The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8: Section V. The System and the Decline of the Portuguese
The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8
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Section V. The System and the Decline of the Portuguese
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Section V. The Portuguese System.
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In describing the system of government of the Portuguese in the Konkan it is, as may be expected, not possible to make a very accurate distinction between what would now be called the different departments. Although trade was the nominal object of the Portuguese settlements in India, the nature of their schemes, as already described, made it inevitable that at first the persons of the greatest influence should be the military governors. The trade being a royal monopoly, Albuquerque established custom-houses in every port, and later there were in every city factors (veadors) and treasurers.¹ At the same time magistrates (ouvidores) were appointed by Albuquerque, but only apparently at Goa Chaul and Bassein, and these decided all civil and criminal cases. They were subordinate however to the captains of the fortresses, "who often abused their powers and made the ouvidores decide as they liked. History is full of the arbitrary acts of these tyrants in their fortresses, who were nearly all Fidalgos of the highest class."² In case of disagreement between the ouvidor and the captain, the veador was called in, and the majority decided. The appeal from the judgments of this bench was in 1587 to the Supreme Court or Relação at Goa,³ but later to the desembargadores or district judges, of whom there were six or eight, one being at Bassein.⁴ These besides the appeals decided original civil and criminal cases of importance. The desembargador at Bassein in Gemelli's time was a gownsman (probably a doctor of laws), and Gemelli as a doctor of laws himself was asked to remain at Bassein as advocate for the various religious societies there, because the native pleaders in the courts were so ignorant.⁵ The judicial establishment at Bassein in 1552 was one ouvidor, one officer of police (meirinho), one king's solicitor, two administrators of intestates, one sea-bailiff, and ten peons. At Chaul the establishment was smaller, but there was a jailor and presumably a jail,⁶ neither of which are mentioned at Bassein at this time, although in 1674 Dellon, who had tried both, said that the jail at Bassein was larger than that at Daman and then contained a good number of prisoners of the Inquisition.⁷
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¹ Mickle, cxii. and cxxiv.
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² Instituto, I. 117, 253.
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³ Archivo, V. 1183.
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⁴ Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 192. The writer has quoted Gemelli Carreri as freely as any one else, and thinks it better therefore to mention here what Hallam says about him: "Carreri has been strongly suspected of fabrication, and even of having never seen the countries which he describes; but his character, I know not with what justice, has been latterly vindicated." Literature of Europe, III. 603.
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⁵ Churchill, IV. 192.
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⁶ Instituto, I. 253.
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⁷ Dellon, 118.
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The Portuguese System.
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Very little is told of the arrangements for the collection of the revenue, but the lands of Sálsette and of the North Konkan generally were at a very early period parcelled out among the Portuguese settlers at a very small quit-rent, amounting it is said to not more than four to ten per cent of the ordinary rental.¹ Villages were also sometimes given to soldiers and others for their lives.² These large landholders were called fazendars, a name which still survives in Bombay and the neighbourhood, and their descendants lived on and managed their own estates, levying from the cultivators a fixed proportion of the produce in the manner usual under the Native Governments.³ In the same way Bassein was said to owe a great part of its prosperity to the noblemen who lived there on the rents of their villages.⁴ In Sálsette there were under the veadors, presumably for those lands not granted to the Portuguese, managers of the cultivation, called mhátarás⁵ or elders, whose duties were similar to those of pátels under the Native Governments.³ From an account supplied by the Government of Goa to that of Bombay in 1821 it appears that in 1688 the total revenue of the province of Bassein was about Rs. 1,30,000, and of this sum the quit-rents amounted to about half. The tobacco tax was farmed for Rs. 47,000. Twenty-one villages had to keep for the defence of the country one Arab horse each, and one village a country horse, and these obligations were commutable by a yearly payment of Rs. 132 and Rs. 88 respectively. Alienations of land and revenue to the Jesuits of different colleges and churches are mentioned.⁶ It is expressly stated that the island of Sálsette was in a high state of prosperity under the Portuguese.³ And the Factor of Bassein in 1728 wrote that the greater part of the establishments both in Goa and the Bassein district were supported by the Sálsette villages.⁷ Yet it must be remembered that the grants of land on low quit-rents were confined to either Portuguese of European birth or to converts of high rank who adopted the names and style of living of their conquerors. The list of cesses at that time in addition to what would now be considered a heavy assessment on the lands⁸ would of itself raise doubts as to the prosperity of the island having extended to the lower classes. But an acute observer of the seventeenth century allows of no doubt on this point,⁹ for he speaks of the native inhabitants as " poor wretched Gentiles Moors and Christians, worse than vassals to the lords of the villages." And in the articles of the cession of Bombay to the English¹⁰ it is implied that their condition was that of slaves, for it was stipulated that "the Curumbies, Bandaries, or other inhabitants
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¹ East India House Records (1826), III. 774.
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² Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 198.
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³ Reg. I. of 1808. This Regulation is the authority for many other statements throughout this work, and as these early regulations are but little known it may be stated that this one gives a complete and very interesting history of Sálsette as regards fiscal matters from the time of the Portuguese. There is reason to suppose that it was written by Mr. Jonathan Duncan Governor of Bombay.
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⁴ DeCoutto, XI. 46.
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⁵ Mhátára is still a very common surname in Sálsette and Bassein both among Christians and Hindus.
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⁶ Manuscript Records.
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⁷ O Chronista, I. 56.
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⁸ Reg. I. of 1808.
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⁹ Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 197.
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¹⁰ Bom. Geo. Soc. Transactions for June 1839.
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of the villages belonging to the Portuguese shall not be admitted into Bombay, and all such persons resorting there shall be immediately delivered up to their respective masters.” There is in fact nothing whatever either in their own histories or in the accounts of travellers to show that the Portuguese ever took any trouble to protect or raise the condition of their native subjects as Shiváji did in the seventeenth century. With this fact may be mentioned their great establishments of domestic slaves brought in Portuguese ships from the African settlements and distributed at very low prices all over their Asiatic possessions.¹ In the treaty of peace after the fall of Bassein the negroes are specially mentioned in the stipulation for the release of prisoners.² To this institution of domestic slavery may no doubt be ascribed the strain of negro blood frequently perceptible in the Goanese.
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¹ Baldæus in Churchill, III. 546 and Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 203.
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² Jervis, 130.
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The military establishments in the Konkan must be next mentioned. After the Viceroy and the great dignitaries of the Church there was no greater officer than the General of the North who resided at Bassein,³ and after him came the captains of Bassein, Daman, Chaul, and Salsette. All these appointments were held for short terms of years. Bassein Daman and Chaul are said to have been the only fortresses (fortalezza) between Cambay and Goa, except one at Dábhol which was not in the possession of the Portuguese.⁴ No fort is mentioned in Salsette in 1634 except the small one at Vesáva (Madh). The Bassein district then extended from the Vaitarna to Karanja, and in this there were besides the captain of Bassein, fourteen captains of forts and tranqueiras, that is stockaded posts. The district of Daman extended from the Vaitarna to Párner and included the thánádáris of Sanján, Dáhánu, Tárápur, and Máhim. All along this part of the coast were many towers and fortified houses for protection against the pirates, as is apparent from the ruins still standing, and there were also the important inland forts of Asheri and Manor. But it does not appear that there was then anything so large or strong as the now ruined forts of Dáhánu and Tárápur must have been, and the garrisons were small and included but few Portuguese.⁵ Bassein and Chaul were the two great places of arms, and were apparently considered sufficient for the protection of the whole coast. But in 1728 the Factor of Bassein made a detailed report⁶ on the defences of the North Konkan, drawing particular attention to the insecure condition of the forts, and especially to the want of protection in Salsette against the Maráthás. There was no fort at Thána but only the three small towers commanding the creek, and containing three or four men each. Bassein had ninety pieces of artillery, the largest being twenty-four pounders, Chaul fifty-eight, and a fortified camp outside the walls nineteen more. The rock of Korlai opposite Chaul, which had been considered so great an acquisition, had thirty cannon, but many of them unserviceable. Asheri was in very bad condition, Manor not worthy to be called a fort. Thus though the military power and spirit of the Portuguese had in 1634 greatly degenerated from the days when Bassein was ready at any moment to send out an expedition against the king of Gujarát, or help to any of the smaller posts that might be attacked, yet in 1728 affairs were infinitely worse all over the district, and Sálsette notwithstanding its great value was quite indefensible. The recommendation to protect it by making a great place of arms at Thána was followed, but with too little vigour, for the fatal year 1739 arrived before the fort was finished.¹
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³ Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 190.
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⁴ Linschotten also says that in 1598 the Portuguese did not hold Dábhol, having been dispossessed of it some years before. Histoire, 20.
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⁵ O Chronista, III, 149, 198, 218, 244.
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⁶ O Chronista, I. 29.
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¹ Grant Duff, 237.
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It has been already stated that Albuquerque gave his soldiers wives from the native women whom he caused to be baptised, and land on which they might settle and support families. This was probably the origin of the division of the military forces in India into soldados and cazados, the latter word meaning simply ‘Married.’ Many of the soldados were convicts sent from Portugal for a term of years, and kept in the forts; others were boys enlisted in Lisbon and on their arrival allotted to Fidalgos as pages, but obliged after reaching manhood to do seven years’ service in the army. But all the single men not ecclesiastics in India were liable to military duty and were called soldados, otherwise men of the sword to distinguish them from churchmen. The cazados wore the cloak which the soldados were not allowed to do, and were not generally sent away from their homes for service.² They were in fact a sort of first class reserve and were held in considerable estimation, and the quarters of the cazados within or without the walls are always mentioned in the description of forts. Native soldiers in the Portuguese service are mentioned under the name of Piaes as early as 1534,³ but it is evident that their system made them much less dependent on sepoys as time went on than they would have been under a system more like ours.
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² Pyrard, II. 106.
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³ DeCoutto, IV. 96.
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While the military spirit of the Portuguese steadily declined after the end of the sixteenth century the ecclesiastical power went on ever increasing. Goa was created an episcopal see in 1534,⁴ and by this time numbers of priests had come out from Portugal and established themselves in various places, the Franciscans being the first to arrive, and the Dominicans soon following. The time when the work of conversion was seriously begun is a point of dispute,⁵ some writers believing that from the first the propagation of Christianity had been as great an object with the Portuguese monarchs as the extension of their dominions, others and even some Catholics acknowledging that there was no great zeal until the establishment
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⁴ In the “Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama” (page 391) mention is made of a Bishop at Goa in 1524, but the bull of Pope Paul III. creating the Bishopric is dated November 3, 1534.
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⁵ Murray, II. 72; Hough, I. 158; Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 208.
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of the Inquisition. But the account given of the state of public morals at Goa when Xavier arrived in 1544¹ is sufficient to prove that so far from any missionary spirit existing there was then scarcely any practice of Christianity at all. Two years later the King, after regretting that the worship of idols was allowed even in Goa, mentioned among other objectionable practices that of the Portuguese buying slaves cheap and selling them to Musalmáns and other heathens.² Xavier, however, though he spent but a very small part of his time at Goa, or any place north of it, was able to change the whole aspect of affairs in respect of Christian observances: he established a Jesuit seminary at Bassein in 1548, and in 1552 sent missionaries there as well as to Thána and Chaul. But he refused to establish a college at Chaul because there were still so many forts and stations without a single missionary. The visits of so great a man are sufficient to distinguish any district, and it is recorded that he was at Bassein at least three times, first at the end of 1544, again in 1548 when the great Viceroy John de Castro was there, and lastly in 1552. He also visited Chaul on more than one occasion, and Khárepátan once.³ After his death he was made patron saint of both Bassein and Chaul.⁴
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¹ Bohours, 74; Vida de Xavier, 18.
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² Vida de J. de Castro, 50.
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³ Vida de J. de Castro, 110, 120, 179. Bohours mentions a visit to Bassein in 1549, after the death of John de Castro, but does not give that of 1552. . .
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⁴ Inscriptions.
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In 1560 Goa was made an archbishopric, and Inquisitors were sent out from Europe, and from this time the work of the Church was carried on with great vigour. The power of the ecclesiastics in the State was well shown soon afterwards, when the tooth of Buddha having come into the possession of the Portuguese during their wars in Pegu they were offered an enormous sum if they would return it. This the Viceroy was anxious to do, but the Archbishop opposing the ransom as an encouragement of idolatry, not only carried his point, but also persuaded the Viceroy to join in a great auto-da-fé, in the course of which the Archbishop publicly pounded up the tooth in a mortar. Not long after this the Franciscan Fathers took possession of the caves of Kánheri and Mandapeshvar,⁵ expelled the jogis who occupied them, and did their best to destroy the sculptures, as at Elphanta, on account of the superstitious feelings of the natives with respect to them.⁶ Over the caves at Mandapeshvar were built a church and the Royal College of Sálsette for the education of the children of the converts, and this received from the King all the endowments which the caves had enjoyed.⁷
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⁵ DeCoutto, VII. 245, VIII. 335, 429.
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⁶ Fryer, 73.
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⁷ DeCoutto, VII. 247. An inscription gives 1623 as the date of the college being built, but this probably refers to some particular part of it. Bom. Geo. Soc. Transactions, VII. 149.
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The Jesuits, commonly called Paulistines,⁸ gradually established themselves in every town and village;⁹ but in 1585 the Franciscans received charge of Mandapeshvar, Máhim, Bombay, Karanja, Mount Calvary, and Agáshi, in each of which places there was an official called "O Pay dos Christaõs" paid by the State.¹ Gradually all power fell into the hands of the ecclesiastics, and the Church was said to have a larger revenue in India than the King himself.² One writer says³ that "Few men can enjoy very peaceable lives who have any fair possession near the convents of the Jesuits: a pleasant seat and a fruitful plantation can hardly escape their gaining", and another that at the end of the seventeenth century the General of the North at Bassein had both an uneasy and precarious government because of the superintendence of the Church.⁴ Goa was said to equal any city in the world in the number and grandeur of its religious processions.⁵ The Jesuit college there conferred degrees, and while one Englishman at the end of the seventeenth century says that at Bándra their college "was not inferior to the building nor much unlike those of our universities," and that the Fathers "lived sumptuously, the greater part of the island Sálsette being theirs,"⁶ another about the same time reports the income of the chief church there to be of the value of a pound of gold a day. In 1598 a Father who had come from Europe to visit all the houses and colleges of the Society in India, was received at Bándra with great rejoicing, and entertained with a sham sea fight at the mouth of the river. The Father left four Panjábis converts to be educated at Bándra whom he had fallen in with at Chaul, and then visited the house at Thána, and all the churches in Sálsette (not named), founding the church of St. Cecilia at Ponçar (probably Poisar). He then went on to Bassein where he established a seminary called the College of the Purification, in which noble children, natives of those parts, might be brought up as missionaries. From Bassein he went on direct to Daman, from which the inference seems to be that there were no Jesuit houses between these two places.⁷
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⁸ This name is explained, firstly, by the Jesuits' college at Goa having been dedicated by Xavier to St. Paul, and, secondly, by all their churches in India being called after the same saint. De la Valle, III. 135; Hough, I. 57.
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⁹ De la Valle, III. 360.
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¹ Archivo, V. 1083.
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² Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 198.
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³ Ovington, 156.
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⁵ De la Valle, III. 377.
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⁷ Du Jarric, 3, 9, 12.
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When Bombay was made over to the English, the Bándra College claimed much land and various rights in the island,⁸ and these not being acknowledged, the Fathers in 1667 received and assisted a dismissed English officer, who attempted to raise a force for the capture of Bombay.⁹ In 1720 and 1722 there were again disagreements and skirmishes between the English in Bombay and the Portuguese at Bándra, where the Fathers had some great guns mounted.⁴ At Thána in Fryer's time (1673-75) there were seven churches and colleges; at Bassein six churches, four colleges, and two convents.⁶ There was in 1623 no Bishop down the coast nearer than Cochin, all being subject directly to the Archbishop of Goa,¹⁰ but in the account of the district given in 1634 Thána is mentioned as having a cathedral church.¹¹ The Inquisition at Goa had jurisdiction over all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope: it extended its
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⁴ Hamilton in Pinkerton, VIII. 327, 328.
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⁶ Fryer, 70, 73, 75.
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⁸ Bom. Geo. Soc. Trans. for June 1839.
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⁹ Bruce, II. 213.
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¹⁰ De la Valle, III. 134.
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¹¹ O Chronista, III. 245.
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operations all over the Portuguese possessions, and had commissaries at Daman, at Bassein, and doubtless at other large towns.¹ The Grand Inquisitor was appointed by the King and confirmed by the Pope, and had authority over all persons clerical and lay, except the Archbishop, his grand vicar, and the Viceroy : but even these the Inquisition might arrest after advising the Court of Lisbon and receiving orders from the great Council of the Inquisition there.² Thus Dellon³ seems justified in saying that people had much more respect for the great Inquisitor than for the Archbishop or the Viceroy. Pyrard says that the Inquisition in Goa was much more severe than in Portugal, and its administration of justice the most cruel and pitiless in the world. “Sometimes the converts are accused of putting crucifixes under the cushions on which they sit or kneel, sometimes of whipping their images or of not eating pork, or in some other way respecting their old faith, while they outwardly conformed as Christians”.⁴ The auto-da-fé at Goa usually took place only once in two or three years, and as this was the only gaol delivery for spiritual offenders that there was, it follpwed that if any one was arrested soon after an auto-da-fé he had to undergo a long imprisonment, as Dellon had.
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¹ Hough, I. 214; Dellon, 118, 339.
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² Dellon, 192.
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³ Dellon was a French doctor and when living at Daman was arrested by orders of the Inquisition and taken to Goa. After a long imprisonment he had the good fortune to escape with his life, and afterwards published a most interesting account of his experiences, a good summary of which is given by Dr. Rule in his “History of the Inquisition.”
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⁴ Pyrard, II. 80.
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Now as to the work of converting the natives, DeCoutto at the end of the sixteenth century speaks of this whole coast “as a great fishing ground for the Fathers of the company,” and estimates their converts at 60,000.⁵ As to the extent to which this was assisted by the State it must be noticed that its action was very different under different Viceroys, some of the greatest of whom expressly tolerated and protected the religions of the natives.⁶ Thus Albuquerque endeavoured to conciliate the goodwill of the natives, and to live in friendship with all the Indian princes, most of whom were better pleased to have the Portuguese as governed by him for neighbours than the Moors. So also Nuno da Cunha prohibited the priests from persecuting the Hindus for not being Catholics, and he administered justice to all persons, whether Portuguese Hindus or Moors. But others (and the policy of these eventually prevailed) went as far as they possibly could in destroying the temples of the heathen and even slaughtering the worshippers.. In 1546 the King wrote to the Viceroy John de Castro,⁷ complaining that idols were worshipped, not only in other places subject to Portugal but even in Goa itself. He therefore commanded that search should be made and all idols broken to pieces. Any one who should venture to make them was to be severely punished, as well as all who should publicly or privately celebrate any games of a heathen sort, or should help or conceal Bráhmans, “ those pestilent enemies of the Christian name.” And since it was intolerable that images of Christ or his saints should be made by heathen hands, any person making or selling such was to be fined and to receive two hundred lashes. The Musalmán mosques in the Portuguese territories were to pay tribute to the Church to the amount of Rs. 3000 a year. Converts were to have various privileges, and to be exempt from forced labour on board ship, to which other Indians were liable. His biographer is careful to state that John de Castro did not carry out these orders, not from any want of zeal in the service of God, but because the continual wars in which he was engaged prevented him,¹ but those who prefer it may be allowed to suppose that this great Viceroy thought with Albuquerque and Nuno da Cunha rather than with the clerical party and his royal master. Four or five years later the King communicated to the Pope his intention of founding many colleges for the Society of Jesus, so that the East might be filled with apostolical labourers : and in the meantime ordered all the seminaries established in the Indies for the education of youth to be made over to the society, and all the charges of the missioners in all their voyages to be defrayed by the Viceroy and the captains of the fortresses.² And in 1555 the then Viceroy, who was near enough to see that his orders were obeyed, prohibited private as well as public temples throughout the territories of Bassein, and also feasts, ceremonies, preaching by Bráhmans, ablutions, and burnings. Houses were to be searched for idols, and if any were found or forbidden practices discovered, the offender was to be sent to the galleys, and all his property forfeited, half to the informer and half to the church. In 1581 new converts were encouraged by a proclamation excusing them from payment of tithes and first-fruits for fifteen years, and at the same time the issue of licenses for the performance of heathen rites and festivals, by which it may be assumed the previous orders had been evaded, was prohibited throughout the Portuguese dominions.
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⁵ DeCoutto, XI. 49. This expression is probably due to the fact that by the early Portuguese writers the coast between Cape Comorin and the Isle of Manár was called the “Coast of Fishery.” Bohours, 81.
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⁶ Mickle, clix.
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⁷ Vida de J. de Castro, 48.
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¹ Vida, 53.
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² Bohours, 402.
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In 1591 the desembargadores and other lawyers were forbidden in the interests of God and the King to have anything to do with Bráhmans or other Hindus in the way of business, even through third persons. The officer offending was to be suspended, and the Hindu compromised to be condemned to the galleys for life.³ In 1594 an order arrived from the Pope and the King to convert the natives by force. This was in fact a general commission to murder and plunder, and the pagodas and temples hitherto respected were now despoiled of their accumulated riches.⁴ In 1600 the “ Visitor of the Jesuits already mentioned rejoiced specially over the children of heathen parents snatched from them by the church as roses from among the thorns.⁵”
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³ Archivo, V. 1569.
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⁴ Macpherson, 33.
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⁵ Du Jarric, 5.
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In Gemelli’s time the natives at Goa “lived apart and without any public practice of their religion,” while all the monasteries throughout India were subsidised by the State.¹ Linschotten says that the people of India had liberty of religion, but with these rather large exceptions, that they were not allowed to burn their dead nor to perform marriage ceremonies or other diabolical superstitions (over which the Bishop had supervision,) for fear that scandal might be caused to the converts; so also Musalmáns and Jews might not publicly exercise their religion in the towns under pain of death, but outside the towns might do so.² Dellon says that although the King allowed liberty of conscience, yet the Holy Office interpreted this to mean that heathens might live in their religion but would be punished if caught in the exercise of it.³ Finally after all these Christian writers, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, the Musalmán historian Kháfi Khán may be quoted, who after praising the Portuguese system of government, called it an act of great tyranny that if one of their subjects should die leaving young children only they were considered wards of the State and brought up as Christians, whether they were Syeds or Bráhmans.⁴ And in a recently published work by a Hindu⁵ it is stated that the Portuguese utterly disregarded difference of caste, and exacted the same service from Bráhmans as from Kolis. Several Prabhus were employed in high positions under the Portuguese Government, and even these could only perform their religious duties secretly and by night, while some were forcibly converted to Christianity, whose descendants are still to be found in Sálsette and Bassein.
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¹ Churchill, IV. 203.
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² Linschotten, 156.
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³ Dellon, 186.
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⁴ Sir H. Elliot, VII. 345.
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⁵ History of Pathana Prabhus, 69, 81.
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The jealous and rigorous system of the Portuguese in matters of religion may be pretty well understood from the above extracts. Yet there is one more fact to be noticed which shows in an even stronger light the pressure under which their native subjects lived. It has been already mentioned that the Dominicans sent missionaries to India before the Jesuits did, and it must be noticed that between these two orders there was always a great jealousy, and that while the Jesuits were particularly given to the work of conversion, the work of the Inquisition was chiefly done by the Dominicans. “In India and China the Inquisition and the Jesuits could the less easily agree because their action was entirely different. The Jesuits thought it expedient to pursue a policy of extreme concession, surrendering the distinctive truths of Christianity and keeping out of sight the discipline and ritual of their own church, if they could thereby win over the heathen to their side rather than lead them to Christ. The Inquisitors on the other hand pretended perfect orthodoxy, assumed an air of intense anxiety to preserve the integrity of the Romish faith, and so far as the power of Portugal extended and they could avail themselves of military force, they had the power of life and death in their hands, and could impress the natives with dread, and overawe their own clergy too. Hence it came to pass that not only the Jesuits but the bishops and the priests regarded them with dread and jealousy and appealed to Rome against their violence.” In 1673 Clement X. ordered that all Vicars Apostolic and their missioners in the East were to be altogether free from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition of Goa in those regions which were not under the temporal government of the king of Portugal.¹ But this of course did not touch their power in the Konkan, and it is pretty certain that between the Jesuits who armed with all the power of the State sought to convert the heathen, and the Inquisitors who so carefully guarded the faith of the new converts, the native subjects of the Portuguese must have had a hard time of it. The absence of high-caste Hindus in the Bassein district at the time of its conquest by the Maráthás is ascribed to these severities.² And it is even said that the expulsion of the Portuguese from the Konkan was chiefly due to the tyranny of the Jesuits and the Inquisition.³ It is also a significant fact that the Inquisition in India was abolished by the king of Portugal in 1775, that is just at the time that it was decided to make a great effort for the recovery of the Portuguese power on this coast. But in 1779 the Inquisition was re-established.
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¹ Rule, II. 100, 112.
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² Bom. Geo. Soc. Trans. VII. 111.
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³ Reg. I. of 1808.
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The trade in this country was at first, as has already been stated, a royal monopoly. The Portuguese had gradually obliged all trading vessels to take out their passes; but as early as 1570 the Malabár pirates, who Gemelli says⁴ were composed of Moors Gentiles Jews and Christians, began to give trouble,⁵ and a little later the Arabs followed their example, so that after this there were always two fleets sent out from Goa, called the fleet of the North and the fleet of the South,⁶ occupied nominally in protecting the Portuguese ships and possessions from the pirates. In 1598 six small vessels were built and fitted out at Thána and had great success against the pirates.⁷ But the Musalmán historians, and even some European writers,⁸ put the case of the Portuguese and of the so-called pirates in a very different light. They describe the Malabár and Arab mariners as honest traders who only wished to carry on in peace the traffic which their fathers had enjoyed for centuries, but who were constantly harried and plundered by the Portuguese unless they consented to pay them tribute. The free-traders, as they were they called, who were generally discharged or deserted Portuguese soldiers,⁹ deprived the natives of even that part of the coasting trade which the Government of Goa had left them, and it is acknowledged by all that these free-traders, like the Interlopers who gave the English East India Company so much trouble,¹⁰ were little, if at all, better than pirates. “They infested every creek on the coast in the double capacity of pirates and merchants,” and caused a perpetual petty but sanguinary war. “They seldom scrupled to defraud those who traded with them if they felt themselves strong enough to do it with impunity, and frequently they procured their cargoes entirely by plunder. By such acts of piracy they brought disgrace upon their country and became a principal cause of the downfall of the Portuguese empire in India.¹ The army and other departments of the Government service were deserted for this illicit trade, while Portuguese sailors after coming to India despised any places but those of captain or officer, so that the merchantmen were chiefly manned by Arab and Abyssinian sailors, who were cheap and docile.² Both on account of these inconveniences and for the sake of the profits of the Government monopoly the Portuguese Governors did all they could to put down this private trade, but with little effect. The universal practice of illicit trading, in which all the servants of Government from the Viceroy down to the private soldier indulged,³ was of course another hindrance to the King's Government getting the fair profits of the trade. Linschotten says that even before the end of the sixteenth century all the officials from the Viceroy downwards thought of nothing but enriching themselves, and he ascribes this in great measure to the fact that all appointments were held for three years only.⁴ The result of all this was that in 1586 the monopoly of the trade was made over by Government to the Portuguese East India Company. But the private trade was never stopped.⁵
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⁴ Churchill, IV. 201.
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⁵ DeCoutto, IX. 110.
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⁶ De la Valle, III. 131, 418.
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⁷ DeCoutto, XIV. 163.
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⁸ Tohfat al Mujahidin, 157; Mickle, cxiv.
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⁹ Mickle, clxviii.
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¹⁰ Bruce, III. 210.
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¹ Macpherson, 26, 30, 32.
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² Linschotten, 78.
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³ In Chiverius's Geography published at Amsterdam in 1697 there is no mention of the Dutch on the west coast of India, nor is Vengurla marked on the map. The name of the district is given in the map as 'Cuncam,' and in a note it is called 'Decan'sive cuncang', Decan being also given as a city.
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⁴ Linschotten, 62, 66.
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⁵ Mickle, cxc.; Macpherson, 32.
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Up to 1565 the chief trade of the Portuguese was with the kingdom of Bijragar or Vijayanagar. They took horses, velvets, and satins there and brought lines and muslins, which were sent to Europe by way of Ormuz as well as round the Cape.⁶ John de Castro made a treaty with Bijnagar in 1547 for mutual defence against Bijápur, and in this there were many stipulations as to trade. Besides the articles given above coral and silk from China and Ormuz are mentioned in this treaty as being taken to Bijnagar, and saltpetre and iron as coming from there. The fall of Bijnagar therefore is mentioned as a calamity to the Portuguese, but it is not stated why no effort was made to save the kingdom.
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⁶ DeCoutto, IX. 93.
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The exports of Chaul were indigo, opium, cotton, silk of every sort, with great store of iron and corn; and the imports came from Mecca and China as well as from Europe.⁷ Ships laden with fine stuffs used to come to Goa from Sindh.⁸ But with the seventeenth century the European rivals of the Portuguese began to trouble them as well as the Malabár and Arab pirates. In 1615 the chief points in the treaty made between the Emperor Jahángir and the Portuguese expressed their mutual enmity to the English and Dutch and the necessity of destroying the Malabár pirates.⁹ The entry of other Europeans into the Indian seas was looked on as so much of a calamity that De la Valle¹ calls it one of the signs of the decay of the Portuguese that English and Dutch ships frequent the ports of Dábhol Chaul and Bassein without hindrance and without acknowledging the Portuguese supremacy, though the latter still prevented native vessels from sailing in these seas without their permission.² So late as 1624 no one could go to Europe by way of Persia and Turkey without obtaining leave from the authorities of Goa.¹
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⁷ Cæsar Frederic in Hakluyt, II. 384.
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⁸ DeCoutto, XIV. 59.
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⁹ O Chronista, III. 269.
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¹ De la Valle, III. 402, 406.
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² Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 208.
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The Dutch found it easier to conquer the Portuguese on the Malabár coast than to make new settlements for themselves, and they were everywhere assisted by the hatred which the natives now had for the Portuguese. The Dutch blockaded Goa from 1639 to 1642, and in the last-mentioned year took some ships trying to enter the port.³ A cessation of arms for ten years had been concluded in Europe between the Portuguese and Dutch in 1641, and this extended to Asia in the following year, but in 1649 the war was again going on. The Dutch had built a fortified factory at Vengurla previous to 1641.⁴ But it does not appear that they ever cared much about establishing themselves in the Konkan, as at that time they refused an invitation from the king of Bijápur to winter their ships in Dábhol, Ortzery' (A'chra?), or other of his harbours.³ They were however for many years the strongest of the European powers in the East, and in 1660 their fleet was again blockading the harbour of Goa, but could not get close enough to take it.⁵ In 1661 when Bombay was ceded to England the object was said to be that King Charles might be "better able to assist and protect the subjects of the King of Portugal in those parts from the power and invasion of the States of the United Provinces."⁶ But it does not appear that any thing was ever done to carry this into effect, probably because when the English troops came to take possession, a dispute arose as to whether Sálsette was or was not included in the cession.⁷ This so-called claim of the English may
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³ Mickle, cciii.; Baldæus in Churchill, III. 546, 548.
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⁴ Stavorinus, III. 107.
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⁵ Nieuhoff in Knox, II. 452; Hamilton in Pinkerton, VIII. 356. At that time the following description is given of an event at Vengurla in which the Dutch took part: "The Bantam yachts were waiting to transport the Queen of Golkonda from Vengurla to Mokha on her way to the tomb of Muhammad. Her guards who had conducted her eighty leagues were 4000 cavalry with long coats of mail, the shoulders whereof were embroidered with serpents' heads like the ancient Romans, they had bright polished helmets, were armed with bows and arrows, wore long beards, and were mounted on very fine Persian horses. On each side of every man of quality who attended her was a footman holding the bridle: the queen and all her ladies were carried in close litters concealed from public view, and they were preceded by several camels covered with rich furniture, on one whereof was mounted a kettle drummer, who performed with great dexterity. The Commodore and the Director of the Dutch East India Company met her two leagues from the town, in which while she stayed she dictated to her Secretaries in several different languages. There was a magnificent tent erected for her on the sea-shore, the passage from whence to the shallop which was to carry her on board the yacht was covered with calico." Nieuhoff in Knox, II. 452. Vengurla is described as a large village on the sea-shore where most ships for Persia are obliged to touch for wood and water. This is to be understood of Dutch ships.
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⁶ Bom. Gov. Records, X, 347.
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⁷ Mill, I. 95.
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have influenced them as long as the Portuguese were in possession, for as early as 1686 the conquest of Sálsette was proposed on a sufficient force coming from England, and the same course was suggested from home, and apparently only abandoned from doubts as to the complications that might ensue.¹ It must be evident that after the European trade with India had been turned into the route of the Cape of Good Hope the Malabár ports were of far greater value than those of the Konkan or Gujarát, which had their day when the line of traffic was by the Persian gulf and the Red Sea. The capture of Ormuz by the English in 1622 and of Cochin by the Dutch in 1663 deprived the Portuguese of commercial superiority and prestige on both routes, and in 1664 when peace was concluded the claim of the Portuguese to the monopoly of the trade was finally abandoned.² The Dutch gradually succumbed to the English, and never made any other settlement in the Konkan than Vengurla, though they are said in the eighteenth century to have greatly wished to establish a factory at Bassein.³
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¹ Bruce, II. 577, 626, 635.
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² Hough, II. 381.
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³ Stavorinus, III. 107.
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One cause of the decline of the Portuguese power remains to be mentioned, the indifference of the kings of Portugal, and the small value they set on their Eastern possessions. This was due partly to their thinking so much more of their Brazilian colonies and partly to the Indian settlements being so expensive. Their disregard of this country was particularly great during the subjection of Portugal to Spain,⁴ when the Court of Madrid ordered that to meet the expenses of Government all employments and offices in India should be sold publicly to the highest bidder. On the restoration of the national dynasty of Portugal in 1640 more interest began to be shown in the Indian colonies,⁵ but the Dutch were by this time too strong to be opposed, and the English after the civil war soon became so. By the end of the century India was again neglected, and so remained till the catastrophe of 1739.
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⁴ Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 208; Mickle, cxv.
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⁵ Mickle, ccix. cexii, ; Macpherson, 35, 37.
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This sketch of the Portuguese Government of the Konkan has rather exceeded the proper limits, but the subject is an interesting one, and no connected account of it can be got from books readily obtainable. It only remains to add that the Portuguese during the period of their supremacy and for many years afterwards lived in India with considerable magnificence. Fryer speaks of the "stately aldeas and dwellings on both sides of the Thána creek, and the delicate country mansions of the Fidalgos who all over the island live like petty monarchs." The mansion of John de Mello, three miles from Thána, was "curiously built with a terraced descent and walks and gardens extending half a mile down to a stately banqueting house over the water with stone steps for landing." And a mile further stood "Grebondel, a large neat built town of Martin Alfonso's, with his house fort and church of as stately architecture as India can afford, he being the richest Don on this side Goa.” The Fidalgos at Bassein had “stately dwellings graced with covered balconies and large windows two stories high with panes of oyster shell or latticed.”¹ Gemelli speaks of the pleasure-houses of the Portuguese gentry near Bassein in the same way.² Of these lordly mansions there is now nothing to be seen but a few ruined walls, though foundations may here and there be traced of sufficient extent to prove the truth of these accounts.
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¹ Fryer, 74-75; Churchill, IV. 190.
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The chief remains of the Portuguese are at Bassein and lower Chaul, now known by its old Hindu name of Revdanda. These are large walled towns, but the fortifications generally have little appearance of strength. At Bassein the line of the streets can be traced, and many lofty buildings, principally churches, remain. These are “of considerable size but mean architecture, though they are striking from the lofty proportions usual in Roman Catholic places of worship, and from the singularity of Christian and European ruins in India.”³ There is now a high road through the middle of the city which prevents it from being utterly desolate; on the north side there is a large space without any ruins, owing no doubt to the plague which towards the end of the seventeenth century is said to have unpeopled one-third of the city on that side.² The ruins of Revdanda are similar but on a smaller scale, and from the space within the walls being entirely occupied by cocoanut gardens they can be seen less favourably than the Bassein ruins. The main walls are nearly entire, those on the north side being far the strongest, and having been protected, in its whole length apparently, by an outwork which has now mostly fallen into the sea. The present main entrance facing nearly south and with the citadel just inside it is probably the original entrance.⁴
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² Gemelli in Churchill, IV. 190.
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³ Heber, II. 130.
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⁴ Detailed descriptions of the ruins of Bassein and Chaul with many particulars as to their history will be found in Dr. DaCunha’s Chaul and Bassein.
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All over Sálsette and in the neighbourhood of Bassein are parish churches still in use; but though some of these, for instance those of Thána and Remedi near Bassein (originally Nossa Senhora dos Remedios),⁵ are large and respectable, and appear to be in the same state as when first built, there is nothing very striking in any of them. Deserted churches and convents more or less ruined are found at many places, especially in Sálsette. The ruins at Marol have been already mentioned.⁶ At Mándvi on the Vaitarna there is a picturesque ruin of a conventual building; and at Yerangal, ten miles north of Bándra, a large church stands in a very pretty little bay close to the sea but distant from anything like a town. This is dedicated to St. Bonaventura, and is still used on the feast of the Epiphany. The outline of the church at Kelva-Máhim is now barely traceable, but the buildings there were certainly of considerable size. These convents were very frequently either themselves fortified as that at Yerangal or built close to a fort: thus the College at Bándra had “seven guns mounted in front of it and a good store of small
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⁵ DeBarros, VII. 244.
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⁶ Section II. near the end.
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arms,"¹ and took toll from all vessels going up the creek.² The greatest in extent of these ecclesiastical ruins is at Mandapeshvar or Mont Pezier already described, and this part of Sálsette must have been a favourite one, as within a mile of this there were the two large churches of Mágáthan and Poisar standing within a stone's throw of each other, and within four miles on the other side is Ghodbandar. The buildings at this delightful place included a fort, a monastery, and a large church. The latter, dedicated to St. John,³ is the present bungalow, but many of its features make it appear to have been originally a Musalmán rather than a Christian building.
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¹ Fryer, 70.
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² O Chronista, II, 71.
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³ Macleod's Manuscript Account of Sálsette.
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There are two forts which show that the Portuguese were scarcely inferior in the art of fort-building to the Maráthás. One of these is Thána, the size and strength of which can still be seen after all the alterations it has undergone, and which seems to owe nothing to the Maráthás. The other is the fort of Korlai opposite to Chaul, which is perhaps the most interesting of any Portuguese building remaining in the Konkan. The plan, however, which is very striking and unlike anything else in the district, is Musalmán,⁴ the Portuguese having destroyed the first fortress and afterwards rebuilt it on the same plan. It stands on a very narrow ridge which stretches far across the mouth of the river, and which is completely surrounded by a strong wall. Inside this are two walls crossing the ridge at the top, and as each was strongly protected by towers and bastions there were virtually three fortresses. On the north side the hill slopes gently down to the water's edge, and this slope, being enclosed like the rest of the hill by the fortified wall, formed a broad way, which also was crossed by walls and bastions and ended at the bottom in a wide level space. Here apparently were the quarters of the garrison and a strong battery commanding the entrance of the river. On the most prominent point of this stood a large cross, and the bastions and gateways all over the fort were dedicated to saints whose names are engraved on them.
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⁴ DeCoutto, XIII, 165.
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There were numbers of other forts all along the coast, of which Tárápur and Dáhánu appear to have been the chief. Others may be traced which were little more than fortified outposts. At the time of the expulsion of the Portuguese, Bándra and Vesáva (probably Madh) were the most important forts in Sálsette after Thána.⁵ Scarcely anything remains of the fortifications at Bándra, and Vesáva appears to have been so rebuilt and enlarged by the Maráthás that it is difficult to trace the Portuguese work. Finally there are a number of round watch-towers on promontories and rocky islands, the use of which is said to have been to give notice of the approach of Arab pirates. The most southerly of these which is on a small rocky island with four palmyra trees towering above it, is visible from Malabár Hill on a clear day.
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⁵ Grant Duff, 242.
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SECTION VI.
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SHIVA'JI.
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1648 TO 1680.
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THE state of the powers who ruled the Konkan in the middle of the seventeenth century may be thus described. The Portuguese had lost their prestige, and could scarcely hope ever to regain it. The Bijápur kings had seen and profited by the fall of their ancient rivals of Ahmadnagar, but had now begun to feel the power of the Emperors of Delhi. In the north the Jawhár state and in the south the Maráthás of Sávantvádi had become stronger through the weakness of the greater powers, and there were no doubt other and less important Hindu chiefs who still exercised local authority. It was under these circumstances that the founder of the Marátha empire arose. Under him the Konkan attained its greatest importance and we have in his time more historical mention of the province than at any other, for, though not a Konkani himself, he soon found that the wild and strong country just above and below the Gháts was the best field for his operations.
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In Section III. mention has been made of the raids of Sháhji Bhonsla in the Konkan and of Shiváji his famous son. It was in 1648, when he was little more than twenty, that Shiváji extended his operations to the Konkan.¹ He at first avoided those parts which were in the possession of the Moghals, but as the whole of the Konkan south of Kalyán was at this time subject to Bijápur there was abundant room for his energy. And he began operations in that part which having until a few years before belonged to Ahmadnagar and having then for some years been overrun by his father² was probably held less firmly than the rest of the Bijápur possessions. At the very beginning he appears to have surprised Ráiri, which was afterwards his capital under the name of Ráygad, and after plundering other towns he got possession of Kalyán, and immediately began to arrange for the revenue management of the province as if he meant to keep it. The first forts in the Konkan which he built were Birvádi and Lingána, both near Ráygad. He seems to have kept possession of what he had gained by playing off the Moghals against Bijápur, and he lived for four or five years in comparative quiet, spending much of his time at Mahád. In 1656 he built the fort of Pratápgad and thus by gaining command of the pass leading from the Dakhan to Mahád he secured to himself the means of safely retreating to the Konkan whenever he might find the Dakhan
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