Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The first of these special powers arrived in 1540 when the viceroy
received authority to 'destroy all Hindu temples, not leaving a single
one in any of the islands, and to confiscate the estates of these temples
for the maintenance of the churches which are to be erected in their
places.' A frenzy of activity must have followed. The Italian cleric
Father Nicolau Lancilotto, visiting Goa in 1545, reported that 'there
was not a single temple to be seen on the island.' The island in
question was Teeswadi, the main field of operations for the two
priestly orders then on the scene. Once the islands of Bardez and
Salcete were acquired, each order was able to stake out its own
territory - the Franciscans clearing the 'jungle' of Bardez, and the
Jesuits going to work on Salcete. By the time the Dominicans and
the Augustinians arrived a few years later, however, there was not
enough room for separate spheres of influence. A glance at the absurd
profusion of churches standing cheek by jowl in Old Goa still
conveys some idea of the spiritual excesses indulged in by these
competing orders during their heyday.
This Olympiad of Christianisation scared the hell out of the
locals, and thousands of families - particularly high-caste Hindus
- fled across the river. To them, the harshness of those Moghul
functionaries still governing the adjacent territories must have been
preferable to the rabid monomania of papist clerics. A saying still
exists in Konkani, the language of Goa:
hanv polthandi vaitam
(I'm
leaving for the other bank), one half of its double meaning implying
to this day that a person is rejecting Christianity.
The Hindus who remained were not exactly fighting to be
converted, either. Although their temples had been razed, they
continued to practice their religion in secret. More extreme methods
were therefore instituted to bring the heathen into the church's
loving embrace. Hindu festivities were forbidden; Hindu priests
were prevented from entering Goa; makers of idols were severely
punished; public jobs were given only to Christians.
Soon it was announced that it had become a crime for Hindus to
practice their religion at all, even in the privacy of their own homes.
The penalty was decreed to be the confiscation of all property. Those
who informed on such crimes were to receive half the property
confiscated. Also, Hindus dying without a male heir could pass
