Sarasvati's Children

Author: Alan Machado

The author ambitiously starts by describing the Indus Valley civilization of 3500 BC around the riverbeds of the Indus and Saraswati rivers. There is evidence to suggest that the Saraswati river banks housed a very large population of Harappans who were forced to migrate when the river dried up. Most of this migration happened around 2000 BC or later with some groups moving south to the Gujarat regio, while others made their way to the Gangetic plains. Over the course of time, new communities developed and several tribes coalesced into larger kingdoms ruled by their kings.  

Somewhere around 1500 BC, there was a major war called the Dasarajna War that was fought between King Sudas, the leader of the Bharatas and a confederation of 10 kings. Sudas decidedly defeated the alliance and an account of this is captured as a pivotal conflict in the Rigved. This battle is a precursor to the Mahabharatha and a lot of the story here is part of Hindu mythology so it is hard to discern fact from fiction. What is clear is that the Sarasvats were part of the losing coalition and were led South by the axe bearing Parasurama. He led his folks to the shores of Goa and the northern Konkan coast. They worked alongside the indigenous people but retained their Vedic traditions and established temples for their deities. Over the next few centuries, particularly during periods of political upheaval, they moved to parts of Maharashtra and further south to regions like Mangalore and Calicut. 

While Konkani and Marathi are closely related their grammars are quite different.  A linguistic analysis of Konkani suggests that it has significant links with Gujarati and Bengali.  The author posits that both Konkani and Marathi sprang from the same Prakrit language called Sarasvati Balabasha.  Today, there are two major dialects of Konkani. The northern or Bardes dialect is spoken by present day Goan Hindus and the Christians from North Goa and Kanara region while the Southern or Salcete dialect is spoken by the South Goa Christians and the Kanara Hindus. 

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish a colony in India in the early 16th century. It started with Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The reason this was so critical is that the traditional route through the Red Sea was completely controlled by Muslim Rulers of India in close partnership with their Arabian counterparts. Within Europe Venetian traders monopolized the trade from Arabs in Alexandria, demanding high premiums on the prices from the rest of Europe. Religion was another key factor as Portugal with the backing of the Pope had a strong desire to spread Christianity far and wide. 

Vasco Da Gama sailed from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four sailing ships and a crew of 170 men. After rounding the cape of Good Hope they hugged the African coast line and sailed from Mombasa to Calicut with the help of a Gujarati pilot named Kanji Mulam.

(Source https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama)

Vasco da Gama presented himself to the Zamorin of Calicut as a representative of King Manuel I. The Zamorin was not impressed with the simple presents that Vasco da Gama brought and he demanded presents in gold.  Given the poor reception from the Zamorin, Vasco da Gama sailed to the neighboring state of Cannanore and met with the Kolathiri Rajah who was on the lookout for potential allies to help him keep the Zamorin in check. Vasco da Gama was very pleased to enter an informal agreement with the Rajah to trade spices and other exotic goods.  

This little expedition from Portugal had a huge impact on the future course and trajectory of the Indian sub-continent. First, it disrupted the existing trade patterns on the West Coast of India that were predominantly Muslim-dominated until that point. Every trade has two sides. On the European side it was the spices that were the main attraction. On the Indian side it was fine Arabian horses. Horses were a huge advantage in battle, and states were constantly under attack if they were not busy trying to conquer the neighboring kingdom. The key trade route was from the West Coast to the Arabian countries and that was dominated by the Muslim rulers. Vasco da Gama found a route around the cape of Good Hope that circumvented this trade route. With their superior fleet of ships the Portuguese quickly became the dominant masters of the Arabian Sea.   From here they established control over the key ports and trade routes in the India Ocean.

Around this time (~1560) the Portuguese were being recognized for their missionary work in India and Pope Paul IV conferred the title Defender of the Orient on the Portuguese King. This turbocharged their missionary zeal and thousands of Indians were converted to Christianity with both carrot and stick — probably more of the latter.  The typical methods were, state jobs were only for Christians. Any kind of idol worship was banned. If anyone was found practicing another religion all their property was confiscated and given to the church and so on.  At some point entire towns and villages just converted to Christianity. 

The Portuguese conversion machine came to an end with the death of Don Henrique on the 31st of January, 1580 and the Portuguese throne passed on to the Dynasty of the Spanish Hapsburgs, uniting the Crowns of Spain and Portugal for the next 60 years. The missionary activity now fell to the Jesuits (Royal Society of Jesus) who built missions and schools to further the Christian cause. They learnt the native language (konkani) in their effort to spread their message amongst the native population. However, they quickly realized that the deeply entrenched religious and cultural beliefs were not going to be easily cast aside even if people were convinced about Christian philosophy. They observed that the priests and brahmins held a higher position in Hindu society and people tended to follow them even if they converted. 

The 17th and 18th centuries also brought with it the dreaded Inquisition. According to the author, Alan Machado,  Francis Xavier beseeched King Juan III to introduce the Holy Inquisition to India because many converts were relapsing into their heathen practices and not being “good Christians”. In 1560 he got his wish and Archbishop Gaspar Leao Pereira was appointed as the Grand Inquisitor by the King and confirmed by the Pope. Every two or three years there was the spectacle of the “auto da fe” (Act of Faith) where the condemned were publicly paraded to the place of execution. 

You can find a great Summary of Portuguese colonization of India here. This observation from Viceroy Castro sums up the Portuguese conquest quite well: “The Portuguese entered India with the sword in one hand and the Crucifix in the other; finding much gold, they laid aside the Crucifix to fill their pockets”.

The number of Christians in Kanara region in the mid seventeenth century, as reported by various historians and letters  is all over the place. My conclusion on reading the book is that the predominant Christian populations were located in and around Goa. Between the 16th and 18th centuries there was a lot of migration of konkani speaking people from Goa to Kanara. The 16th century migrations were mainly the Konkani speaking Hindus from the southern parts of Goa, most likely as a result of the force of the Portuguese conversion machine. These spoke a slightly different dialect of Konkani than their northern Goa brethren. The Kanara Christians language matches that of the konkani dialect of  Northern Goa and Salcette. It is likely that these people migrated South as a result of the Maratha invasions on Shivaji and Sambhaji in the late 17th century.  Right from the days of the Adil Shah invasion in 1570, every time an Indian ruler attacked the Portuguese, the Christians by dint of their association had to flee and ended up in parts of present day Karnataka and beyond. 

At this time, the region around present day Mangalore was probably inhabited by Tulu speaking people. Mangalore is called “Kodial” in the local Konkani language and it likely derives from the Tulu Language term “Kodiala” which means “deep end” and probably refers to the geographical features of the terrain formed by the confluence of the Netravati and Gurupura rivers. 

Sambhaji attacked Goa in 1683 at Bardes and all the Christians from there and the neighboring areas fled to Bondel, Milagres, Hospet, Managlore and **Pezar**. It is conceivable that my forefathers who were from Pezar are part of this resettlement. The Goan viceroy wrote a letter to the Portuguese king on Aug 13th 1747, stating that 5000 christians fled to Kanara in 1738. It is the author’s belief that most of the prominent Mangalorean Christian families are offsprings of these migrants. In addition to the continuous growth in population, the sporadic migrations swelled the Christian population to its peak of around 60,000 at the time of Hyder Ali’s reign in 1763.

Hyder Ali had assembled a fierce army was busy expanding his kingdom in the South. The Kanara region was ruled over by the Nayakas and in 1763 Hyder Ali attacked Bidanoor their capital and captured the ruler, Rani Virammaji and her son. From here he marched south and took over many of the ports including Mangalore which was considered one of the greatest sea-ports on the West Coast of India. Hyder Ali was a seasoned ruler and tried to maintain cordial relations with the Portuguese in Goa. In 1768 the English moved down from Mumbai and captured a couple of Hyder Ali’s ships. Hyder Ali’s governor Sheikh Ali requested the Portuguese to intervene, but they insisted on maintaining neutrality that probably didn’t go down well in the Nawab’s camp. This kind of back and forth went on for some time and there are many stories that attest to Hyder Ali being a practical ruler and allowing people of all different faiths to co-exist peacefully. However, Hyder Ali died in 1782 and his hot-blooded son Tipu Sultan took over. The English tried to take advantage of this loss and General Mathews and his army attacked Bednoor. Sheikh Ayaz who was in charge, abandoned the military post and surrendered without a fight. Tipu responded with the might of 12,000 men including many French forces and retook Bidanoor in 1783. From there they went south and laid seige to Mangalore for a harrowing 8 months. After suffering a severe famine with many sepoys going blind due to an inadequate diet of plain boiled rice, the English Commanding officer Colonel Campbell finally surrendered. 

This brings us to the fateful day of Ash Wednesday of 1784 where Tipu Sultan’s men rounded up every single one of the Christians in and around Mangalore and marched them to Srirangapatnam, his capital city. This was a 200+ mile arduous trek which involved climbing the treacherous Western Ghats and may have taken as much as a month to complete. There were around 60,000 who started the journey and an estimated 10,000 died along the way. Of the remaining, around 20,000 died in captivity and another 20,000 were forcibly converted to Islam. In 1799, the British defeated Tipu Sultan and the remaining Mangalorean Christians (about 10,000 were left) were released from captivity and started their life afresh in Mangalore.  Most of the Mangalorean Christians of today are descendents of these survivors.  It is also the reason why the history of most Mangalore Christians only starts from around 1800+.

The trials and tribulations of 15 years in captivity were more dreadful than most of us can imagine. In 1792 Cornwallis drove a campaign that forced Tipu to sign a peace treaty that exacted a huge price. However, he still retained the Mangalore Christians as his prisoners in Srirangapatna. They were released only in May of 1799 when the fort at Srirangapatna was stormed by the Bombay armies on the North and Madras armies on the South and Tipu was killed in battle. The Mangalore Christians were freed and a small fraction ( 1/4 ?)  of the original number of prisoners were still alive and able to return. 

On their return, they had to start from scratch and rebuild their lives, homes, fields and churches. Most of the Mangaloreans that we know are offsprings of these prisoners.