Goa - Early History
In the later Vedic period (c.1000-500 BC) when the Hindu epic “Mahabharata” was written, Goa has been referred to with the Sanskrit name “Gomantak”, a word with many meanings , signifying mostly a fertile land; but however, it is the Portuguese who gave Goa its name. Before they arrived on the scene, Goa, or Gove or Gowapura, was the name only of the port town near the mouth of the Mandovi River. This was also the same site on which the Portuguese later built their capital, today’s Old Goa.
Mythology and Legend ( and history to some extent) has it that a section of Saraswat Brahmins, (one of the sub-sects of Brahmins who eat fish) became the first wave of Brahmins to settle in Goa. This group of Brahmins were called Saraswats because of their origins from the banks of the River Saraswati, an ancient river that existed in Vedic times. The river Saraswati subsequently dried up and caused large scale migration of this group of Brahmins to all corners of India. A group of ninety-six families, known today as Gaud Saraswats, settled along the Konkan coast in and around today’s Goa somewhere around 1000 BC. They reportedly took the sea route and did not use land routes. These groups settled in Tiswadi, Salcete, Bardesh, Pernem and Kudal.
The first group of Saraswat Brahmins who settled in the Goa area were called “Sastikars” because they settled in the eight villages of Sasti taluka. Today’s Salcete taluka derives its name from the Sanskrit word “Sassast” meaning the number 66, Tiswadi derived from the Sanskrit word for the number 30, and Bardesh/Bardez derived from the Sanskrit word for the number 12. Their settlements called as agraharas set the pace for agriculture and development in the area in partnership with the local indigenous people, the Kumbhis. The earliest “Matha” of the Saraswat community was the “Kavle Math” founded in 740 AD and established at Kushasthali near Keloshi in Goa. This Math was subsequently destroyed by the Portuguese in 1564 but the tradition continued on elsewhere.
This early land reclamation by the Saraswats also provides the basis of a very popular theory of origin of Goa, with its basis as recorded in the “Skanda Purana”. It is said that Lord Vishnu, in his sixth incarnation as “Lord Parashurama” shot an arrow from the top of the western ghats into the sea. He then commanded the sea or “Lord Samudra” to withdraw where the arrow fell and claimed that land to be his kingdom, that exact spot is reportedly “Benali” (in Sanskrit for ‘where the arrow landed’), or today’s Benaulim, the land around it , today’s Goa. He is also said to have brought the Brahmins from Trihotra in north India and settled them in Goa. This is considered today to be more mythology than history.
Goa was a part of the Mauryan empire of Emperor Ashoka. It has been known to other cultures by different names. Some of the names it was known by in the ancient world are Indian Aparant, Gomant, Govarashtra, Goparastra, Govapuri, Gopakpuri, Gopakapattana, Gove. The last four being the names of its capital. Greek Chersonesus or Nelikinda (Periplus), Nekanidon (Pliny), Melinda or Tricadiba Insula (Ptolemy), Nincilda (Peutingerian tables), Sibo. Arabic Sindabur, Chintabur, Cintabor.
The Hindu dynasties controlled Goa for the next 700 years. The various dynasties that controlled Goa during this period are, the Scytho-parthians (2nd -4th century AD), the Abhiras, Batpura, and the Bhojas ( 4th – 6th century AD), the Chalukyas ( from 6th – 8th century AD) and the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed (8th to 10th Century AD). This was followed by the Kadambas (1006 AD-1356 AD).
The Kadambas were unique because they were a local dynasty that slowly came to dominate the scene by forging alliances with their neighbors and overlords, the Chalukyas. They made Chandrapur (Chandor) their capital (937 AD to 1310 AD). They subsequently moved their capital to Govapuri on the banks of the Zuari river, the site of today’s Goa Velha. The Kadambas are credited with constructing the first settlement on the site of Old Goa in the middle of the 11th century, when it was called Thorlem Gorem. The period of the Kadambas is considered to be the first golden age of Goa. The death of the last Chalukya king in 1198 weakened their alliance and this exposed Goa to the vulnerability to Muslim invasions that took place continuously after that.
The invasion of Goa by the Bahamini Kingdom in 1350 brought about complete destruction to Goa, its temples and its institutions. The invaders, driven by fanatic zeal destroyed temples, murdered priests and systematically looted their wealth. Many deities got moved to safer areas, only one survives to this very day- the Shree Mahadev Temple at Tambdi Surla. The end of the first period of the Bahamini rule was following their defeat by the the Hindu Empire of Vijayanagar (14-15th century AD). The Bahaminis returned again in 1470 and won and with that victory, Goa became a part of the Muslim Bahmani Kingdom of the Deccan (15th century). The Bahaminis created a new city to facilitate trade on the northern banks of the river Mandovi, a city they called Ela. In 1492, the Bahmani Kingdom split into five kingdoms, namely Bidar, Berar, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bijapur. One of the kingdoms namely Bijapur (which was the capital of the territory) included Goa and was ruled by Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah Khan.
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