CHAPTER I

Introduction

The Portuguese in the process of their expansion into the Indian Ocean set up

different types of urban units on the maritime fringes for the purpose of meeting

their diverse needs, particularly for the promotion of trade and for mobilizing

resources for their political processes. The Portuguese, who conquered Goa in 1510

for the purpose of locating their power centre permanently in Asia, made frequent

modifications and alterations in its existing urban space until there appeared a new

type of city that facilitated and accelerated the augmentation of trade and resource

mobilization in the way they desired. While in most cases of India, cities were

formed out of the dynamics of trade, what happened in Goa was the creation of a

city with royal decrees for the purpose of settling the soldier-turned-Portuguese civil

population for the state and for using that social base for the expansion of

Portuguese power and commerce in Asia. With the intensification of trade by these

Portuguese married people, who were known as casados, a spatialization process

meeting the variegated demands of the power groups as well as social elites and

corresponding to the nature of wealth that they accumulated by way of trade started

appearing in Goa. By grafting European urban institutions onto the existing space of

the city of Goa, the Portuguese conveyed new meanings of urbanism to emerge in

India, although these meanings were inherently linked with their notions of

hegemonic exercise of power and monopolistic hold over commerce in the Indian

Ocean. In this process the city of Goa was made to evolve as the core centre, where

the essential properties of their system of social relations were intensely

concentrated and spatially articulated. Its city-space became the platform through

which the logic of domination was continuously articulated and re-asserted through

architectural and social mechanisms in a way sufficiently communicable to the

various commercial and political actors of the Indian Ocean. Needless to say that by

analyzing the nuanced process of urbanization in Goa, one may be able to decode

the different types of meanings that the Portuguese accumulated in their power

centre over a considerable span of time for the purpose of their diverse political and

commercial engagements in the Indian Ocean world. 1

The occupation of the port-city of Goa was one of the earliest agenda of the

Portuguese, when centralized state control over the scattered Lusitanian possessions

in the Indian Ocean was chalked out by Afonso Albuquerque in 1510 by creating

hierarchies among their possessions. Goa was made to evolve at the top of their

settlement-hierarchies, to which elements of urbanism were eventually infused in

differing degrees by stimulating trade and also by engaging in spatial processes

befitting its simultaneous evolution as their core power centre. With the shifting of

the capital of Estado da India2 from Cochin to Goa in 1530 followed by the

localization of ecclesiastical power in the city, there appeared a series of changes in

the urban format of Goa, where the physical structures and edifices were made to

evolve as architectural devices and visual media for exteriorizing the much more

nuanced socio-economic processes to which the city was increasingly made to get

subjected. Alternately a wide variety of epithets adding colour and imagination to

1 For details on urbanization and the process of deconstructing and reconstructing urban spaces see

Philip Abrams,"Towns and Economic Growth: Some Theories and Problems", in Philip Abrams and

E.A Wrigley(ed.), Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology,

Cambridge, 1978, pp.9-l0; Shigeto Tsuru, " The Economic Significance of Cities", in Oscar

Handlin and John Burchard(ed.), The Historian and the City, Massachusetts, 1963, pp.44-55; Alan

Baker, Geography and History: Bridging the Divide, Cambridge, 1003; David Harvey, Social Justice

and the City, Baltimore, 1973; David Harvey, Spaces of Capital, Oxford, 2001; Pius Malekandathil,

" City in Space and Metaphor : A Study on the Port-City of Goa, 151 0-1700" in Studies in History,

vol.XXV, No.1, January-June 2009, pp.l3-38; M.N. Pearson, "The Port City of Goa: Policy and

Practice in the Sixteenth Century", in: Coastal Western India, New Delhi, 1981, 67-92; W. Rossa,

Cidades indo-portuguesas: contribuir;oes para o estudo do urbanismo portugues no Hindustiio

Ocidental. I Indo-Portuguese Cities: A Contribution to the Study of Portuguese Urbanism in the

Western Hindustan, Lisbon, 1997 2 For details on the Estado da India (literally State of India) see A.J.R Russell-Wood, 'A Brazilian

Commercial Presence Beyond Cape of Good Hope, l61h-191h Centuries', in Pius Malekandathil and

Jamal Mohammed(eds.), The Portuguese, Indian Ocean and European Bridgeheads, pp i92-193.

2

the city space were profusely articulated around Goa to make it ever appealing

externally, even when it was manipulated at the deeper levels for greater surplus

appropriation and for larger political usages. Thus the epithets like rainha do oriente

(the Queen of the Oriental Marts), a senhora de todo o oriente (the Mistress of

entire East) 3 Goa Dourada( Golden Goa), "Treasury and Queen of the East",4

"Rome of the East"5 etc were attached to Goa at different time periods to have an

appealing perception of the city at the surface level, which in tum was to

conveniently hide the larger uses to which the city was transformed under the early

colonial power.

The thesis proposes to study the various processes and mechanisms that the

Portuguese resorted to for constructing a port-city in Goa befitting its position as

their major resource mobilizing device and power centre in Asia. It also explores the

multi-layered processes by which a commercially oriented civil population was

culled out and created in the city as citizens out of the Portuguese military and

migrant elements for the purpose of ensuring wealthy social base at the power

centre. Furthermore it looks into how the early colonial state used this social base

and the urban administrative and religious institutions including the municipality­

dominated by Portuguese casados,jidalgos and the European clergy-as devices to

extract and mobilize resources either from maritime trade or from the neighboring

economies for the purpose of meeting the needs of the expanding sea-borne empire

of the Portuguese. In this regard the thesis raises the significant issue of how and

why city beautification and construction of status asserting urban edifices (housing

charitable, educational and religious institutions and structures) was partly funded

by private Portuguese wealth, despite the clashing interests of the commercially

3 Luis Camoes,Os Lusiadas, tran.by Landeg White, Oxford, 1997. The metaphors used by Camoes

have been quoted by Bois Penrose, Goa-Rainha do Orient. Lisboa, Comissao Ultramarina, 1960;

Teotonio de Souza, Medieval Goa: A Socio-Economic History, New Delhi, 1979, p 173 4 Charles Fawcett & Richard Bum (eds.), The Travels of The Abbe Carre In India and The Near East

1672 To 1674., Voll. New Delhi, Asian Educational Services, 1990, p 217. 5 William Crooke (ed.), John Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia Being Nine Years

Travels 1672-1681, Vol II, Delhi, Asian Educational Services (Reprint), 1992, p 26.

3

orientated casado residents and the extractive early colonial State. An attempt to

deconstruct the structure, composition and powers of urban administrative

institutions such as the Camara municipal de Goa (Municipal Council of Goa),

along with the analysis of the power composition of social groups, would illustrate

the evolving early colonial strategies in accommodating the status claims and

politico-economic aspirations of the militarily skilled and rich trading casados

within the urban space of Goa. This would also bring out the nature of various

components of power that got dispersed in the urban space, besides highlighting the

meanings of domination that the Portuguese articulated using this urban space.

Thus the study attempts at critically examining new angles in the evolution of the

port city pf Goa as an "extractive and parasitical urban center"6 not only from the

point of facilitating the power assertion of the early colonial Portuguese over the

regional political potentates (such as the Ottomans, Bijapur sultans, the Zamorins ,

the mercantile Mapillas of Malabar, the Marathas etc) but also from the aspect of

controlling and mobilizing men and resources (internally from within Portuguese

spheres of influence in Asia) to cater to the politico-military and economic

urgencies of the Est ado.

Concurrently, it questions how the power construct within the evolving urban unit­

through edifices, institutional structures and re-arrangement of urban streets, market

spaces and the riverside-were linked to the state formation processes of the Estado

da India attempting to cohere the widely dispersed Portuguese pockets in Asia. On

the one hand it investigates the changing claims of the port city from a Lusitanian

town to being an early colonial Christian capital, where the protectorate of St

Francis Xavier was increasingly banked upon by the mercantile state to integrate the

commercially moving Lusitanians and those residing in scattered Portuguese

settlements in Asia with the structures of the Estado da India and as loyalists of the

Padroado at Goa. Simultaneously there was the crafting of the city as an exclusive

6 For theoretical details on the extractive and parasitical nature of colonial cities see Anthony D.

King, 'Colonial Cities: Global Pivots of Change' in Robert Ross and Gerard J.Telkamp

(ed.),Co/onial Cities: Essays on Urbanism in a Colonial Context. Leiden, 1985, pp 8-21.

4

European Christian town with its western grid layout, sculptural and structural

architecture of its Churches, educational and charitable edifices, basing the religious

headquarters of various Catholic missionary Orders within the city, homogenization

of religious, socio-cu_ltural and customary practices etc, which are all indicative of

the potential of the Portuguese state in using the city and its urban forces for

extending its ideological and cultural frontiers over the neighboring economies for

politico-economic control. The study critically analyzes the changing policies and

orientations of the Portuguese state in Goa which hitherto were simplistically

explained as stemming from the inherent claims of politico-military superiority and

cultural exclusivity by the early colonial West over the East.

Situating the Historiography

The present research on "Urbanization and Trade in Goa ( 151 0-1690)" obviously

necessitates its location within the larger historiographical traditions. The historical

literature on Indo-Portuguese history and the Portuguese domination over the port­

city of Goa has been multi-layered echoing the varied ideological orientations of the

scholars producing different historical narratives (and perceptions) over the years.

The traditional Portuguese historians such as Alexandre Herculano/ J F F Martins,8

J .H da Cunha Rivara9 etc., interpreted the original documents recording Portuguese

colonial intervention in India during the 16th and 17th centuries to illustrate the glory

of the Portuguese imperial pow~r in the fields of navigation, geographical

discoveries, socio-religious superiority and politico-military control over the

decadent Orient. The imperialist and positivist historical reconstructions of the

Portuguese historians till 1975 marked a continuum with the Orientalist themes-

7 David Lopes (ed.), Alexandre Herculano, Historia da Origem e do Estabe/ecimento da lnquisicao

em Portugal, 3 Tomos, Lisbon. 8 J F F Martins, Historia de Misericordia de Goa, 1520-1910. 3 Vols, Nova Goa, 1910-1914. 9 J.H. da Cunha Rivara, Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, 9 Vols, Nova Goa, 1857-76; Ensaio Historico

da Lingua Concani. Goa, 1958

5

that predominated the intellectual knowledge production processes under Antonio

Salazar's dictatorial regime-ofthe 'heroic ages of the geographical discovery' and

the Portuguese glory in Asia. Such a historical outlook was exemplified in the

imagery of "golden Goa" of the 16th century when the Portuguese imperialist power

reached its pinnacle of navigational and military prowess followed by the later years

of absolute decadence. 10 Thus these reconstructions involved the linear re-reading of

contemporary Portuguese documents and records to produce a narrative that could

be characterized as "knowledge for power" and eulogized the Portuguese military,

politico-administrative, economic and socio-cultural achievements in Goa and Asia.

Furthermore, these 'Eurocentric' reconstructions viewed the developments as

instigated by a single unified 'Portuguese Empire' (Estado da India or the

Portuguese State of India) headed by the Portuguese monarch. 11 However, the

meticulous editing and judicious selection of documents by scholars like J H Cunha

Rivara, Antonio Silva de Rego, 12 Antonio Baiao, 13 R.A. de Bulhao Pato14 in works

such as Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, Documental;iio para a Historia das Missoes do

Padroado Portugues do Oriente India, Docurnentm;iio Ultramarina Portuguesa

10 Luis Filipe Thomaz, ' Twenty Five Years of Research on Indo-Portuguese History.' In Fatima da

Silva Gracias, Celsa Pinto and Charles Borges (eds.), Indo-Portuguese History: Global Trends, Goa,

2003, p 8. 11 M N Pearson, Coastal Western India: Studies from the Portuguese Records, New Delhi, 1981, pp

xiii-xvii. 12 Antonio da Silva Rego (ed.), Documenta~iio para a Historia das Missoes do Padroado Portugues

do Oriente India, 12 Vols, Lisboa, 1948-1958; Documentos Remetidos da India au Livros das

Monr;oes, vols. V-X, Lisboa, 1974-82; Documenta~iio Ultamarinha Portuguesa, Vols I-IV, Lisboa,

1960-1966. 13 Antonio Baiao (ed.) Afonso de Albuquerque, Cartas para e/ Rei D. Manuel/, Lisboa, 1942; A

/nquisir;tio de Goa, Vol I (lntrodur;tio a correspondencia dos fnquisidores da India, 1569-/630),

Lisboa, 1949; A Inquisir;tio de Goa, Vol II, (Correspondencia dos fnquisidores da India 1569-1630),

Coimbra, 1930. 14 Raymundo Antonio de Bulhao Pato (ed.) Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livros das Monr;oes,

vols. I-IV. Lisboa, 1880-1935; Raymundo Antonio de Bulhao Pato and H.Lopes de Mendon~a (eds.),

Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque seguidas de documentos que as e/ucidam, 7 Volumes, Lisboa,

1884-1935.

6

etc., provide a rich historical reservoir accounting the complex activities of the

Portuguese in the Indian Ocean world and Goa, although their bias and preferences

were obviously reflective on the processes of selection of the documents. For the

present study such works prove beneficial in their faithful reproduction of a variety

of manuscripts preserved in the archival repositories of Europe and Goa pertaining

to the municipal activities of the Camara de Goa, the politico-economic and defense

arrangements of the Estado da India. A large number of these edited documents

were administrative dispatches from Lisbon contained in the royal a/varas, while

some of them deal with contacts and engagements of the religious Orders of Goa as

well as the customs and traditions of Goan society.

In stark contrast to the Portuguese historians of the period between 1920s and

1970s, which was marked by a propagandist desire for glorifying the 'age of

Portuguese discoveries in Asia' in the way the totalitarian regime of Antonio

Salazzar wanted, the historical literature of the Indian nationalist school of the

1950's and 60's characterized the Portuguese activities in India as being colored by

the 'militant zeal of Catholicism'. Historical developments in Goa during the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were understood in the context of conflicts and

tensions resulting from power assertions of the Portuguese authority over local

politico-economic and social structures. Furthermore, the Estado 's activities in the

port-city were interpreted as the European state's experiments in transforming Goa

as the early colonial bastion for broadcasting the Christian communities. Once again

a monochromatic representation of contemporary sources was initiated to

understand the Estado's inroads into Asia as seekers of "Christians and spices"

projecting the Portuguese interface in Goa as a Christian conspiracy to colonize

India using religion as a tool. 15 Inherent to such nationalist reconstructions of Goan

historians such as A.K. Priolkar16 was the assumption that the Portuguese interface

in Goa marked the beginning of the long period of colonial exploits in India

15 K N Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, Kuala Lampur (reprint), 1993. 16 A.K. Priolkar, The Goa Inquisition, Bombay, 1961.

7

precipitating the breakdown of the local economies and a socio-economic

reorganization catering to the colonial interests in draining Indian wealth.

The urban development of the city of Goa and the Portuguese penetration of the

provinces of Tiswadi, Bardez and Salcete during the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries were reconstructed to explain the decadence of Goa by the late

seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries which were contrasted with the region's

flourishing socio-economic structure in the pre-colonial period. Both schools of

historiography engaged in a simplistic reading of the medieval sources without

undertaking an intrinsic and extrinsic critique of source materials. Moreover the

developments in Goa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were bracketed

as stemming from the impact of the "active" agent (the Portuguese) on the "passive"

local society. However by the 1980's historiographical shifts from the pre-existing

ideological and narrative trends in both Portugal and India were visible.

Scholars such as C.R Boxer and Vitorino Magalha.es Godinho in the 1950s and

1960s had examined a variety of sources to trace complex historical processes

marking the Portuguese engagements in Asia in general and India in particular in

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries deviating from the erstwhile myth of the

"Golden age". Their works explored the basic characteristics marking different

phases of the Portuguese empire in Asia such as the changing commercial and

territorial assertions of the Estado from the period between 1500 and 1570s, which

was primarily linked to the monopolist mercantile ambitions of the "Grocer king"

Dom Manuel and Dom Joao III; and the period between 1570s and 1640s, when the

concerns were less for territorial acquisitions and expansion of trade, but more for

collection of taxes and customs overwhelmingly thrust on it under the growing

Spanish influence. Similarly, the declining politico-commercial fortunes of the

Portuguese enterprise in Asia during the seventeenth century were linked to the

mercantile and naval contestations by the European companies primarily the Dutch,

8

French and British. This revealed how significant politico-economic

considerations-rather than ideological predominance of the religiously obsessed

Portuguese monarchs in promoting Catholic Christianity-dictated the Estado 's

policy orientations and colonial assertions from Goa. Thus, while Magalhaes

Godinho 17 engaged with the study of the economy and finances of the Portuguese

sea-borne empire, C.R Boxer18 in his numerous publications examined new angles

in the structure and functioning of the maritime mercantile enterprise and overseas

empire of the Lusitanians. Intrinsic to such re-readings was the breakdown of the

notion of a monolithic and dictatorial character of the Estado da India in regulating

Portuguese trading, mercenary and missionary activities in the East. However the

analysis primarily investigated the nature of the Portuguese sea-borne empire in the

context of the dynamics stemming from diverse (and often conflicting) interests and

objectives of the various social groups constituting the Portuguese community in

Asia such as the fidalgos, the soldados, the casados, clergy, mariners, missionaries,

private Portuguese traders etc. Thus while both historians hint at the role of the local

element in influencing Portuguese activities within India and elucidated the power

contestations between the Portuguese and its Asian maritime rivals such as the

Ottoman Turks, the Zamorin, the ·mercantile Marakkar Muslims of Calicut etc.,

much of emphasis was still concentrated around exploring the nature and impact of

the early colonial power on Asian society.

Nevertheless the pioneering works of Boxer and Godinho triggered new historical

traditions by late 1970's in Portugal (after the end of Salazar's dictatorial regime in

1975) and India employing methodological trends based on deconstructing

17Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, 4 vols. Editorial

Presenca Lis boa, 1981-84; Ibidem, Les Finances de L 'etat Portugais des lndes Orientales (1 517-

1635): Materiaux pour une Etude Structural/e et Conjoncturelle. Paris, 1982. 18 C.R Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-Borne Empire, 1415-1825. London, 1969; Ibidem, Portuguese

Society in the Tropics: The Municipal Councils ofGoa, Macao, Bahia and Luanda, 1510-1580 A.D.

Madison, 1965; Ibidem, Portuguese in India in the Mid-Seventeenth Century. Delhi, 1980.

9

Portuguese literary records that were written by the elites and for the elites; and,

understanding constant adjustments and re-adjustments of the Est ado and the private

Portuguese enterprise in India partly owing to the politico-economic climate of

Portugal and partly as a product of larger Asian realities. Luis Philip Thomaz,

Arthur Teodoro de Matos and M.N Pearson analyze the historical processes shaping

the Portuguese enterprise in Asia and Africa as a product of influences exerted by

the Portuguese on the Asian life on the one hand and of the Asian people and

societies upon the Portuguese on the other hand. Luis Filipe Thomaz19 decoding the

history of mentalities focused on analyzing the ideological and commercial

intervention of the private Portuguese merchants, religious Orders and trading

officials and soldiers in the Portuguese "strongholds" (such as the port-city of Goa

and Cochin) and the "frontier" zones such as China, Japan, Coromandel and Bengal

which remained outside the realm of official control. His investigations supported

the argument that much of the Portuguese commercial engagements within Asia

were not acquired on the basis of the Estado's sea-power. Thus he explored the

nature of the Portuguese pockets scattered across the globe; engagements of private

Portuguese traders (comprising of Goan casados, soldados, Portuguese New

Christians, religious Orders and Portuguese exiles and renegades) with distant ports

and supply zones; the Counter Reformation spirit and Council of Trent providing

the ideological justification for the Estado 's initiating conversions and claims to

Christian socio-cultural homogeneity and exclusivity through the agency of the

missionaries and the various parish Churches. For our study such observations

expose possibilities in establishing linkages between the changing ratio of

19 Luis Filipe Thomaz, De Ceuta a Timor. Lisboa, 1994; Ibidem, 'A Crise de 1565-1575 na Historia

do Estado da India.' in Mare Liberum, 9 July 1995; Ibidem, 'The Portuguese in the Seas of the

Archipelago during the 161h Century' in Archipel, 18, 1984; Ibidem, 'Portuguese Control on the

Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal-a Comparative Study'. Paper presentation at the Conference on

Bay of Bengal, New Delhi, December 1994; Luis Filip Thomaz, 'Factions, Interests and Messianism:

The Politics of Portuguese Expansion in the East, 1500-1521 ', Indian Economic and Social History

Review 28, 1 (1991); Ibidem, 'Were The St. Thomas Christians looked upon as Heretics?' in, K.S

Mathew, Teotonio De Souza, Pius Malekandathil (eds.), The Portuguese and the Socia Cultural

Changes in India 1500-1800. Tellicherry, MESHAR, 2001

10

Portuguese private participation in Asian maritime commerce (relative to the

monopoly trade of the Estado) and the evolving politico-ideological strategies of the

early colonial state in controlling and mobilizing men and resources.

Arthur Teodoro de Matos20 studied the finances of the Portuguese through

compiling and editing the annual budgetary allocations ( Or~amentos) of the Est ado

da India and fiscal benefices and grants by the state from the various archives of

Brazil and Europe. His publications reconstruct details of the income (receitas) and

expenditure (despezas) of the Estado recorded at the port of Goa and Cochin for

different years; and, scrutinizes annual financial flows to the state treasury at Goa

from the various Portuguese factories and fortresses in the Indian Ocean littoral.

Similarly articles such as "The Assets and Income of the Religious Orders in Goa"21

reveal the role of the redistributive state through tracing fiscal and revenue grants

(of the state and by the Portuguese traders) to the religious Orders and charitable

institutions within Goa. Thus his careful edition of the Or~amentos of 1571 and

1580-1588 provides valuable data regarding the income of the Cidade de Goa (apart

from the fortresses of Ormuz, Diu, Daman, Dabul, Bassein, Cochin etc.) which hint

at the total share of income derived from maritime customs revenue. This enables us

to reconstruct the dependence of the urban unit on the port, as tax and revenue

collections from intra-Asian private maritime trade constituted the majority income

of the Estado-this being reconfirmed through contemporary testimonies to tax

exemptions on ships arriving from Lisbon. Thus such quantitative data suggest

20 Arthur Teodoro de Matos, 0 Est ado do India nos Annas de 1581-1588. Estrutura administrative e

economia. Alguns Elementos para o seu Estudo. Ponta Delgada, Universidade dos A~ores, 1982;

Ibidem, 0 Orr;amento do Estado da India, 1571. Centro do Estudo, Damiao de Gois, Lisboa; Ibidem,

'The Financial Situation of the State of India during the Philippine Period' in Teotonio de Souza

(ed.), Indo-Portuguese History: Old Issues, New Questions. New Delhi, 1985; 21 Artur Teodoro de Matos, 'Assets and Income of the Religious Orders in Goa at the end ofthe 16'h

Century.' in Teotonio R. de Souza (ed.), Discoveries, Missionary Expansion and Asian Cultures.

New Delhi, 1994.

1l

possibilities to co-relate the expanded maritime trade of the port, concentration of

private mercantile wealth within the imperial city and the shifting trends of urban

development and magnificence of the imperial capital by late 16th century. Our

thesis engages in a comparative analysis of the annual budgets-using the data from

Matos' collection of 1571, 1581 and 1588 budgets with other published Orvamentos

of 1554, 1574, 1607-to examine trade surplus derived indirectly from the rate at

which rents and revenues were farmed out at the port of Goa which also reveal the

fluctuating volume of maritime trade. Similarly analysis of the income and

expenditure of the Estado at Goa would highlight the redistributive nature of the

early colonial state and politico-economic and administrative priorities of the

Empire respectively. Such quantitative tools also help in decoding shifting spatial

assertions within the urban unit and colonial strategies to consolidate diverse social

spaces that stemmed from multiple social relations evolving within the port-city as a

result of the distribution and redistribution of wealth. Thus, it hints at possibilities to

analyze changing power relations within the urban unit of Goa at a micro level and

the Estado da India at a macro level through studying the status claims of the

various urban groups visually articulated in the evolving structures and institutions

shaping the early colonial port-city.

Similarly M.N. Pearson's22 study of maritime trade and the Portuguese colonial

community in its various possessions on coastal western India-especially Goa and

Gujarat-traces cracks within the official structure stemming from power

contestations between the Portuguese communities(the stratified class and status

22 M.N. Pearson, Coastal Western India: Studies from the Portuguese Records. New Delhi, 1981;

M.N Pearson, Before Colonialism, Theories on Asian-European Relations 1500-1750. Delhi, 1988;

Ibidem, 'Goa-Based Seaborne Trade 17th - 18th Centuries' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.), Goa

Through The Ages, If: An Economic History. New Delhi, 1990; Ibidem, 'The Portuguese State and

Medicine in Goa.' in K.S Mathew, Teotonio de Souza, Pius Malekandathil (eds.), The Portuguese

and the Socio-Cultural Changes in India, 1500-1800, Funda~ao Oriente, Lisbon! IRISH, Tellicherry,

2001

12

groups ofjidalgos, casados, mestic;os, castic;os, Jewish converts, renegades, exiles,

religious etc.) inhabiting such areas; and, the early colonial empire's constant

attempts at controlling these urban socio-economic groups. More importantly he

analyzed the fluid control of the state-lacking sufficient manpower and

resources--over significant indigenous communities (local feudatories, regional

sea-faring and inland traders such as Banyas, Saraswat Brahmins, Canarins,

Banjaras of Bijapur, Mappila Muslim traders of Malabar and other littoral

communities) necessitating co-operation and collaborations between the Lusitanian

colonialists and the regional socio-economic groups even within traditional

strongholds such as Goa. Pearson's investigations of the complexities marking the

changed structure and orientation of the urban unit and port of Goa revealed its

being shaped by multiple factors-the Portuguese innovation of monopolizing trade

of select commodities; profiting parasitically from pre-existing Asian trade, and, the

dependence of the early colonial power on local mercantile and sea-faring

communities of Goa (revealed in the various accommodations and compromises in

practice despite the dictatorial state policies). Thus he linked the shaping of the port­

city with the early colonial power's interests to mobilize profits through the

maritime contacts of the port. It unveiled the curious case wherein urbanization in

Goa under the Portuguese reveals the working of concentric trends. On the one

hand, it was crafted as an exclusively European city-modeled on the Portuguese

metropolis of Lisbon--designed to facilitate the early colonial power's

administrative and military control over the Indian Ocean world. This idea of the

port-city as a "transplant" presupposed that the early colonial objective of using the

port as a device for trade monopolization and military control of the seas marked a

radical change in the previous role of the port limited to being an entrepot in Asian

trade. For such observations Pearson rallied substantial quantitative and qualitative

data on the port's predominant sea-trade over its inland trade under the Estado; the

ability of the Portuguese to monopolize maritime trade in spices and horses; and, the

extraction of significant resources by the parasitic colonial power by licensing and

taxing sea-based private Asian trade of the casados and regional traders.

Concurrently, he also traced elements of continuity in the port-city's existence as an

13

Asian city during the 16th and 1 ih centuries and alternately refers to it as a "graff"

on account of its dependence on coastal trade of regional merchants for essential

provisions. Pearson's studies exposed the weak and feeble imperial monopolistic

and military structure-despite the early colonial community of casados, jida/gos

and trading clergymen-and revealed how in practice it was dependant on Asians

for mercantile and labour assistance even in imperial strongholds such as Goa Thus

his investigations contributed to the new historiographical trend that exploded the

myth of the 'Golden Age' of the imperial Portuguese in the 16th century through the

case study of the urban unit and port of Goa which was hitherto regarded as the

index to the glory of imperial Portuguese being the administrative nucleus of the

maritime empire in the East. Furthermore his arguments suggest strong possibilities

m re-conceptualizing significant co-relations between the trajectories of

urbanization, fluctuations in the maritime mercantile contacts of the port and it's

being shaped by the colonial power of the Portuguese as tool for resource extraction

during the 16th and 1 th centuries. Concurrently it hinted at how shifts in the trends

of maritime trade and urbanization in Goa mirrored complexities and fluctuations

marking the politico-commercial fortunes of the Portuguese in Asia rather than

being simplistically interpreted as a product of change inside Goa and its hinterland.

In India the historical trend of understanding the shaping of the early colonial

conditions of the 16th and 17th centuries as a result of the Portuguese intervention

and Asian realities on the one hand; and, using the Portuguese sources to reconstruct

the regional Indian socio-economic and political dynamics on the other hand is

represented mostly in the works of P.S.S Pissurlencar, P.P Shirodkar, K.S.Mathew

and Teotonio R.de Souza. Specializing in Indo-Portuguese trade, K.S Mathe~P

23 K S Mathews, Portuguese trade with India in the Sixteenth Century. New Delhi ,1983 ; Ibidem,

'Indian Merchants and the Portuguese trade in India during the 161h century' in Teotonio De Souza

(ed.), Indo-Portuguese History: Old issues- New Questions. New Delhi, 1985; Ibidem, 'Church

Economics in 16th century Goa.' in P.P. Shirodkar (ed.), Goa: Cultural Trends (seminar papers).

Goa, 1988; Ibidem, 'Trade and Commerce in Sixteenth Century Goa.' in Teotonio De Souza (ed.)

Goa Through the Ages, II : An Economic History. New Delhi, 1990; Ibidem, 'German Merchant

14

illustrates the entrepot trade and urban conditions in the pre-Portuguese ports of Goa

with its mosaic of resident regional and international traders and the rising local

manufacturing of ships and coastal vessels in the Adil Shahi dockyard at Goa.

Against this background Mathew traces elements of both change and continuity in -

the maritime markets and production zones linked to the Goan port and the resultant

urban development. Thus he hints at how the growing trade networks of the port

(evident in the diversified cosmopolitan urban community; and, the establishment of

magnificent urban edifices and institutions) can be linked to the dynamo effect of

the demand by the European markets on the port-city's inland and maritime

commercial and service sectors under early colonial domination. Mathew

establishes through a number of documentary ptoofs how the making and marking

of the imperial port-city (with the shift of the administrative capital of the Estado

from Cochin to Goa by 1530s) indicated the working of new conditions with a

highly monetized economy, urban commercial expansion and boost in the service

industry such as the activities of shroffs, bankers, money lenders, slaves and other

skilled and unskilled labour classes. Nevertheless, he argues that intensified indo­

European and intra-Asian trade under the early colonial power did not trigger

radical change· in the primary sector especially in the ship-building and crafts

industry. He uses this premise to indicate a continuity than an absolute change in the

shaping of the port-city and links it to the ambiguity of contemporary sources

regarding large capital investments and innovations within state enterprises (arsenal,

ship-building, mint etc.,) or urban artisanal production catering to an export market.

Mathew's observations on the commercial urban unit prove beneficial to our

proposed study as they hint at the crucial linkages between mercantile fortunes of

the port and the structural efflorescence of the urban institutions. This suggests how

at the core power center of Goa maritime prospects of the port and trends of urban

Financers in Goa during the 16th and 17th Centuries.' in P.P. Shirodkar (ed.}, Goa's External

Relations. Goa, 1992; Ibidem, 'Provincial Councils of Goa and the Cultural changes in India during

the l61h and l71

h century'. in K.S Mathew, Teotonio de Souza, Pius Malekandathil (eds.), The

Portuguese and the socio cultural changes in India 1500-1800. Fundac;ao Oriente, Lisbon/ IRISH,

Tellicherry, 200 I

15

development in the city were directly related. Thus the increased concentration of

mercantile wealth within the port-city was matched by a corresponding

establishment of various power exercising institutions and urban spatial re­

arrangement in the sixteen~h century.

Teotonio R. de Souza24 decodes contemporary Portuguese documentation to trace

the evolving urban and rural processes by the late l61h and 1 ih centuries. The

underlying argument in de Souza's study was that Portuguese colonial dominance in

Goa stemmed only from the "native collaboration" both in a political, military and

diplomatic capacity such as the help extended by the local Hindu populations in

conquering Goa; and, in the economic arena as seen in the all out collaboration of

the Hindu business community and entrepreneurial houses in the vital areas of

revenue administration and Goa-based trade.25 The significance of de Souza's work

lies in the rich details on urban social and economic institutions that evolved during

the 161h and 17th centuries such as the powers, functions and resources of the

municipality, its conflicts with the state authorities, the tensions between the various

socio-political groups stemming from the prevailing mercantilist ideology of the

state, the labour and market organization etc. His methodology however involves

the use of sources that comprise primarily of 171h century Portuguese documents as

to him "only a detailed study of the seventeenth century can lead to a fair

24 Teotonio R de Souza , Medieval Goa : A Socio-Economic History. New Delhi, 1979; Teotonio R.

de Souza(ed.), Essays in Goan History. New Delhi, 1987; Ibidem, Indo- Portuguese History: Old

Issues, New Questions. New Delhi, 1985; Ibidem, 'Heads lose, Tails win: Portuguese Currency', in

S.V Doshi (ed.), Goa: Cultural Patterns. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1983; Ibidem, 'Glimpses of

Hindu Dominance of Goan Economy in the 171h century' in Indica, XII,1975, pp.27-35; Ibidem,

'Goa based Portuguese seaborne trade in the early sixteenth century' in IESHR, Xll,1975, pp.27-35;

Ibidem, 'Rural Economy and Life' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.), Goa Through the Ages, II: An

Economic History. New Delhi, 1990; Ibidem, 'The Religious Policy ofthe Portuguese in Goa, 1510-

1800' in K.S Mathew, Teotonio De Souza and Pius Malekandathil (eds.), The Portuguese and the

sociocultural changes in India 1500-1800, Funda~ao Oriente, Lisbon/ IRISH, Tellicherry, 2001. 25 Teotonio R.. de Souza, Medieval Goa, p.I86.

16

assessment of the socio-economic changes initiated in the previous century which

saw the native population of Goa confronted by a western style of Christianity and

colonial capitalism."26 Nevertheless, his translation of original manuscripts from the

collections stored at the Historical Archiyes of Goa (attached in the appendix to his

work); and, critical guidelines to printed primary sources help us to streamline the

literary sources that supplement our spatial and structural reconstruction of the

evolving early colonial port-city through the complex grid layout, construction and

role of urban edifices and institutions, and, analyzing streets and market spaces in

different temporal phases during the 161h and 17th centuries.

The Goan historians P.P Shirodhkar,27 V.T. Gune,28 P.D. Xavier29, Nandakumar

Kamaf0 etc., also draw upon a variety of Portuguese and Konkani literary and

inscriptional sources to reconstruct both the politico-administrative structure and

socio-cultural processes within Goa in the pre-Portuguese and early colonial period.

Further information on the systematic homogenization and Lusitanization of the

26 Ibid., pp. 9-l 0. 27 P.P Shirodhkar, 'Dutch-Portuguese Relations in the East (1663-1795) vis-a-vis the Indian

Peninsula.'in Teotonio de Souza (ed.) Essays in Goon History, New Delhi, 1987; Ibidem, 'Survey of

the Ancient Kadamba Port of Gopakapattanam.' Paper presented at seminar on "Ocean, Religion and

Archaeology" held at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, 1989; Ibidem,

'Evangelization and its Harsh Realities.' in Teotonio R. de Souza (ed.), Discoveries, Missionary

Expansion and Asian Cultures. New Delhi, 1994; Ibidem, 'Influence of Nath Cult in Goa.' in P.P.

Shirodkar (ed.), Goa: Cultural Trends, Goa, 1988; P.P. Shirodkar (ed.), Goa's External Relations,

Goa, 1992 28 V.T Gune, Ancient Shrines of Goa, Panaji, 1965; Gune(ed.), Gazetteerofthe Union Territory Go,

Daman and Diu. Part 1. Panaji, 1979; Ibidem, 'Goa's Coastal and Overseas Trade from the Earliest

times till the 1510 A.D.' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.), Goa Through the Ages. New Delhi, 1990.

29 P.O. Xavier, 'Church and Society in 16th century Goa.' in P.P. Shirodkar (ed.), Goa: Cultural

Trends,. Goa, 1988; Ibidem, 'Some Aspects ofthe Finances ofthe College ofSt Paul (1700-1750).'

in B.S.Shastry (ed.) Goon society through the Ages. New Delhi, 1987 30 Nandakumar Kamat, 'Gopakapattanam through the Ages.' in B.S.Shastry (ed.) Goon society

through the Ages; Ibidem, 'Cultural Relations of Goa with Gujarat.' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.)

Essays in Goon History. New Delhi, 1989; Ibidem, 'Simha and Gajasimha Motif in Goa Kadamba's

Temple Architecture and Numismatics.' in P.P. Shirodhkar(ed.), Goa: Cultural Trends, Goa, 1988

17

cosmopolitan urban society through the Padroado-backed imposition of European

Christian customary and cultural practices and establishment of parish churches

with priests maintained on state payroll is reconstructed by Mathias Mundadan31

and Joseph Thekkedath.32 These scholars use various missionary records and state·

grants to Christian charitable and educational institutions to trace shifting trends in

the early colonial ideological assertions within the port-city. Their reconstructions

reveal how peaceful co-existence in the first phase of domination from 151 0-1530s

was increasingly' replaced by intolerance towards pluralism and elements of

heterogeneity by1540s-1590s and a waning of the conversion zeal and missionary

proselytism between1590s and 166Qs. However as they do not exclusively deal with

tracing the history of Goa, the dialogue between the commercial concerns of the

Portuguese enterprise and the religious pretensions of the Padroado remain

unexplored. Nevertheless the factual details supplied by such works reconstructed

from the correspondence of the Goa Jesuits with Lisbon and Rome; and, by the

Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian and Jesuit missionaries from their mission

fields in the regional economic unit constituted by the //has, Bardez and Salcete and

other parts of Asia to the headquarters of the religious Orders at Goa enable us to

retrace the changing ideological and socio-cultural strategies of the early colonial

state to control the living and working conditions of the rural and urban masses and

command the loyalties of the latter to the Archbishopric of Goa. Recently scholars

like Charles Borges,33 Agnello Femandes,34 Delio de Mendon9a,35 Fatima da Silva

31 A.M Mundadan, History of Christianity in India from the Beginning up to The Middle of the

Sixteenth Century (up to I 542), Vol I. Bangalore, 200 I. 32 Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India from the middle of the Sixteenth Century to the

end of the Seventeenth Century (I 542- 1700), Vol ll, Bangalore, 200 I. 33 Charles Borges S.J, The Economics ofThe Goa Jesuits, 1542-1759: An Explanation ofTheir Rise

and Fall. New Delhi, 1994; Charles Borges & Helmut Feldmann (eds.), Goa and Portugal: Their

Cultural Links, New Delhi, 1997; Teotonio R. de Souza & Charles Borges. (eds.) Jesuits in India: In

Historical perspective, Macau, 1992; Charles Borges, 'Foreign Jesuits and Native Resistance in Goa

(1542-1759).' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.) Essays in Goan History, New Delhi, 1987; Ibidem, 'How

Shall We Manage? Catholic Religious Orders Based in Portuguese India in 16th and 17th centuries.'

in Fatima da Silva Gracias, Celsa Pinto and Charles Borges (eds.), Indo-Portuguese History: Global

18

Gracias36 etc., reconstruct various aspects of the society and economy in Goa such

as its placement in international trade, economy of the Jesuit and Augustinian

Orders, socio-cultural reforms, aspects of urban sanitation and civic maintenance in

the port-city especially drainage and drinking water facilities, maintenance of

streets, Hospitals and retreats. These studies suggest the significance of

understanding the historical processes characterizing the socio-economic structure

of Goa in the 16th and l ih centuries marked by fluctuating trends in the functioning

of the port and urban institutions (that can be linked to the flow and concentration of

resources within the imperial port-city) rather than monolithic and linear

developments shaping the urban experience. Furthermore such investigations reveal

the need to shift focus to explore new angles within the structural evolution of the

port city and the urban experience in the context of different temporal phases rather

than attributing the developments marking the late 16th and 17th centuries as a result

of the natural culmination of processes that began in the 16th century. The recent

works of Pius Malekandathie7 deconstruct urban imageries to illustrate complex

Trends Session. Goa, Proceedings of XI- International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History - Silver

Jubilee, Goa, 2003; Ibidem, 'Jesuit Education in Goa (l61h-18th Centuries).' in P.P. Shirodkar (ed.),

Goa: Cultural Trends, Goa, 1988; Charles Borges and M.N.Pearson (eds.), Metahistory: History

questioning history, fetschift in honour of Teotonio R. de Souza. Lisbon, Nova Vega, 2007 34 Agnello Fernandes, 'Augustinians in Goa' in P.P. Shirodkar (ed.), Goa: Cultural Trends, Goa,

1988; Ibidem, 'Goa in the International Trade: 16th-171h Centuries.' in Teotonio de Souza (ed.)

Essays in Goan History, New Delhi, 1987; Ibidem, 'Social Reform Ordinances Introduced in Goa by

Viceroy Dom. Francisco Tavora, Conde de Alvor (1681-1686).' in B.S.Shastry (ed.) Goan Society

through the Ages; Ibidem, 'Goans in Portuguese Armadas during Medieval Times.' in Borges and

Pearson (eds.), Metahistory: History questioning History, Lisbon, 2007 35 Delio de Mendont;:a 'The City Carousal: Relocation of the Capital of the Estado da India' in

Borges and Pearson ( eds. }, Metahistory: History questioning history, Lisbon, 2007 36 Fatima da Silva Gracias, Health and Hygiene in Colonial Goa, 1510-1961. New Delhi, 1994;

Ibidem, 'The Impact of Portuguese Culture on Goa. A Myth or a Reality' in Goa and Portugal, New

Delhi,l997 37 Pius Malekandathil , 'Colonial City of Goa' in Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since

1450,(fhe Gale group , INC/Macmillan Reference USA); Ibidem, 'City in Space and Metaphor: A

Study on the Colonial Port -City of Goa', in Studies in History, voi.XXV, No. I, January-June, 2009,

pp. 13-38;Ibidem, 'Spatialization and Social Engineering: Role of the Cities of Cochin and Goa in

19

processes underlying the structural shaping and trade relations of the port-city under

Portuguese occupation. It raises important questions such as how was the port-city

structured in each phase of colonial domination; and, why did the spatializatioi:t

_ claims of the urban edifices and institutions differ from time to time? His analysis of

Portuguese source materials identifies stages in the urban evolution ofthe port-city

corresponding to the changing need of the early colonial state to mobilize and

accumulate resources within the imperial capital. Thus he traces the transformation

of the Adil Shahi city as a European (Lusitanian) town to attract the Portuguese .

migrants and consolidate a community of ethnically Portuguese casado and mesti90

citizens betweeen151 0-1540. Similarly development of urban structures including

edifices, street layouts and handsome residential quarters in the second phase from

1540s-1580s and 1590s-1620s were linked to the wealth flowing from the agrarian

units of Bardez and Salcete and contributions of wealthy Portuguese private traders

respectively. His analysis thus reveals the possibilities of analyzing the "diverse

mechanisms and processes by which the port city of Goa was constructed and

developed in space and metaphors for the purpose of realizing the designs of the

early colonial state."

In this context, our study of trade and urbanization in Goa attempts at understanding

the strategies by which the extractive tentacles of the early colonial state penetrated

and mobilized resources from both the neighboring economies; and, private

Portuguese traders through the instrument of the port-city. This involves a

reconstruction of the urban unit with an administrative and commercial core area

structuring around the nucleus of the port in four distinct phases using city plans,

maps and urban imageries recorded in Portuguese and European literary sources.

Along with the geographical and spatial study of the city structure our research also

Shaping the Est ado da India, 1500-1663' in 0 Est ado da India e os Desafios Europeus: Aetas do XII

Seminario Internacional de Historia Indo-Portuguesa, Lisboa, 2010, pp.30 1-328; Ibidem,' The

Ottoman Expansion and the Portuguese response in the Indian Ocean , 1500-1560.' Charles J. Borges

and M.N.Pearson (eds.), Metahistory: History questioning History, Lisboa, 2007; Ibidem, Maritime

India: Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi, 2010.

20

attempts at exploring why a parallel administrative mechanism of the municipality

was shaped and empowered with various administrative, juridical and fiscal

privileges conferred through royal grants; and, how did urban institutions such as

the municipality, the Misericordia and the headquarters of the various religious

Orders including the wealthy Goan churches and seminaries facilitate the circulation

of the accumulated wealth for the maintenance of the port-city, security of the

harbor of Goa and offering solutions to the resource crunch within the Estado from

time to time. The thesis thus engages in a critical intrinsic and extrinsic analysis of a

wide variety of sources ranging from contemporary maps and city plans to Estado's

budgetary records, European travelogues, missionary records and state papers

pertaining to the 16th and 1 ?'h centuries.

Identity of the Area and Period of Study

The geo-physical area of study is to be clearly established as Goa had different

connotations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: On the one hand the

nomenclature of Goa was given to the islands (Ilhas) of Goa,38 which were a larger

administrative unit and comprised the five islands of Tiswadi, Chorao, Divar,

V amsim and Zuve 39 and which were conquered by the Portuguese in 1510. On the

other hand the term Goa was also given to a much larger territorial possession of the

Portuguese which included not only the islands of Tiswadi conquered in 1510 but

also other neighbouring regions like Bardez and Salcete, which were occupied by

the Portuguese in 1543 and they were collectively called the Old Conquests in order

to distinguish them from the new territories conquered and added to Goa (as New

Conquests) in mid-eighteenth century. However, when we refer to the port city of

Goa, we do not mean these larger territorial units , but the capital city of these

territorial units or the city of Goa, which evolved around its port on the north-east

of Tiswadi, away from the sea but accessible through the 'Goa river', that is, the

38 Refer Map I. 39 Mathias Mundadan, History of Christianity Vol!, p 429

21

Mandovi.40 It corresponds to the present day location of Old Goa (Velho Goa),

which now is in ruins. The study focuses on this port-city of Goa, which the

Portuguese maintained as their power centre in Asia for almost two centuries. This

city is also identified as corresponding to the erstwhile port-town of Ela which

gained predominance by the mid fourteenth century.41 The proximity of the new

port to the inland kingdoms of Bijapur and Vijayanagara, the lucrative horse trade

from Arabia, the availability of timber for shipbuilding, its commercial relations

with south Konkan ports - all seem to have contributed to the changing port

hierarchy and the shifting of the center of gravity from the old port of

Gopakapattanam to the emerging port of Ela.42 Adil Shahis took possession of Ela

by the fourth quarter of the fifteenth century, which they eventually developed as

the capital of their possessions in south Konkan. It has been argued that Juwa­

Sindabur or Juwa, referred to by Ibn Majid in the fifteenth century must have been

the port of Ela. 43

The study starts from 1510, when the Portuguese captured the city along with its

adjacent areas from the Adil Shahis and started giving new meanings and logic to

Goa's urbanization processes. The terminal point of the study is 1690, when the

Portuguese were finally compelled to shift their capital from the port-city of Goa to

other safer locations in Goa due to frequent attacks from the Dutch and the English

and due to the continuous outbreak of pestilence and contagious diseases in the city.

The tentative time span of two centuries is taken as one single unit of study as to

show how the Portuguese made convenient use of the urban space of Goa for

addressing the multiple needs of their early colonial state. The period also marks a

substantial break from the earlier role of the port-town of Ela as the nucleus of

entrepot trade and subsequently as the second capital of the Bijapuri Sultans. In its

40 Mathias Mundadan, History of Christianity vol I, p 431. 41 Pius Malekandathil, 'City in Space and Metaphor: A Study on the Port -City ofGoa,'pp.l5-6 42 K.S. Mathew, 'Trade and Commerce in Sixteenth Century Goa.' 43 Pius Malekandathil, 'Spatialization and Social Engineering: Role of the Cities of Cochin and Goa

in Shaping the Estado da India 1500-1663', p.306

22

new role as an early colonial port-city and headquarters of the Estado da India, the

remodeling of the urban structure and institutions of Goa more or less duplicated the

city of Lisbon. The study is located within the temporal context of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries. Furthermore, the early colonial intervention and subsequent

fluctuations in the mercantile processes of the port and alterations in city space is

divided into four distinct phases (from 1510-1540, 1540-1580, 1580-1610 and 1610-

1690) in order to understand the power assertions of urban status groups and the

Estado's constantly evolving strategies to use the city as the tool to extract and

concentrate resources in the context of larger politico-economic and social

processes.

Design of Study

This research study looking into the meanings of urbanization in Goa and the uses to

which its multiple urban institutions and groups were manipulated for meeting the

diverse needs of the early colonial state of the Portuguese has been done in seven

chapters.

The first being the introductory chapter locates the theme within the frames of Indo­

Portuguese historiography and examines the nature of existing historical literature

on the port-city of Goa. Thus it states the basic objectives of the thesis as being a

descriptive and analytical study of the twin processes of trade and urbanization in

the port-city under Lusitanian early colonial domination, (1510 to 1690 A.D) using

contemporary maps, literary sources and fieldstudy of V elho Goa.

Second chapter is the background chapter to re-trace the trade of the pre-Portuguese

south Konkan ports indicating its commercial connections with Europe and other

parts of Asia. The rise of early medieval port-towns of Chandrapur,

Gopakapattanam, Revatidwipa and Ela; and, the shifting port-hierarchy amongst

these South Konkan ports from the 11th century till the first decade of the 16th

23

century is explored. Similarly attempts are made to understand linkages between the

activities of its politico-economically dominant Arab and Indian ship-owning and

sea-trading settlers; the peculiarities of urbanization at these port-towns under

regional potentates (the Bhojas, Silaharas, Kadambas, Vijayanagara rayas, the

Bahmani Sultans and subsequently Bijapur); and, urban-rural relations. This acts as

the perfect counter-foil to analyze change and continuity in trends of trade and

urbanization with the Portuguese take-over of the port-city of Ela and subsequent

conquests in the !/has de Goa from 1510 onwards.

Chapter three proposes to look into the first phase of Portuguese occupation of the

port-city of Goa (151 0-1540 A. D). Explorations are made into the re-formatting of

urban space with the establishment of new civil, religious and educational

institutions and structures (churches, schools, municipal hall, Misericordia etc)

resembling the institutions of Lisbon under the Estado's directives. The State's

initiative in carving out a Lusitanian city space to encourage its steady peopling

with a colonial community of administratively and militarily skilled and

commercially inclined casados and mestif;os (apart from the Portuguese clergy,

fidalgos and soldados) has been linked to the larger politico-commercial objectives

of the early colonial State in the Indian Ocean. The chapter studies the evolving

urban space and symbology to understand multiple dialogues of the early colonial

State with the Portuguese settlers and the trading indigenous residents that was

strongly motivated by its interests to control urban mercantile resources and

commercial revenues. For this purpose, data denoting the annual value of private

trade in Goa between 1510-1540 and the changing demographic and settlement

patterns within the conquered port-city are used as quantitative tools to support our

conceptualization that the first phase of urban spatilization following the territorial

conquest of the port city was geared to raise resources (men and money) to fund the

early colonial State's politico-commercial enterprise in the Indian Ocean viz.

cultivating an ethnically Portuguese but socially rooted colonial community rather

than its previous strategy of making quick profits through regional political alliances

and plunder of unlicensed mercantile vessels that cruised the Asian seas.

24

The fourth chapter deals with the restructuring of Goa as a colonial 'Christian'

space between 1540 and 1580. It begins with a comparative study of the cityscape

by late 1530s (as outlined by the governor Dom Joao de Castro) and the expanded

urban structure of the late 1580s and 1590s (as noted by Linschoten, the Dutch

officer in Goa) to trace the emergence of a multi-focal European town centering

around power-denoting urban edifices and institutions such as the municipality,

Misericordia, various missionary headquarters and State establishments. This

enables an exploration of connections between the rising wealth concentration in the

port-city-stemming from the escalating private trade of its citizens and Estado's

acquisition of the agrarian hinterlands of Salcete and Bardez-and the erection of

awe evoking structures. The chapter deconstructs traditional interpretation of the

increasing religious conservatism of the Estado at Goa and re-reads the reactionary

policies as integral to its colonial strategy of homogenizing and standardizing urban

behaviour to facilitate consolidation of Portuguese hegemony in the conquered

region of the !/has de Goa (including Salcete and Bardez). Contemporary metaphors

regarding the port-city as the early colonial Christian capital (Archbishopric of the

East), Rainha do Oriente (Queen of the Oriental marts) and A Senhora de Todo o

Oriente are critically analyzed to understand how early colonial knowledge

formation too was geared to facilitate Portuguese settlements within the port-city

and State formation ambitions of the Estado by proclaiming the undoubted

commercial, military and ideological supremacy of the Lusitanian administrative

capital.

Chapter five studies the phase 1580-1610 when the port-city stretched to its

maximum both territorially and demographically. The popular imageries of Goa

Dourada (Golden Goa) and the port-city as "Treasury of the East" are investigated

to contextualize urban prosperity as stemming from the port's expanded linkages

with its foreland and hinterland regions. Thus the effects of liberalization of trade­

contract system replacing the earlier State monopoly of Indo-European trade in the

1570s and privatization of intra-Asian trade by 1590s---on the nature and extend of

25

wealth accumulated in the administrative capital is explored usmg data on

commodities taxed in the city between 1581-88 and the value of maritime trade in

Goa between 1581 and 1610. The information derived is placed against the rising

income-expenditure of the city to critically analyze how urban beautification,

organization of the expanded urban space and the Estado's defense related

investments for the period were motored predominantly by the maritime private

traders. This once again enables us to examine the meanings associated with urban

spatial re-organization in this phase and helps answer significant issues such as in

which way did the urbanity of Goa between 1580-1610 reflect the multiple (and at

time conflicting) interests of its predominant class of mercantile individuals and

civil and ecclesiastical institutions; and, how and why was the metaphor of Golden

Goa circulated by the early colonial State.

The sixth chapter examines the deterioration of the port-city between 1610-1690

and the shift of the Estado's headquarters to Panelim (1695) by contextualizing it

against the deteriorating commercial prospects of the port and harbour based on data

recording value of maritime private trade in Goa from 1612-1635 and 1691-i695.

Thus, the chapter investigates changes in urban spatial claims from its predominant

imagery of Goa Dour ada to being identified as Rome of the East suggesting shifting

urban emphasis from its commercial streets and market spaces to the sacred space of

its convents and churches. It links changing trends in urban investments and spatial

claims to the deterioration in private casado trade triggering new strategies by the

extractive early colonial State to mobilize resources-loyalty of catholic Christians

apart from fiscal resources-using new religious props in the form of its various

churches and convents as well as transforming the port-city as a pilgrimage

destinations for catholic Christians in Asia.

The last chapter is the concluding section listing the major findings and deductions

made as a result of this study.

26

Methodology and Sources

The study relies mostly on the vast mass of primary sources, both in published and

unpublished forms, which are corroborated with the help of contemporary maps and

city plans derived from travelers, missionaries and state officials. Besides the large

number of city plans provided by Luis da Silveira, 44 the city-plan given by Viceroy

Dom.Joao de Castro,45 and, the sketches of the urban grid structure,46 geographical

layout of the 1/ha de Goa and city plans by Manuel Godinho de Eredia in his Atlas

Miscellanay that has been reproduced in Monumenta Cartographica (Vol IV) 47 are

been extensively used. The fieldtrip to Velha Goa enabled a geographical study of

the site especially gauging the distance between the wharf region and the

administrative and commercial core of the Portuguese city. Furthermore, the

physical mapping of the various streets linking the important administrative and

religious edifices and commercial spaces within the city to the riverside and in

particular to the sites which functioned as the Quay of the Viceroys and the Quay of

St Catherine-which are also corroborated wit~ the help of the contemporary maps

and literary texts-help in conceptualizing the significance of the port to the

imperial city that had been envisioned as an administrative capital and military

bastion of the Estado from 1530's onwards. Similarly analysis of the wharf at

Panjim and Raibandar (and the close location of the Churches to such sites on the

44 Luis da Silveira(ed.), Ensaio de lconograjia das Cidades Portuguesas do Ultramar, voi.IH,

Lisbon, (no year of publication), pp.360-379 45 For the 1539 riverside view and city sketch by Dom Joiio de Castro see M. Joseph Costelloe

(trans.), George Schurhammer, Francis Xavier, His Life, His Times. Vol II: India, 1541-1545.Rome,

1977. p 147; Also see Mundadan, History of Christianity in India Vol I. 46 For the evolving city by 1540s see St. Francis Xavier's map in Appendix 3.4; for the urban grid

structure of 1580s (by John Huyghen Van Linschoten) see Appendix 3.1; of c.1615-c.l622 (by

Manuel Godinho de Eredia) see Appendix 3.2; of the Plan of the Old City of Goa mapped on24th

August 1910 (by Dire~ciio de Obras Publicas) see Appendix 3.3. 47 Reproduction of P.lan of the city of Goa by Manuel Godinho de Eredia's Atlas Miscellany (c.1615-

c.l622) from the Collection of Dr. C.M.C Machado Figueira (Folio 92r) in Monumenta

Cartographica Vol IV. Lis boa, lmprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1987. (See Appendix 3.2 of

thesis); Boies Penrose, Goa-Rainha do Oriente. Fig 3, p 41; fig 4, p 47;Fig. 6, p 57.

27

riverside) suggest the importance of such areas as military and customs check-posts

regulating incoming and outgoing maritime traffic from the harbor and city

respectively. Such evidences of the adjoining ports functioning as satellite or

supplementary ports to the port at Velha Goa---corroborated by testimonies of

travelers and state papers on the predominantly garrison forts of Aguada (in Bardez)

and Panjim (island of Tiswadi) framing the mouth of the harbor and the fading

significance of erstwhile port towns such as Goem or Goa Velha (that corresponded

with pre-Portuguese Gopakapattanam) on the banks of the Zuari-suggests the

hierarchical re-arrangement of the south Konkan ports to act as supplementary or

feeder ports to the early colonial port of Velha Goa. Concurrently, it provides a

yardstick to measure the expansion of the maritime hinterlands and forelands (as

well as the intensified politico-commercial role) of the port by the late 16th century.

Furthermore, personal interviews with the curator of the museum maintained by the

Archaeological Survey of India in Velha Goa and the nuns at the Convent of Santa

Monica-apart from the spatial study of the structures and ruins of the Churches,

monasteries, Archepiscopal palace and Palace of the Fortress at Old Goa-reveal

significant details on flow of resources including building materials, funds and

wealth concentration in such institutions.

However, the bulk of the historical information for understanding the socio­

economic processes in the city of Goa is gathered from the archival and published

primary sources. On the one hand, there is the big corpus of traveller's account,

which included eye witness accounts of Europeans visiting the city of Goa and

recording the activities of various urban socio-economic groups; the administrative,

ideological and cultural orientations of the Portuguese state; establishment and

functioning of urban institutions such as the municipality, Santa Casa de

Misericordia, the Holy Inquisition, charitable hospitals, retreats and shelters for

orphans, poor and repentant women; testimonies to the working of urban production

units (state enterprises and artisanal workshops within the city), the port and the

service sectors within the port-city of Goa, which was both the imperial capital city

and the seat of the metropolitan Archdiocese of the East. The narratives act as an

28

index to the external dynamics affecting the port-city primarily the politics of trade

in the Indian Ocean with the power assertions of the sea-faring regional mercantile

kingdoms (in the Indian Ocean littoral and coastal western India); the power

contestations (for maritime markets in Europe, Asia and Africa) between the new

entrants primarily the European mercantile companies; and, the state formation

claims and expansionist experiments of inland political potentates of the Deccan and

Western India such as Bijapur, Marathas, the Mughals etc. Thus the accounts of the

large number of Portuguese and other European travelers to the city including

Ludovico di Varthema, 48 Tome Pires,49 Duarte Barbosa, 5° John Huyghen Van

Linschoten, 51 Pyrard de Laval, 52 Ralph Fitch, 53 Pietro della Valle, 54 Bernier, 55

Tavernier, 56 Manucci, 57 Philip Baldeus, 58 Ovington, 59 Mandelslo, 60 John Fryer, 61

48 John Winter Jones (trans.), The ltinery of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502-/508. New

Delhi: Asian Educational Services (Reprint), 1997. 49 Armando Cortesao (ed.), The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues,

Vol I. Delhi, Asian Educational Services (Reprint), 1990. 50 Mansel Longworth Dames (ed.),The Book of Duarte Barbosa Vols I & /1. New Delhi: Asian

Educational Services (reprint), 1989. 51 Arthur Coke Burnell (ed.), The voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies: from

the Old English Translation of 1598 Vo/s I & II. Delhi, Asian Educational Services Reprint 1988. 52 Albert Gray and H.C.P Bell (trans. And eds.), The Voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval to the

East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil, II Vols, New Delhi, AES (reprint), 2000. 53 William Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India 1583-1619, New Delhi, Low Price Publications

(Reprint), 2007. 54Edward G(ed.), Travels of Pitro della Valle in !ndia(AD 1623-24), 2 vols., New Delhi,

AES(reprint),2000 55 Archibald Constable and Vincent A. Smith (eds.), Travels in the Moghul Empire AD 1656-1668 by

Francois Bernier. Delhi, Low Price Publications (Reprint), 2005 56 Valentine Ball and William Crooke (eds.), Tavernier's Travels in India (1640-1676). New Delhi,

Asian Educational Services (Reprint), 2007. 57 William Irvin (Trans.), Niccolao Manucci, Mogul India or Storia Do Mogor, 4 Vols. Delhi, Low

Price Publications, 2005 (reprint). 58 Philip Baldeus. A True and Exact Description of The Most Celebrated East-India Coasts of

Malabar and Coromandel and Also of the Isle of Ceylon. New Delhi, Asian Educational Services

(Reprint), 2000.

29

Alexander Hamilton,62 Friar Abbe Carre,63 Dellon64 etc. offer vivid insights into the

evolving socio-economic and political processes of the port- city in different time

periods during the course of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Moreover,

contrasting the accounts of travelers visiting the pof!.-city in different temporal

contexts with each other exposes the changing colonial conditions and helps in

establishing crucial linkages in the shaping of the imperial city with the internal and

external dynamics of maritime trade of the port and politico-military and economic

urgencies ofthe Estado.

Nevertheless for a critical intrinsic and extrinsic examination of the sources such as

maps and travelogues it becomes necessary to contextualize it against the

information provided by numerous other contemporary Portuguese records such as

State papers, official Portuguese chronicles and missionary records. Thus the thesis

utilizes published sixteenth and seventeenth century missionary letters and reports

compiled in works such as George Schurhammer' s Francis Xavier: His Life and

Times;65 Documenta Indica66 edited by Josef Wicki; and, Documenta~iio para a

59 H.G.Rawlinson (ed.) , Ovington (J) A Voyage to Sural in the Year 1689, New Delhi, AES

(Reprint), 1994. 60 M.S.Commisariat (ed.), Mande/slo's Travels in Western India {1638-1639). Delhi, Asian

Eductaional Services, 1995. 61 William Crooke (ed.), John Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia Being Nine Years

Travels 1672-1681 Vo/s 1,/ II and III. Delhi, Asian Educational Services, 1992. 62 A New Account of the East-Indies being the observations and remarks of Alexander Hamilton

From the Years 1688 To 1723, New Delhi, Asian Educational Services(reprint), 1995. 63 Charles Fawcett (ed.), The Travels of the Abbe Carre in India and the Near East, 2 vols., New

Delhi, AES(reprint, 1990 64 For Dellon's narrative on the Cidade de Goa our work relies on excerpts from Maurice Collis

(ed.), The Land of the Great Image Being Experiences of Friar Manrique in Arakan. New Delhi,

AES, (reprint) 1995; Also Dellon's account of the Inquisition has been derived from Priolkar, The

Goa Inquisition. Part II, pp l-85. 65 George Schurhammer, Francis Xavier, His Life, His Times. Vol II: India (1541-1545).Rome, 1977. 66 Josef Wicki (ed.), Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu: Missiones Orientales Documenta India.

Roma, 1948-63. (Henceforth Wicki, Dl)

30

Historia das Missoes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente India edited by Antonio da

Silva Rego. While much of the documents in Documenta Indica and Documentm;iio

comprise Jesuit records stretching from 1540's till mid-eighteenth century collected

from the Jesuit Archives of Rome and illustrative reports from other repositories

such as the Historical Archives of Goa; the letters and reports of the Franciscans and

the Dominicans from as early as 1520's recording matters related to the construction

and maintenance of their seminaries and colleges in the port-city are also published

in the Documentar;iio. Such reports enable us to critically analyze the flow of fiscal

and material resources to such religious and educational institutions and the status

claims of the religious Orders in the urban socio-political fabric in different periods.

Schurhammer's edited collection of the correspondence of Francis Xavier (with the

Jesuit General at Rome and State officials) provide illustrative details on the

establishment and functioning of religious edifices, Christian educational and

charitable institutions within the port city; and, thus enables us to have a picture of

the re-arrangement of the city space with the construction and prominence of

politico-religious edifices following the twin role of port-city as the administrative

capital of the Estado and a bishopric by mid-1530s. Similarly a number of State

papers including royal a/varas (instructions of the Crown) and grants of the Viceroy

conceding various powers and privileges including fiscal and revenue grants to the

urban institutions such as the municipality, the Misericordia, seminaries and

churches, hospitals; to State officials such as the Pai dos Cristiios (father of

Christians, judges of the high court, Captain of the city etc); and, to the Portuguese

and Christian citizens of the port-city have also been utilized in the thesis. As stated

before much of the documents consulted have been published in works such as

Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, 67 Documentos Remetidos da India ou Livros das

Monc;oes, Documentac;iio Ultramarina Portuguesa, Arquivo Portugues Oriental, 68

67 Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara(ed.), Archivo Portuguez Oriental, New Delhi, 1992.

68 Braganca Pereira (ed.), Arquivo Portugues Oriental, Bastora, Goa, 1937-1940. (Henceforth APO­

BR)

31

Subsidios para a Historia da India Portugueza, 69 Boletim da Filmoteca

Ultramarina Portuguesa, 70 0 Livro do "Pai dos Cristtios71, Tombo da llha de Goa e

das Terras de Salsete e de Bardes organizado em 1595 por Francisco Pais,

Provedor-Mor dos Contos de Goa 72 etc. Attempts have also been made to cross

check some of the manuscripts from the State Archives (Historical Archives of Goa)

that were cited in secondary works. The major collections consulted during my

research in Goa Archives include the Livro das 1\1om;oes do Reinho collection

(Foral dos uzos e costumes dos gancares e lavradores des/a ilha de Goa e outros

annexes ella); the Senado da Camara de Goa series (Acordas e Assentos do Senado

de Goa; Cartas Patentes; Cartas, Alvaras,Provisoes, Correspondencia Diversos,

1610-1704 and Registros Gerais); and, folios from Book VIII and IX of the Livros

de Assentos do Conselho da Fazenda series recording the role of the Hindu traders

in municipal meetings and loans advanced by the Gujarati banias to the Estado. The

rare documents and materials from Columbia University, USA; Xavier Centre for

Historical Research, Alto Porvorim; and, from the personal library of Prof.

K.S.Mathew, Tellicherry have been of immense help to contextualize elaborately

the urban processes casually indicated by traveller's accounts and by various city

plans.

69 Rodrigo Jose de Lima Feiner, Subsidios Para a Historia da India Portugueza in Collecfiio de

Monumentos Ineditos Para a Historia das Conquestas dos Portuguese em Africa , Asia e America,

Torno V, Serie I, Lisboa, 1868. 70 Boletim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, No I, 1954 71 Josef Wicki, 0 Livro do "Pai dos Cristiios" Lisboa, 1969. 72 Panduranga Pissurlencar (ed.) "Tombo da Ilha de Goa e das Terras de Salsete e de Bardes

organizado em 1595 por Francisco Pais, Provedor-Mor dos Contos de Goa", in Boletim do lnstituto

Vasco da Gama, N.62, Bastora, 1946.

32

MAP OF GOA DEPICTING OLD CONQUESTS & NEW CONQUESTS

15 4S'O'"N

SATARI

15' 30'0"N

SANGUEM ARABIAN SEA

15' 15

1S'O'O"N CANACONA 1 5'0'0~

,. INDIA

Legend • PRE PORTUGUESE PORTS

D NEW CONQUESTS

- OLD CONQUESTS

14' 4S'O"N - RIVER

74'0'0"E 74' 10'0"E 74' 20VE

Illustration Map 1 33