headers
goa-research-net moderator | 14 Jul 12:29
Picon

Invitation to join the goa-research-net group


Hello hgorrig-goa-research-net <at> gmane.org,

fred <at> bytesforall.org has invited to join the goa-research-net group
hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use community service.

By joining goa-research-net, you will be able to exchange
messages with other group members, store photos and files, 
coordinate events and more.

This invitation will expire in 30 days.

Here's an introductory message from fred <at> bytesforall.org:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

May I invite you to join the Goa Research Net? Kindly accept the invitation. Thanks! FN Frederick Noronha
fred <at> bytesforall.org 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOIN NOW, IT'S EASY: 

1) Go to the Yahoo! Groups site by clicking on this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/i?i=E_77d77_MmV40vmqe1xEkNBTreg&e=hgorrig-goa-research-net%40gmane%2Eorg 

  (If clicking doesn't work, "Cut" and "Paste" the line above into your 
   Web browser's address bar.)

-OR-
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
goa-research-net moderator | 14 Jul 12:23
Picon

Invitation to join the goa-research-net group


Hello hgorrig-goa-research-net <at> gmane.org,

fred <at> bytesforall.org has invited to join the goa-research-net group
hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use community service.

By joining goa-research-net, you will be able to exchange
messages with other group members, store photos and files, 
coordinate events and more.

This invitation will expire in 30 days.

Here's an introductory message from fred <at> bytesforall.org:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

We shifted servers some time back, and now Goa Research Net is on Yahoogroups.com. If you missing migrating
to that network, we would like to invite you to join us there. For Goa Research Net -- Frederick Noronha and
Teotonio R de Souza.
PS: I'm helping Dr Teo with the migration. -FN 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOIN NOW, IT'S EASY: 

1) Go to the Yahoo! Groups site by clicking on this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/i?i=AN_mdiYmXkGGBNq-V12iWR4SkYU&e=hgorrig-goa-research-net%40gmane%2Eorg 

  (If clicking doesn't work, "Cut" and "Paste" the line above into your 
   Web browser's address bar.)
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
goa-research-net moderator | 11 Sep 14:46
Picon

Invitation to join the goa-research-net group


Hello hgorrig-goa-research-net <at> gmane.org,

fred <at> bytesforall.org has invited to join the goa-research-net group
hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use community service.

By joining goa-research-net, you will be able to exchange
messages with other group members, store photos and files, 
coordinate events and more.

This invitation will expire in 7 days.

Here's an introductory message from fred <at> bytesforall.org:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had some problem with our original list, and hence request you to sign up here. -Frederick Noronha for Goa
Research Net 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOIN NOW, IT'S EASY: 

1) Go to the Yahoo! Groups site by clicking on this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/i?i=nZlhjJh5etS0lsAwmfVyq28R0EE&e=hgorrig-goa-research-net%40gmane%2Eorg 

  (If clicking doesn't work, "Cut" and "Paste" the line above into your 
   Web browser's address bar.)

-OR-
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
FN | 16 Aug 20:24

Fitting in -- colonial official to anthropologist (R. Newman)

FITTING IN: COLONIAL OFFICIAL TO ANTHROPOLOGIST
Taking a closer look at writing that goes back a century

By Robert S. Newman
kachhua2 <at> hotmail.com

Brief Introduction

Since Portuguese India ceased to exist only in 1961, anyone who
wishes to do work on Goa, Daman or Diu, must be prepared to delve
into Portuguese language materials, or at least to speak a certain
modicum of Portuguese.  For historians, it is axiomatic that
without Portuguese you cannot go far in studying Goa.  If history
students interested in the area are not yet able to read in
Portuguese, the number of sources available for research are
drastically reduced.  Many sources in English, such as Richard
Burton's Goa and the Blue Mountains, for example, are shallow and
not worth much for the serious historian.1 Though specialists on
the Portuguese in Asia tend to focus on the period 1498-1640, later
periods also offer interesting episodes and material for thought.

          For anthropologists, the case is not so clear-cut.  Most
          of us do not spend time poring over dusty texts in
          archives, translating the letters and reports of
          long-dead priests or officials.  In my case, I read in
          the well-known Portuguese books of travel, ethnography,
          and journalism published in the 19th and 20th centuries,2
          but my major concern was to observe daily life in Goa and
          talk to Goans of all walks of life.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
FN | 30 Jul 20:31

Alito Siqueira on superstitions, beliefs and Goa

For the Goemchem Prize Discussion 23 July 2005
Sender: owner-goa-research-net <at> goacom.com
Precedence: bulk

Allow me to congratulate Mr Nigale the recipient of this year Goemchem
Prize. This is I think a special kind of prize. Controlled by persons
who live far and wide, the prize is less amenable to the pulls and
pressures of the immediate and local. I feel privileged to share my
views with you on this occasion, also because the organizers have been
more than gracious in inviting me knowing well that I may not share
entirely their perspective on issues they espouse. Thank you for your
generosity.

I did my schooling in a Catholic institution in Goa. There the students
who were Hindu or Muslim were as a matter of course referred to as
‘Non-catholic’ in documents such as the time-table, handbook etc. Much
later in life, I have come to learn that to call persons non-catholic is
to categories persons by what they are not (an absence) and hence erase
and deny what they are. Today’s topic begins with the term
‘'Unscientific methods and practices’. Once we have categorised the
practices by the absence of science, what legitimacy can we discuss,
except to make the rather banal statement that each practice has its own
rationality, take it or leave it.

It is not incidental that Science and Religion share similar discourses
and modes of addressing the other. The Term ‘superstition’ comes from
the long tradition of Western religion (from Cicero) and as defined by
St. Thomas is the worship of false gods or the improper worship of true
gods. When science began to see itself as substituting religion as the
final arbitrator of all knowledge it too burrowed the term
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
| 13 Jul 18:24

Daughters of the Cross among the Siddis of Yellapur

In the course of collecting historical information about my village of
Arossim - particularly from Church records, I came across several entries of
baptisms and deaths of African slaves and in many instances, the names of
their owners/masters.  Having had earlier contact with Sr. Celine Joseph of
the Daughters of the Cross, who first started a mission to help the Siddis,
I
visited Yellapur to see first hand these people and their environment.
At the URL below, the website of Goa Research Net,  is a report of my
observations and cursory research, which I thought may interest Goa Research
Netters.

Themistocles D'Silva

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1503/siddis.pdf

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
| 13 Jul 13:34

Dr. S. Kalyanraman on "Saraswati"


Saraswati was a mighty river system of ancient India. Tectonic changes
resulted in her disappearance byt before that the Vedas had already
recorded her glory. These memories were later forged into the iconic
goddess Saraswati.
You need to explore the seven volume, 5000+ pages  magnum opus on
Saraswati by Dr. S. Kalyanraman. I have this set and it is a great
interdisciplinary 'tour de force'. (His bio-data can be found  at the
end of this mail).His email: kalyan99 <at> netscape.net
The theogony of goddess Sarswati seems to be of later period, mostly
Puranic/gupta period. The following matter may be referred to. Also
visit http://www.tamilnation.org/heritage/saraswathi.htm for further
information.

Rigvedic(Rk,Rca,or rk) hymns on Sarasvati

The Rigvedic(rk) sources which refer to Sarasvati river are as follows:

yastE stanah SaSayo yo mayobhUyemna viSvA pushyasi vAryANi yo ratnadhA
vasuvidyah sudatrah sarasvati tamiha dhAtave kah (RV 1.164.49)

Oh Sarasvati offer that breast of yours for our nourishment here which
is on your body, which spreads happiness by which you nourish (those who
praise you) with all the choicest things, the one which holds all the
beautiful things, which knows the enemies' wealth and which offers good
gifts.

pAvakA nah sarasvatI vAjebhirvAjinIvatI yajnam vashTu dhiyAvasuh (RV
1.3.10)
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
teodesouza | 13 Jul 09:18
Picon
Gravatar

Goddess Saraswati, Vach, Gayatri, Brahmani, Savitri: Symbol of

Knowlege and Purity
Sender: owner-goa-research-net <at> goacom.com
Precedence: bulk

Saraswati is derived from "swar", meaning voice, tone or note. Rigveda calls
her goddess of true speech and cause of rythm, harmony and unity. She is
Hindu equivalent of Minerva, goddess of learning.  Saraswati is represented
as clad in white and consequently a symbol of purity and antithesis of
ignorance. Hence her identification with river saraswati in Punjab. It was
their equivalent of Ganges. Early vedic aryans regarded river as source of
life, physical and spiritual cleanser. Invocations to her occur in all four
vedas. I would say that Ocean has not the same symbolic importance to a
Hindu as a River. The Oceans (as it was shown at the entrance of the Indian
pavillion at Expo 98) were a source of material wealth, but River was a
sacred sourced of spiritual and physical cleasing.
For many other details, Jorge Noronha could consult Chitralekha Singh & Prem
Nath, *Hindu Goddesses*, New Delhi, Crest Publishing House, 1996.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Jorge/Livia de Abreu Noronha | 13 Jul 01:15
Picon
Picon
Favicon

Goddess SARASWATI

According to Rui Gomes Pereira's "GOA - Hindu Temples and Deities",
Saraswati or Sharada, the spouse of Brahma, is the Goddess of Knowledge,
i.e. of Science and Arts. In the book "Indian Mythology" by Veronica
Ions we can read: (1) that in the Vedas she was "a water deity, goddess
of a river of the same name which flowed west from the Himalayas,
through the first Aryan settlements"; (2) that "the next stage in
Saraswati's mythological history was her identification with the holy
rituals performed on her banks, this led to the belief that she
influenced the composition of the hymns and thus to her identification
with Vach, the goddess of speech", it being attributed to her the
invention of  Sanskrit, language of the Brahmins, of scriptures and of
scholarship ..."; and (3) that as Brahma's wife she provides the power
to execute what Brahma has conceived with his creative intelligence. She
is goddess of all creative arts and in particular of  poetry and music,
learning and science".

I am interested in knowing whether, based especially in Veronica Ions's
description, it is legitimate to associate Saraswati with the seas and
oceans and/or rivers and invoke her as Goddess of Oceans or of  Rivers,
or one has to stick to her appelation as Goddess of Science and Arts.
Would any one well versed in the matter kindly elucidate? How would the
Hindu community react to seeing Saraswati depicted, in a poem
or in a song and dance, as Goddess of All Oceans or of All Rivers? - 

Many thanks in advance.
Jorge

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
| 20 Jun 19:58

Correcting some misprints in the earlier posting on "A new book on

Goa"
Sender: owner-goa-research-net <at> goacom.com
Precedence: bulk

Please check the corrected version at the Goa Research Net website, at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1503/valviegas.pdf

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
| 20 Jun 15:26

A new book on Goa by Valentino Viegas


Valentino Viegas, *As Políticas Portuguesas na India e o Foral de Goa* [=The
Portuguese Policies in Goa and the Charter of Goa], Lisboa, Livros Horizonte
 2005, pp.125 [Released at Casa de Goa, Lisbon, by Dr. Nuno Gonçalves, a
grandson of the last Portuguese governor-general of Goa till 1961]

 
After 2 initial chapters covering the story of the Portuguese arrival in
India and their use of force whenever cultural and economic conflicts did
not permit a more peaceful control of the trade in the Indian Ocean, from
page 45 the book takes up the study of the *Foral* or the Charter of Rights
and Obligations granted by the Portuguese administration to native Goans in
1526. The author states that some earlier historians like Filipe Nery Xavier
 Cunha Rivara and Teotonio de Souza utilised the versions available in Goa
and did not care to consult the "original".   He comes to the conclusion
that a version available at the National Archives of Lisbon is not "original
 but only a "registo", which he decided to transcribe in Chapter IV (pp.
85-93), modernizing the text in a way that hardly helps anyone to read it
better or more usefully. A facsimile reproduction alongside the
transcription would have been more useful for an informed and critical
reader. 

Unfortunately this unhelpful transcription is accompanied by a less helpful
genealogy and analysis of this  manuscript version of the *Foral* available
at the National Archives of Lisbon in *Gavetas 20-10-13*.  The author does
not mentioning, and obviously does not correct the reference to it 1964 as
“original” by Carlos Renato Gonçalves Pereira, *História da Administração da
Justiça no Estado da India - Séc. XVI*, Vol. I, Lisboa, 1964, p. 89, n. 6
with reference to *Gavetas 20-10-30*). This happened about 10  years before
this Lisbon version was published in *As Gavetas da Torre do Tombo*, Lisboa,
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |

Gmane