: Interpreter.
GLOSSARY
231
Duddu: Budgrook (bazaruco, leal).

Fallo: Any additional contribution payable by the village community, shared
pro rata by the village community.
Foro+: Land revenue.
Franquia+: Privilege granted to the citizens for importing essential commodities duty free.
Gadelikar: Assistant to the village justice of peace (HAG: MS 10056, fl. 50v).
Gharasavali: Collection of the payment due to the village watchman (HAG:
MS 10027, fl. 26v).
Gida: Area occupied by thirty-seven arecanut trees (OP, XVI, 89-91).
Godevrat: Contribution payable by a village community for the maintenance of State cavalry.
Gramavarika, grimarki: Village-appointed arbiter to assess loss owing to
thefts (HAG: MS 10254, fl. 13v).
Gutoga: Piece of reclaimed land, and equivalent to bandy.
Jon: Right of a village elder for a share in the annual village profits.
Jurado+: A sworn informer assisting the market inspector (HAG: MS 7701,
fls. 50-51v).
Juiz do Povo+: President of the House of the Twenty-four, and leader of the
artisan classes.
Juiz ordinario+: Justice of Peace.
Kadasany: Auctioning of the goods of a debtor to the village community to
pay the debt (HAG: MS 10227, fl. 26).
Kamat: President of bhaus.
Khandi: 20 maunds, or 3 quintals and 3 arrobas, or 480 lbs. wt.
Khazan: Reclaimed land.
Kher: Sandy land close to the sea-shore.
Khot: Person bearing the responsibility of paying the total revenue of the
khazan lands (HAG: MS 10025, fl. 10v).
Khuntkar: An outsider to a village acquiring a share in the profit or loss in the
village revenues. Derived from kunta, meaning a plot of land, one-fortieth
of an acre, or from khut, a pole fixed as landmark (OC, I, 104).
Kudav: Measure for grain. Twenty for a Khandi.
Kulachari: Tenant without the usual privileges of a village ganvkar.
GLOSSARY
232
Kumb: Measure for grain and salt. Equivalent to 20 khandis.

Kumer: Village assessor of loss due to the negligence of the village watchman
(Bastora village records, 1679, fl. 10).
Kutumbana =: Fixed rent. Larim: Pin-shaped silver coin equivalent to 90
ris of Goa.
Lauvad+: Arbiter (Cf. App. A-6).
Mandusa: Sluice gate protecting khazan land against inundation (HAG: MS
10025, fl. 10v).
Melaga: Portion of agricultural land not of khazan type (HAG: MS 10032, fl.
31).
Mester+: A representative of the working classes on the municipal board
(APO-CR, II, 79).
Modestu: Assessor of damage to crop by cattle (HAG: MS 10033, fl. 12).
Molloi: Paddy field on hill slopes.
Morod: A cultivable highland.
Mukadam: Leader of a professional group.
Mundkar: Bonder labourer, usually attached to palm groves (Cf. App. A-3).
Nadkarni: Clerk of the General Assembly of village communities;
Nadkarni Jivita: Village contribution to the fees of the Nadkarni (HAG: MS
10028, fl. 14).
Naka: Veto of a village ganvkar in the council.
Namasy: Rent-free land granted to the village servants in lieu of service.
Narlmoddo: Payment of dues in the form of coconuts (HAG: MS 10254, fl.
13v).
Nelly: Paddy fields granted to the temple servants.
Nem: Village councils unanimous decision.
Obreiro+: Daily wage labourer.
Ouvidor geral+: Senior Crown Judge.
Padai, padekar: Coconut plucker.
Padroado real+: Crown patronage.
Pancharatra: Announcement of the auctioning of the village fields five
nights in advance (HAG: MS 10226, fl. 21).
Pentta: Income from river passage (HAG: MS 10228, fl. 2).
GLOSSARY
233
Poddi: Measure for grain, and equivalent to eight for a kuddav.

Postura+: Municipal regulation.
Potekar: Also called sacador+. Village tax collector.
Quartel+: Quarterly instalment.
Quintal: 128 lbs.
Real+(pl. ris): The lowest denomination of Goan currency. Sixty ris formed
on tanga and 300 ris went into the making of one xerafim.
Recebedor+: Taluka revenue collector.
Regimento+: Standing order.
Renda do Verde+: Income from market fines.
Sacador+: Village tax collector.
Senabhoga, senabova, sanbuka: Village clerk-accountant.
Santhome+: Goan gold coinage.
Sasana kutumbana: A permanent lease of land for fixed rent (HAG: MS 824,
fl. 102v).
Senado da Camara+: Municipal council.
Sidau: Annual land revenue payable by the cultivator to the village community (Ghantkar, 50).
Tanga branca+: A way of reckoning money in Goan villages, equivalent to
96 ris in Tisvadi and 150 ris in Bardez and Salcete (BHC, II, 23).
Terlu: Village watchman.
Uruvally: List of village tax payers submitted by village kulkarni to potekar
(HAG: MS 10227, fl. 26).
Vaingan: Second crop.
Vangad: A constituent clan of a village community.
Vanty: Varying rent (HAG: MS 10254, fl. 5v).
Vechu: Village expenditure (HAG: MS 10031, fl. 5).
Vereador+: Municipal alderman.
Vintem+: An Indo-Portuguese base metal coin worth about 12 ris. A silver
ktanga was reckoned at three vintens.
Xerafim: Silver coin of Goa equivalent to five tangas or 300 ris.
Zelador+: Chief market supervisor in Goa city (HAG: MS 7701, fls. 50-51v).
Zoitolo, Jaithal: Small denomination coin equivalent to one-eighteenth of a
tanga.
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VENKATA RATNAM, A. V., Local Self Government in the Vijayanagara Empire,
Mysore, 1937.
Vocabulario da lingoa canarim com versam portuguesa (facsimile edition),
Lisboa, Junta de Investigaes do Ultramar, 1973.
Viagem de Francisco Pyrard de Laval, trans. J. H. da Cunha Rivara, ed. A. de
Magalhes Basto, 2 vols., Porto, 1944.
WHEELER, J. T., Early Travels in India (16th and 17th centuries), Delhi, 1975.
WHITEWAY, R. S., The rise of the Portuguese power in India, 1498-1550,
London, 1899.
WICKI, J., ed., Documenta Indica, 17 vols., Roma, 1948-88.
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der Portugiesichen Geschichte, in AHSJ, XXXIX, 1970, pp. 100-67.
, Liste des Jesuiten Indienfahrer, 1541-1758, in Aufstze zur Portugiesichen Kulturgeschichte, 7. Band, 1967.
, O Livro do Pai dos Cristos, Lisboa, CEHU, 1969.
WILSON, H. H., A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (Reprint), New
Delhi, 1968.
WINIUS, G. D., The Black Legend of Portuguese India, New Delhi, Concept
Publ. Co., 1985.
, Studies on Portuguese Asia, 1495-1689, Ashgate Variorum Reprints, 2001.
XAVIER, A. Barreto, A Inveno de Goa, Lisboa, ICS, 2008.
XAVIER, F. N., Bosquejo Histrico das Communidades, Nova Goa, 1852. New
edition, 3 vols., ed., J. M. de S, Bastor, 1903-07.
, Colleco das leis peculiares das communidades, in Gabinete Literrio das
Fontainhas, V, Nova Goa, 1852-53.
, Cdigo dos usos e costumes dos habitantes das Novas Conquistas em
Portugus e Marata, Nova Goa, 1854.
, Additamento ao Codigo dos Usos e Costumes, Nova Goa, 1861.
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Goa, 1856.
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YULE, H. & BURNELL, A. C., (eds), Hobson-Jobson, London, John Murray,
1903; Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal (Reprint), 1968.
Index
Accordos e Assentos do Senado de
Goa, 157
administrative
abuses, 127
affairs in India, 150
attributions at provincial level,
44
auctioning of posts, 117
bureaucracy, 114, 134
complexity of Goa, 98
confusion, 12
control over the market, 131
custom in villages, 179
decisions in the village, 44
division of powers, 125
exclusivism, 46
higher cadre, from Portugal,
115
local traditions and problems,
34
numbers in service, 116
pay, 126
policies, xii
Portuguese machinery, 67
posts as rewards, 117
priviledges of staff, 126
reserved important posts, 86
talent of Brahmins, 191
work turning complex, 154
Africa
African slaves, 81
jurisdiction of Portuguese State
of India, 98
Mombasa, Portuguese East
African trade centre, 4
Portuguese relations with

rulers, 151
slave traffic, 89
slaves obtained from, 88
agrarian
economy, xi, xii
economy of Goan villages, 64
organisation and praxis, 43
relations and Christianity, 62
system, 43
Agsy, 79
Ahmadnagar, 911
Aires, Ferno, 168
Akado Island, 120
Akbar, 7, 8
Albuquerque, Afonso de, vii, 13, 33,
45, 66, 77, 78, 85, 96, 97,
141, 142
Albuquerque, Ferno de, 125
Albuquerque, Mathias de, 144
Altekar, A.S., 3537
Alvares, Francisco, 211
Alvor, Count of, 200, 201, 206
Amado, Manoel, 175
Ambar, Malik, 10
Amboina, 3
ancestral religion, 84
Anglo-Dutch wars, 6
Anglo-Portuguese
relations, 3
relations, in Europe, 2
relations, in India, 2
treaty, vi
Anjidiv Island, 18
Arago, A. C. Teixeira de, 151
Arago, Antnio Carneiro de, 176
252
INDEX
Archaeological Survey of India, 31
Archbishop, 66, 70, 128, 129, 161, 175
archival documentation, vi, 123
artisan
guilds, 120
artisans, 158, 227, 228
and poverty, 84
and religious feasts, 56
as customers for labour, 115
control of economy, 131
craft guilds, 102
governing, 121
groupings, 122
import of material, 132
income, 56
influx, 121
licenses, 103, 133
mass employment, 118
new types, 123
non-Christian majority, 124
on city streets, 79
payment to, 55
preference for non-Christian,
84
prohibition, 128
refuge in Bombay, 4
registrations, 123
regulations, 121, 123, 133
representatives, 97
restrictions on, 63
roads, 132
roads named after professions,
80
role played in Lisbon, 122
separate streets, 217
share of native Christians, 85
streets assigned to, 98
Asiatic trade, 14, 78, 114, 134
Assentos da Camara, 212214
Assentos do Conselho da Fazenda,
152
Assentos do Conselho do Estado
(Proceedings of the State
Council), 151
Ataide, Dom Luis de, 99
253
Augustinian
history, 163
Monastry, archive, 173
Aurangzeb, 9, 17
Azavedo, Dom Jeronimo de, 107
Azores Islands, 88
Baden-Powell, B.H., 32, 40, 41
Balghat, 19, 205
Balsemo, E.A. de S Nogueira Pinto
de, 153
Bangany spring, 80, 89, 118
Bangher, 13, 14
Bardez, xi, 1012, 17, 19, 27, 29, 30,
32, 34, 36, 4345, 47, 49,
52, 6769, 84, 103, 105, 118,
125, 127, 128, 133, 148, 149,
152, 156, 158, 173175, 178,
200203, 205, 233
Bardezkar Brahmins, 32
Barros, Joo de, 30, 31, 96, 141, 144,
145
Basrur, 1315, 17
Bassein, 35, 8, 10
Bengal, 9, 88, 89
Saraswat Brahmins migration,
31
Bhagvadgita, 65
Bicholim, 12, 17
Bidnur, 14
Bijapur, 1013, 50, 83, 205
Portuguese relations with, 12
Biker, J.F.J., 151
Bocarro, Antonio, 88, 146, 147, 150,
152, 160
Brahmins, 65
Carnatic, 37
cartazes, 8, 9, 13
Ceylon, 3, 5, 6, 15, 89, 104, 127, 190,
218
Chandragiri, 13
Chardo caste, 16, 95
Christianisation
education prior to, 65
INDEX
impact on Goa, xi
Church, 70, 71, 90, 127, 128, 176, 204,
222
and Konkani, 66
and social welfare, 70
and State, 63
as centre of learning, 65
clothes for, 56
confraternaties, 69
confraternities, 69
edifices, 64
expenses, 126
hierarchy, 63
Hindu artisans, 83
lands, 127, 200
loans, usury, rural indebtedness, 71
paddy fields ownership, 64
report to the crown, 50
servants pay, 126
synod, 150
city, 7882, 84, 85, 87, 88, 90, 9799,
120
administration, 9698, 100, 102,
117
administrators, 107
after Portuguese conquest, 77
authorities, 128
before the Portuguese, 77
beggars, vagabonds, 106
captain, 97
control, 131
council, 98
councillors, 107
councilors, 98
decline, 114
defences, 103
demand for labour, 118
descriptions, 130
downfall, 114
dwellers, Portuguese, 34
elders, 105, 106
entrance to, 78
fines, 134
food needs, 118
254
founding of, 77
guild organisations, 122
guilds, 120
Hindu merchants, traders, 82
Hindu population, 81
Hindu population predominant, 82
importance of, 77
impressions of, 149, 150
in the 17th century, 114, 115
influence of the religious, 127
inhabitants, 77
Jesuit-run school, 65
lacking water, 80
location of, 78
market, 131
market square, 78
Muslim inhabitants, 33, 45
officials, 98, 99, 101, 102
overcrowding, 81
population, 82
Portuguese settlers, 46
posts, 100
privileges, 97
refugees, 104
refuse, 80
revenues, 104
senate, 108
shopkeepers in, 103
slave market, 89
sumptuous houses, 46
tax, 103
travellers in, 78
walls and defences, 102
white population, 85
city, 79
Conquests, New, xi
Conquests, Old, xi, xvi, 27, 152
Couttre, Jacques de, 88
Coxivarado, 33
craft, 102, 120124, 132
Criminal Judge, 68, 194
Cunha, Gerson da, vi
de la Croix, Etienne, 65
INDEX
Deccan, 6
demand and supply, pattern of, 120
dessais, 205
diplomatic intrigue, 2, 5
Diu, 4, 8, 10, 218
do Conselho da Fazenda, 153
dowry, 4, 97, 117
East Africa, 89, 98, 151
East Indies, 35, 13
economic interests, 37
education, promotion of, xii, 64
election procedure, 98, 208
England, 2, 3, 5, 8
English East India Company, 3, 4
Estado da India, 41, 114, 141, 160,
162
Europe, 2, 79, 86, 105, 121, 212
archival sources in, 144
archives, 147, 152
English, Dutch, Portuguese
wars, 3
European accounts, 81
European businessmen in Goa,
88
European impact on village
agriculture, 46
Europeans and the Mughals, 8
Europeans visiting Goa, 149
North-Europeans, 1
Northern European rivals of the
Portuguese, 1
reports sent to, 29
rivalry of North-Europeans, 2
rivals, 87
Evora, 97, 147
Far East, 89, 98
Fatorpa, 18
Fernandes, Diogo, 195
Fernandes, Luis, 179
Fernandes, Mateus, 195
Fonseca, Antonio Moniz da, 210
Foral, 33, 40, 41, 156
foreign policy, 1
255
Franciscan sources, 29
Fryer, John, 164
Furtado, Andre, 104
Gama, Dom Francisco da, 145, 217
Gama, Fr Estevao da, 194
Gangolly, Peninsula of, 14
ganvkars, 3537, 44, 4648, 51, 5357,
63, 65, 6871, 141, 167, 168,
170, 226
Garcia, J.I. de Abranches, 151
Golkonda, 12, 164, 205, 221
Holy House of Mercy
Santa Casa de Misericrdia, 79,
91, 106
inflation
price, 131
profit, 114
wage, 114
Inquisition, vi, 4, 30, 85, 128, 146,
192, 193, 204
Jesuits, viii, ix, xv, 1, 7, 16, 29, 31, 39,
45, 58, 6466, 70, 71, 74, 89,
90, 95, 119121, 127, 136,
141, 146148, 159, 161, 168,
176, 191
and Mughals, 8
at Akbars court, 8
College of St. Paul, 39
house of Bom Jesus, 67
lands, 46
papers, 161
properties, 45
Roman Archives, xiv, 147, 161
jon, 53, 54, 70, 170, 179, 190, 231
Kadamba, 31, 39, 120
Karnatak, see Carnatic, 37
khazan land, 36, 37, 47, 48, 53, 55, 68,
231, 232
khot, 37
khot, 36, 48, 231
Konkan, 17, 36, 65, 164, 193, 249
INDEX
Konkanakhyana, 31, 39
Konkani, 40, 53, 6567, 73
called lingua bracmana, 66
called lingua canarim, 66
comparison with Tamil, 66
Cunha Rivara on, 152
dictionaries by missionaries, 66
for religious purposes, 66
missionaries learning, 66
move to suppress, 66, 67
spoken language in Goa, 66
Thomas Stephens work in, 66
Kortaly, 40, 52, 53, 55, 65, 156
Kosambi, D.D., vi, 29, 31, 38, 39, 41,
137
Kudal, 17
Kulacari, 36
Kulacari, 48, 59, 195
Kulacari, 36
Kumbarjua, 120
Kutch, 19, 31
labour
agriculture, 30
and market organisation, xii
artisans and menial, 118
attraction for, 116
authorised charges, 133
bargaining power of, 120
bhaus and free labour, 49
bonded, 157
cheap, 89
cooperative, 36
costs, 52
demand, 118
demand for, 116, 118
ecclesiastical, 114
exploitation of, 141
for defence industries, 118
forced, 115, 193
free, 54
hard menial, 130
indentured, 95
market, 115, 120
mode of payment, 128
256
organisation, 114, 115
organised, 115
religious proprietors, 46
shortage of, 48, 204
situation review, 116
slave, 114
social underdogs, 88
state demand for, 116
supplying, 83
surviving on, 141
village community joint control,
36
wages in the 17th century, 157
land
and revenue registers, 155
distribution, 47
revenue in Chaul, 10
tenure, xii, 30, 43, 44
Laval, Pyrard de, 78, 88, 116, 149, 163
law and order, 43, 67, 68
legislation, xii, 4, 30, 47, 54, 64, 71, 72,
87, 101, 120, 151, 152, 179
Lemos, Gaspar Mendes de, 173
Linhares, Count of, 72, 84, 91, 105,
107, 108, 116, 146, 177, 190
Linschoten, John Huyghen van, 5,
130, 149, 243
Lisbon, 108, 122
Ajuda Library, 160
archives, ix, 147
archives and libraries, xiv
Brotria library, 161
Catholic University of, xiv
Centre of Overseas Historical
Studies, 164
craft guilds, 121
great earthquake, 122
guild system, 121
Gulbenkian Foundation of, xv
House of Twenty-Four, 124
India House in, 162
market and eastern spices, 2
municipal administration, 99
municipal council, 98
municipality, 121
INDEX
national archives, 152
National Archives of, 41, 160
national library, 160, 163
overseas archives, 159
Overseas Council, 127
Portuguese trade in tobacco, 4
power of guilds, 122
privileges and tradition of, 208
professional groups in, 122
Royal Academy of Sciences, 163
ships bound to, 88
travellers from, 86
Universidade Lusfona, viii
257
Malabar coast, 214

pirates, 8
settlements, 6
Malacca
Albuquerque departure to, 96
capture of, 5
Dutch and Portuguese in, 5
fleet, 104
seige of, 3, 6
Mandelslo, John Albert von, 95, 136,
163, 243
Mangalore, 1316, 223
Manila, 5
local
Manneri, 18
administration, 189
Manucci, Nicolao, 67, 149, 150, 164
beliefs and customs, 148
Maratha
charter of local usages, 34
Portuguese relations, 18
customs, 33, 38
Marathas, 116
a segment of Goas population,
economy, 18
16
functionaries, 53
Hindu population, 33, 142
and Portuguese convenience,
18
history, 154
ascendance of, 16
inhabitants, 34, 202
conflict with Bijapur, 12
items, duty on, 110
conflict with Mughals, 9
native custom, widows, 107
first contact with Portuguese,
production, 114
16
revenues, 154
harming Portuguese trade, 19
rulers, 32
peace with Portuguese, 18
suppliers, 118
rise, and the Portuguese, 16
tradition, 34
threatened invasion, 104
village authorities, 68
varkari panth, 16
women, 86
market control, 101, 131, 134
Loureno, Ruy, 104, 146
Mascarenhas, Dom Francisco, 178
Luso-Dutch
Mascarenhas, Filipe D., 89
conflict, 6
Matoso, Francisco, 210
feud, 6
Matricula Geral, 115, 125
Macau, 3, 5, 88, 89, 118, 236
Mayuravarma, King, 31
Madeira Islands, 88
Mecca, 8, 77, 89
Madrid, xiv, 108, 147, 159, 162, 210
medieval
Mahabharata, 64
town policies in Europe, 105
Mahale, Matheus de Castro, 12, 23,
towns, 102
249
Medieval Europe, 98, 105
Maharashtra, 36, 41, 49, 83, 243
Medieval India, ix
Maine, H. S., 243
INDEX
Medieval Kanara and Viyajanagar,
121
Mello , Domingos de, 194
Mendes S.J., Alfonso, 31
Menezes, Dom Duarte de, 104
mercantile
capitalism, 62
period, 106
mercantilist
age, 98
ideology, ix, xii
period, 109
policy, 102
State policies, 131
metropolitan
archbishopric, 87
elites, vii
politics, vi
prototype, 97
Mexia, Afonso, 30, 34, 38, 43
military assistance, 16, 33
minting
currency, 116
gold and silver, 165
money, 154
rights, 155, 165
technique, 131
missionary activities, 29, 46, 87
Mombasa, 4
Mormuganv, xi, 190
Mozambique, 30, 46, 89, 127, 218
musara, 54, 56, 126, 196
Muscat
Arabs of, 4, 15
Portuguese comptroller of, 11
Muslims, 50, 77, 89, 97, 121, 141, 164,
168, 189, 191193, 200, 205
after Vijayanagar, 6
Albuquerque, natives and, 33
and the feudalisation process,
44
and the Portuguese, v
attempt to exterminate, 45
influence on Charter of 1526, 45
land takeover, 34
258
lands taken over, 45
Muhammadan overlords, 33
overlords, 6
rulers, 44
rulers of the Deccan, 6
Mysore, 37
Narana, Luis Coelho, 196
Narve, 79, 91
Nauraspur, 10
Nayak, Basava, 15
Nayak, Shivappa, 15
Nayak, Somashker, 15
Nayak, Timmaya, 15
Nayak, Venkatappa, 13
Noronha, Baltazar de, 195
Noronha, Miguel de, 196
Obidos, Count of, 12, 101
officials, 12, 18, 30, 36, 48, 54, 56, 63,
68, 69, 83, 85, 87, 91, 97
100, 102, 103, 105108, 110
Oporto, 97
orphan girls, 85, 86, 106, 117
Paes, Francisco, 156
Panelim, 78
Panjim, 80, 91, 202
Paul, St., vii, 39
Peixoto, Manoel, 213
Peixoto, Miguel Dias, 168
pepper cargoes, 13
Pereira, Pedro Alvares, 134, 177
Persian Gulf, 35, 11
Phillip, King, 211
Pinho, Fr Antonio de, 194
Pinto, Loureno, 174
Pirenne, H., 105
Pissurlencar, P.S.S., v, xiv, 142, 150,
151, 164, 165
potekar, 5153, 71, 197, 233
Preto, Antnio Gil, 147
private employment sector, 129
proselytizing zeal, 7
Purana
Christian, 65
INDEX
Quelossim, 32
Rachol fort, 193
Rajapur, 11, 12
Ramnagar, 9
Rane
Ganoba, 57, 127
Mukunda, 45
Redondo, Conde de, 171
Rego, A da Silva, 147, 152
Reis Magos, 65, 201, 202
religious orders, 46, 6466, 81, 83, 85,
87, 117, 118, 127, 136, 157
Revora, 45
Rezende, Pero Barreto, 146, 160, 162
Ribandar, 80, 91
Rivara, J.H. da Cunha, xvii, 41, 150
153, 234, 238, 247
river
around the city, 78
at Gandauli, 79
auctioning of passage, 53
Charpora, 27
Mandovi, 27, 77, 78, 80
Mapusa, 80
reclaimed fields from, 47
Sal, 27
serpentine river net, 29
Zuari, 27, 77
Roe, Sir Thomas, 8
Roman Catholic Church, 63, 90, 114
Rome, xv, 159, 161
Rozario, Manoel de, 224
S. Miguel, Manoel Pereyra de, 179
Salcete, xi, 1012, 18, 19, 27, 29, 30,
32, 34, 36, 39, 40, 4447, 49,
50, 52, 6769, 71, 83, 101,
103, 125, 127, 142, 146, 148,
152, 156, 161, 167, 168, 174,
176, 178, 184, 189192, 204,
205, 222, 230, 233
Saldanha, Ayres de, 171
salt revenue, 84
Sambhaji, 18, 19, 25, 50, 104, 148,
164, 200
259
Sanches, Bento de Baena, 178
Sanskrit religious literature, 64
Santa Luzia ward, 82
Sarzedas, Count of, 99
Sebastian, King, 98
Shah, Ibrahim Adil, 10, 11
Shahjahan, 9, 10
Shahji Bhosle, 10, 16
Shenvi Brahmins, 63
Shivaji, 9, 1619, 30
Siamese slave, 130
Silaharas, 16
Silva, Dr. Antnio Barreto da, 176
Silva, Manoel da, 174, 175
Silva, Pero da, 190, 194
Sinay, Damu, 83
Singapore, 3, 5
Singh, Mirza Raja Jai, 17
slaves, 81, 8890, 114116, 118120,
126, 130, 195, 210, 220
African, 81
description of, 67
earnings from, 80
ill-treatment of, 70
in prostitution, 90
run-away, 68, 80
sale of, 79
supplying water to city, 80
transactions in, 80
Soares, J. Avelino, xiv, 61, 158
social welfare, 70, 71, 122
Society of Jesus
see Jesuits, viii, 45, 46, 63, 65, 66,
148, 161, 168, 190, 192194
Soeiro, Antonio de Mattos, 147
South India, 31
Spain, 159
anti-Semetic policy, 87
attitude to Portuguese colonies,
1
Bocarros writing, 146
Coutos writing, 145
Dutch and Portuguese, 5
enemies of Spain, Portugal, 1
exodus of Jews from, 87
INDEX
Portugal losing independence
to, 1
union of crowns, 2
using Portuguese resources, 1
Spice Islands, 3, 5
St. Francis
friars of, 103
Order of, 175
stagnant technology, 30
Stone River region, 223
Sunda, 83
Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, 93, 149, 150,
163, 164, 250
Themudo, S.J., Manuel, 30
Thomas Stephen, S.J., 65, 66
Tisvadi, 27, 29, 30, 39, 40, 44, 49, 63,
67, 6971, 78, 156, 170, 178,
225, 226, 233
Tom Pires, 66, 250
topographic survey, 81
transport, means of, 43, 119, 120
travelogues, 130, 144, 149
Trindade, Fr. Paulo de, 148, 250
urban
and metropolitan politics, vi
demography, 81
development, 78
economic life, xii, 114
economy, 77, 85, 88, 123
economy and municipal organisation, 76
economy of Portugal, 121
economy pre-1510, 77
life, 149
topography, 78
Valle, Pietro della, 90, 95, 136, 149,
163, 239, 241
vantely, 36
varkari panth, sect, 16
Vas, Governor Lopo, 34
Vaz, John, 53
Velho, Diogo, 125
Veloso, Gonalo Borges, 132
260
Vidigueira, Count of, 178, 217
Viegas, Gaspar, 168
Vieira, Inquisitor Manoel Joo, 204
Vijayanagar, Hindu Kingdom of, 6,
13, 27, 50, 66, 77
Villa Verde, Count of, 104
villages, 45, 46
administering, 170
Bardez, 149
beauty of, 149
Brahmin-controlled, 32
catechists, 65
charter, 178
chief, 32
chief in Bardes, 40
chief in Tisvadi, 40
chief villages in Bardez, 32
Christian population, 29
coastal yields, 29
compensation, 52
confiscated, 45
contributions, 201
crops, 29
custom, 179
customs in, 54
deficit, 189
deities, 205
depopulated, 25
disputes, 69
dues, 198
elders, 32
exploitation, 72
fertile, 191
fields, 174
fields leased, 174
foodgrains, 225
ganvkari, 35
ganvkars, 63
ganvkars and non-ganvkars, 36
general assemblies, 204
general assembly, 44
granaries, 71
grants to Brahmins, 37
hold of religious, 127
importance of, 55
INDEX
in the 17th century, 62
joint, origin of, 32
jon, 54
jurisdiction, 69
land revenue paid by, 50
land usurped, 192
lands transferred to aliens, 179
law prevailing in, 34
loans, 148
mass migration, 85
measuring of fields, 49
military service, 190
military training, 146
night watch over beach, 201
officials, 54, 175
origins of, 31
paddy, 225
parish priests in, 70
pastors in, 46
practises favouring, 35
pre-emption right, 179
preying upon, 117
property relations in, 35
quarries, 118
quotas, 226
revenue, 189
rice, 225
rice stocks, 225
rules, 37
Salcete, 167, 190
solicitors, 55
suburban, 102, 127, 133
temples, 155
thanadar visits, 189
Tisvadi, 156, 170
town development and, xii
tribute, 168
widows, orphans, 70
Vingurla, 12
Vitelleschi, Fr., 120
Viveka-Sindhu, 65
white population, 85, 87
Wicki, J., xv, xviii, 39, 147, 152, 153,
161, 163
261
Wilson, H. H., 49, 251
Xavier, Filipe Nery, v, 40, 152, 180,
203, 241, 251
Xavier, St. Francis, 18
Yogaraja-Tilak, 65

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Medieval Goa

Goa,1556 is an alternative publishing venture, named after the year of the

Broadway Book Centre, Ashirwad, 18th June Rd, Panjim 403001.

Price: Rs. 495 (hardbound) and Rs 395 (paperback) in India.

Preface (first edition)

Maps and diagram

1 Rivals and Neighbours

I Rural Economy and Corporate Life

2 The Goan Rural Heritage

3 Agrarian Organisation and Praxis

4 Rural Social Life

II Urban Economy and Municipal Organisation

5 Urban Topography and Demography

6 Municipal Organisation and Policies

7 Urban Economic Life

8 Overview and Preview

Preface (second edition)

PREFACE (SECOND EDITION)

PREFACE (SECOND EDITION)

in order to help the efforts at socio economic reconstruction of liberated

HE SOCIO - ECONOMIC HISTORY

Preface (first edition)

The bulk of this bibliography consists of songs of praise to, or lamentations

PREFACE (FIRST EDITION)

PREFACE (FIRST EDITION)

PREFACE (FIRST EDITION)

It is only very inadequately that I can express my gratitude to Prof. A. R.

Roman Archives. I wish to thank very especially the guidance I received

Maps and diagram

DMP Documentao para as Misses do Padroado Portugus do Oriente:

Rivals and Neighbours

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

indispensable as an introduction to the present study because the place

The Portuguese and their North-European rivals

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

resumed.32 However in spite of all these precautions and counter-measures,

The Portuguese and the neighbouring rulers

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

and in shaping their course of relationship with their neighbours in the

Portuguese-Mughal Relations (1600-1700): The Portuguese came into

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

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their dictates were no longer going to be tolerated. Venkatappa had made

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

tertain feelings of genuine appreciation of his achievements. During 1657-9

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

ever, unexpected news of Shivajis death brought relief to the Portuguese,

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

CHAPTER 1. RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

63. Ibid., 414-16.