“Saraswati’s Children”
Mangalorean Catholics – Bi-centenary of ‘Release from Captivity’
Maxwell Pereira
April 27, 1999
At one of Mangalore’s gateways of yesteryears – on its former outskirts at Nanthoor near Padav hills, stands a large Cross. Erected there during the mid-nineteen hundreds by late Bishop Victor Fernandes to honour the memory of martyrs in what Mangaloreans term as the ‘Canara Captivity’ during a not much known about chapter of Indian history.
It is believed that at this place were herded over two hundred years ago one of the groups of hounded and captured Catholics of the Kanaras, who were then marched 200 miles to Tippu Sultan’s Seringapatam via dense jungles and gorges of the western ghats, along the Kulshekar – Virajpet Coorg – Mysore route.
The Catholic community of Mangalore on Karnataka’s Konkan coast along the western peripherals of the southern Indian peninsula claims to trace its origins to a people of Aryan heritage – from Brahmavarta on the banks of the legendary but now defunct Saraswati River. On its drying up some 5000 years ago, a segment of these people are said to have moved to the Gangtetic plains and Trihotrapura of erstwhile Bihar – to still move on to and finally settle down on the fertile coastal plains of the Konkan. This thanks to sage Parasurama, whom legend credits with having reclaimed for them from the Lord of the Sea the strip of land, by throwing his hatchet seaward while standing atop the Sahyadri mountains (Western Ghats).
These “Saraswati’s Children” – so described in his shortly to be released book with the same title by author Alan Machado Prabhu – got exposure to Portuguese incursions in their midst in the 15th and the 16th centuries. And embracing Christianity, inherited the resultant Lusitanian legacy in Goa. For various reasons cultural and religious, some of them found need to still migrate southward – to the court of the Zamorin of Calicut as skilled artisans, craftsmen and agriculturists – making nevertheless their main base enroute at Kudala (confluence of two rivers), on the invitation of the Paleyagar of the then Mangalapura. By which name erstwhile Mangalore on the confluence of rivers Netravati and Gurpur, was known.
Following his defeat at the hands of the British in the 1st battle of Mangalore, an enraged Tippu, believing that the local Christian community’s aid and support to the British had cost him his battle, unleashed his wrath on them. In a ruthless swoop by his armies, 35000 Catholics were rudely uprooted from their village homes as scapegoats, and herded off for incarceration in the dungeons of Seringapatam. Not all of them reached the destination; many died enroute due to sickness and malnutrition; many others due to hardships and the rigours of the foot march. And many more died in harness during the fifteen years of captivity. Release came to the motley bunch of survivors only in 1799 after Tippu’s death and the fall of Seringapatam following the second battle of Mangalore.
But with release came a sense of purpose, a sense of common identity, for a people who had hitherto considered themselves mainly as an extension of the larger Goan community. In its rebirth, for the first time a distinct ‘Mangalorean’ identity was born. A people who on return to home soil faced harsh and stark realities of their lands and properties usurped, found reason to reconstruct, to toil together with diligence and determination to make an entirely new beginning and to grow from strength to strength. Prompting historian Jerome Saldanha while chronicling the history of the community on the eve of the first centennial anniversary in 1899 to call the intervening 100 years as the golden era for these people. In his ‘Outlines of the History of Canara’ he wrote, “….the deliverance of the people of Kanara from the tyranny and misrule of Tippu Sultan, is the most important and happiest of events in the history of their land……..”
Unlike the close-knit and homogenous small community of 1899, today Mangaloreans are diverging. Leaving their native shores they are spread far and wide pursuing new and rewarding careers elsewhere in India and all over the world. Having made inroads into all walks of life – national and international, Mangaloreans can be found anywhere and everywhere – be it in Norway, Chile or New Zealand; Korea, Japan, the Bahamas or Papua New Guinea. And in every country in Europe, every State in the USA. In India, other than that of a President or a Prime Minister, there is no seat of honour, profession, trade or virtue that has not been claimed, graced or enriched by a Mangalorean.
The bi-centennial anniversary of the ‘release from captivity’ of the forefathers of the Mangalorean Community falls on 4th May 1999.
April 27, 1999
Tuesday 27 April 1999
Thursday 18 March 1999
The Casanova complaint
990318.ie.the Casanova complaint
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990318/iex18079.html
The Casanova complaint
Maxwell Pereira
________________________________________
I have this friend who thinks he has a problem. He looks like nothing on earth, and yet can't help being an object much sought after by the opposite sex. A phenomenon unexplainable to most of us, but the guy himself is quite unaffectedly complacent in the belief that there is nothing strange or wrong in members of the fair sex falling over each other in falling for him.
For a married guy, one would consider he is a little too friendly with women outside his marriage. Unquestionably, he is an incorrigible flirt, launching into unabashed flirting at the drop of a hat. No, he doesn't wear a hat, for he favours bathing in the light of the knowledge that his appeal is perhaps irresistible! For all his flirting ways, we his friends secretly know for sure he is one helluva harmless guy; a sheer touch-me-not. A thoroughbred modern Casanova, who is `all wind and no substance'. The kind perhaps the legendary Don Juan used to be.
What we feared for him, though, was something else. That not once had the possibilityof his being successfully accused of sexual harassment by an overly conscious and gender-sensitive female world of today, ever crossed his mind. Especially in these troubled times when woman-power is striving hard to spell doom for the aberrant male of the gender.
His wife, herself a delightful soul, appears to suffer his presence in a lovable way; but makes no bones about considering him a total misfit in society, lacking in etiquette and in accepted manners. Worst of all, she exhibits fear of his abysmally appalling sense of humour. She dreads moments when, like a tubelight, he flickers at length to grasp a joke, and himself attempts cracking some that invariably fall flat.
Yet, wonder of wonders, there are a bevy of females that go for him -- throwing all caution to wind, whether it concerns themselves, or poses a threat to what he considers his own marital bliss. I have watched females flip for him -- some beautiful, some not, some decidedly not what you and I would consider a dish. 'Babes' they are -of all ages, hues and colours. His conquests tend to include teenage schoolgirls, sizzling college and post-college chicks, and well-manicured dames ranging from straight-jacketed executives to fashion-conscious hip-shaking hep ones of the very `in' crowd; not to forget a few grandmothers, too, who suddenly find in him a reason to live! Sounds a real fantasy, but he is for real.
But it's not the females falling for him that is his major problem I spoke of at the start. He loves them all, and generally considers this world a great place to live in. But the one thing that's got him by his tail is the flood of presents that invariably accompany the female overtures.
Presents he can't keep pace with, or possibly reciprocate. To the extent that the issue of presents has become a paranoia, leading him to duck, make excuses to dodge, and palm off those that still land up as `pass-me-on's. Not the least of his worries being the limit to which an understanding better half can yet be driven to.
Without success,he's tried his best to let it be known that receiving presents embarrasses him, humbles him, fills him with a guilt complex, and makes him obligated which he'd rather not be. That, minus the `joy of giving', the `joy of receiving' becomes nil, as he is neither a `giver' nor could be bothered with such finer sentiments as are reserved by the Almighty only for a chosen few.
My friend is someone who hates to hurt, while invariably in a predicament of hovering on the verge of having to hurt. Having never learnt to say a `thank you' gracefully, and knowing not to say all that needs to be said without being crude or rude, it's me his pal he's now tasked to tell one and all and especially his female admirers all I have herein recorded.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published in the editorial page: Indian Express on 18 March 1999
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990318/iex18079.html
The Casanova complaint
Maxwell Pereira
________________________________________
I have this friend who thinks he has a problem. He looks like nothing on earth, and yet can't help being an object much sought after by the opposite sex. A phenomenon unexplainable to most of us, but the guy himself is quite unaffectedly complacent in the belief that there is nothing strange or wrong in members of the fair sex falling over each other in falling for him.
For a married guy, one would consider he is a little too friendly with women outside his marriage. Unquestionably, he is an incorrigible flirt, launching into unabashed flirting at the drop of a hat. No, he doesn't wear a hat, for he favours bathing in the light of the knowledge that his appeal is perhaps irresistible! For all his flirting ways, we his friends secretly know for sure he is one helluva harmless guy; a sheer touch-me-not. A thoroughbred modern Casanova, who is `all wind and no substance'. The kind perhaps the legendary Don Juan used to be.
What we feared for him, though, was something else. That not once had the possibilityof his being successfully accused of sexual harassment by an overly conscious and gender-sensitive female world of today, ever crossed his mind. Especially in these troubled times when woman-power is striving hard to spell doom for the aberrant male of the gender.
His wife, herself a delightful soul, appears to suffer his presence in a lovable way; but makes no bones about considering him a total misfit in society, lacking in etiquette and in accepted manners. Worst of all, she exhibits fear of his abysmally appalling sense of humour. She dreads moments when, like a tubelight, he flickers at length to grasp a joke, and himself attempts cracking some that invariably fall flat.
Yet, wonder of wonders, there are a bevy of females that go for him -- throwing all caution to wind, whether it concerns themselves, or poses a threat to what he considers his own marital bliss. I have watched females flip for him -- some beautiful, some not, some decidedly not what you and I would consider a dish. 'Babes' they are -of all ages, hues and colours. His conquests tend to include teenage schoolgirls, sizzling college and post-college chicks, and well-manicured dames ranging from straight-jacketed executives to fashion-conscious hip-shaking hep ones of the very `in' crowd; not to forget a few grandmothers, too, who suddenly find in him a reason to live! Sounds a real fantasy, but he is for real.
But it's not the females falling for him that is his major problem I spoke of at the start. He loves them all, and generally considers this world a great place to live in. But the one thing that's got him by his tail is the flood of presents that invariably accompany the female overtures.
Presents he can't keep pace with, or possibly reciprocate. To the extent that the issue of presents has become a paranoia, leading him to duck, make excuses to dodge, and palm off those that still land up as `pass-me-on's. Not the least of his worries being the limit to which an understanding better half can yet be driven to.
Without success,he's tried his best to let it be known that receiving presents embarrasses him, humbles him, fills him with a guilt complex, and makes him obligated which he'd rather not be. That, minus the `joy of giving', the `joy of receiving' becomes nil, as he is neither a `giver' nor could be bothered with such finer sentiments as are reserved by the Almighty only for a chosen few.
My friend is someone who hates to hurt, while invariably in a predicament of hovering on the verge of having to hurt. Having never learnt to say a `thank you' gracefully, and knowing not to say all that needs to be said without being crude or rude, it's me his pal he's now tasked to tell one and all and especially his female admirers all I have herein recorded.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published in the editorial page: Indian Express on 18 March 1999
Monday 22 February 1999
Incredible India !
Incredible India !
-- By Maxwell Pereira
My niece sent me on e-mail some incredible facts on India, what a friend had sent her, who in turn had done the good Samaritan act of disseminating what someone else many hands down the line had taken pains to collect and circulate. It couldn’t have arrived in a better lap. For I have this passion for e-mail and its colossal and speedy information dissemination power – of which I make ample use. And not satisfied with the hundreds I have already shared this information with though the electronic media, it is apt now to share it with yet as many more as possible through this column.
Some, if not all of these facts known to most Indians, were picked up it appears, not from a compilation in India, but from what’s written on India that appeared in writings and readings outside India. Some may dispute them as facts. Something like “India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of her history”. But when many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established the Harappan culture in the Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization) – which today, has been recognised by researchers actually to be the Saraswati culture.
The World's first university established in Takshila in 700BC had 10,500 students from all over the world studying more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda in 4th century BC is acknowledged as one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. And Sanskrit, through Latin, is accepted as the mother of all European languages. A 1987 report in Forbes magazine said Sanskrit was the most suitable language for computer software.
India contributed to the Number System the numerical ‘O’ given by Aryabhatta. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus originated here. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106, while Hindus (the then inhabitants of the land of Sapta-Sindu) used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as in 5000 BC during the Vedic period. While today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).
The time taken by the earth to orbit the sun was calculated in 5th century as 365.258756484 days by Bhaskaracharya, -- hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, who explained the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem discovered by him in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. The place value system, the decimal system, was developed in India in 100 BC.
Then, Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans, which Charaka the father of medicine consolidated 2500 years ago. Sushruta the father of surgery with other health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgery 2600 years ago. Use of anesthesia was known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdish Bose and not Marconi. As if to substantiate this, was the report in the Feb’99 issue of ‘Nature’ on how a Danish physicist and his team of scientists in the US have managed to slow down the speed of light – reducing its speed from 300.000 km per sec to approximately 17 meters per second or 71 km per hour – using the Bose-Einstein condensate to stall light in its path.
The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word naugatih. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit ‘nou’. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth. The Gemological Institute of America says, up until 1896 India was the only source for diamonds known to the world. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman-I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
Well I suppose there is no doubt about Chess being an Indian invention, as in Shatranj or Ashta Pada. And the game of ‘Polo’ also had it’s origins in the North Eastern parts of India(Manipur). The first man on Mt.Everest was Tenzing Norgay, an Indian nepali sherpa, contrary to the popular belief that it was Sir Edmund Hilary. And the science of ‘fingerprints’ was discovered and developed in India (Calcutta).
With all this potential, what is it that inhibits the Indian to excel today? Isn’t it time we arrested the downward slide? Or are we beyond caring?
...published in the editorial page of Indian Express on 22 February 1999 with the title "The Wonder That Was India"
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990622/iex22060.htm
-- By Maxwell Pereira
My niece sent me on e-mail some incredible facts on India, what a friend had sent her, who in turn had done the good Samaritan act of disseminating what someone else many hands down the line had taken pains to collect and circulate. It couldn’t have arrived in a better lap. For I have this passion for e-mail and its colossal and speedy information dissemination power – of which I make ample use. And not satisfied with the hundreds I have already shared this information with though the electronic media, it is apt now to share it with yet as many more as possible through this column.
Some, if not all of these facts known to most Indians, were picked up it appears, not from a compilation in India, but from what’s written on India that appeared in writings and readings outside India. Some may dispute them as facts. Something like “India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of her history”. But when many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established the Harappan culture in the Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization) – which today, has been recognised by researchers actually to be the Saraswati culture.
The World's first university established in Takshila in 700BC had 10,500 students from all over the world studying more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda in 4th century BC is acknowledged as one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. And Sanskrit, through Latin, is accepted as the mother of all European languages. A 1987 report in Forbes magazine said Sanskrit was the most suitable language for computer software.
India contributed to the Number System the numerical ‘O’ given by Aryabhatta. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus originated here. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106, while Hindus (the then inhabitants of the land of Sapta-Sindu) used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as in 5000 BC during the Vedic period. While today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).
The time taken by the earth to orbit the sun was calculated in 5th century as 365.258756484 days by Bhaskaracharya, -- hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, who explained the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem discovered by him in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. The place value system, the decimal system, was developed in India in 100 BC.
Then, Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans, which Charaka the father of medicine consolidated 2500 years ago. Sushruta the father of surgery with other health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgery 2600 years ago. Use of anesthesia was known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdish Bose and not Marconi. As if to substantiate this, was the report in the Feb’99 issue of ‘Nature’ on how a Danish physicist and his team of scientists in the US have managed to slow down the speed of light – reducing its speed from 300.000 km per sec to approximately 17 meters per second or 71 km per hour – using the Bose-Einstein condensate to stall light in its path.
The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word naugatih. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit ‘nou’. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth. The Gemological Institute of America says, up until 1896 India was the only source for diamonds known to the world. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman-I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
Well I suppose there is no doubt about Chess being an Indian invention, as in Shatranj or Ashta Pada. And the game of ‘Polo’ also had it’s origins in the North Eastern parts of India(Manipur). The first man on Mt.Everest was Tenzing Norgay, an Indian nepali sherpa, contrary to the popular belief that it was Sir Edmund Hilary. And the science of ‘fingerprints’ was discovered and developed in India (Calcutta).
With all this potential, what is it that inhibits the Indian to excel today? Isn’t it time we arrested the downward slide? Or are we beyond caring?
...published in the editorial page of Indian Express on 22 February 1999 with the title "The Wonder That Was India"
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990622/iex22060.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)