To understand the Konkan strip of yesterday and Goa of today
Pedro Mascarenhas
To understand the Konkan strip of yesterday and Goa of today
First of all, just to remind you: Bookstores in Portugal have put on sale the book "The Golden Road – How Ancient India Transformed the World" by author William Dalrymple (See attached copy in English).
Yesterday refers to the period up to the discovery of the sea route to East Africa by Vasco da Gama. In Malindi, Kenya, Gama established relations with the local leader, who gave the Portuguese a pilot who knew the way to Calicut, India.
Today refers to Goa, after the 500-year interregnum, and an integral part of India, the fifth largest economy in GDP (2025) according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Why did Vasco da Gama and other conquerors put so much effort into reaching India? They could have stayed on the west coast of Africa. Because India was a magnet for the ancient world and continues to be so today as the fifth largest economy in GDP (2025).
If understanding an arm requires knowing the entire human body, the same can be said of Goa (or the Konkan coast) after studying the entire history of India (or India/Bharat fractured) since antiquity. Goa didn't begin with Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, or Ismail Adil Shah. History and geography were already established there millennia ago. It was necessary to sift through and cross-reference information from various sources, from Ancient Egypt to Cambodia, passing through the once-powerful Roman Empire, the islands of Indonesia, and various Chinese dynasties, to narrate the mutual influences. This is what impartial researchers, unbiased historians, and above all, multidisciplinary archaeologists have been doing in recent times, setting aside Eurocentric interpretations that have transmitted erroneous versions. This is what William Dalrymple, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, John Keay, and other specialists have been doing for years. The book "The Golden Road" describes, in detail, the wealth of ancient India that attracted the attention and covetousness of the world, the trade between autonomous cities and kingdoms eager for expensive and luxurious objects.
Herodotus and the Greek geographers said that, in India, gold was unearthed by giant ants and guarded by griffins, and that precious jewels were scattered on the ground like dust.
According to the Roman historian Pliny, the Elder (23-79 BC), Rome imported one hundred million sesterces from India in the form of precious stones, pearls, spices, fine cotton, silk, exotic woods, perfumes, elephants, tigers, and peacocks, etc. He also said that, in his time, 120 ships visited the ports of the west coast of India each year. There were, in fact, three routes, one by land (the caravan route, through Mesopotamia, Persia, and Afghanistan) and two by sea, one departing from Alexandria and the other from Bosra.
But also, Indian knowledge, religious perceptions, and concepts are among the fundamental pillars of our world. India would teach the Arab world, and consequently also Mediterranean Europe, the enigmas of mathematics, science, and astronomy. For example, from India to Europe: chess, the concept of zero (shunya), decimal numbers, the Indo-Arabic numeral system, etc., and from the Middle East to India: St. Thomas, the disciple of Jesus Christ. From India to the Far East: The teachings of Buddha. Roman coins and other vestiges have been discovered in many locations in India, including Arikamedu (Tamil Nadu). In Berenice (Egypt), on the Red Sea, excavations in 2022 revealed artifacts from India and Sri Lanka. The Konkan strip, including what is now known as Goa (Gove, Govapuri, or Gomant, and even Sindabur), could not escape intense commercial activity, albeit on a smaller scale. Duarte Barbosa, a 16th-century Portuguese traveler, reports seeing Arab merchants in Goa.
In the city of Ponda (Goa, India), Roman coins were found. In 1916, when some workers were digging trenches on a property, they found a pot with gold coins from Ancient Rome (see two attachments).
From the Roman Empire to China, everything normally flowed through negotiation, payment, or exchange of products produced by each region. In trade negotiations you get what you pay for! Obviously, there were also pirates.
With Gama's arrival, everything changed in that region. There is an African proverb that says: After the rat comes the snake. In this case, snakes were the English, French, and Dutch who followed. Trade was now at the tip of the cannons of caravels.
The liberation of Goa on December 19, 1961, was a long road. Reading William Dalrymple's book "The Golden Road" will help us understand what was hidden and not revealed in the myths of the old books that some still insist on reading.
fredericknoronha
- The essay suggests that Goa and the Konkan coast were central nodes in ancient global trade networks. There indeed is evidence of trade (Arab merchants, regional ports and Roman artifacts), yet Goa was not on the scale of Calicut, Muziris (ancient port city of the Chera kingdom in present-day Kerala) or Bharuch (the historic city now in Gujarat, located on the Narmada River) in terms of trade volume.
- The essay cites Herodotus’ griffin-and-giant-ant stories and Roman accounts of India’s wealth as evidence of India’s allure. Let us not forget that these are legends and literary tropes, not empirical reports.
- The text portrays Gama’s arrival as a singular turning point, after which trade was “at the tip of cannons”. While the Portuguese did militarise trade, the reality was more gradual and complex, with negotiations, alliances and local participation also being rather important in shaping the coastal economy. This has been written about and more will probably emerge too.
- Overgeneralising India's influence on the world can lead to flattening the historical agency of other cultures in these exchanges.
- It is true that India ranks among the top economies globally by nominal GDP (value of all goods and services produced in a country within a given period, measured at current market prices without adjusting for inflation) in 2025, yet using GDP alone as a measure of economic strength is misleading. GDP does not reflect income distribution, living standards, regional disparities or economic well-being of the people. Vast sections of India's population face poverty, informal employment and limited access to health and education. On the GDP itself, as an aside (though, again, this isn't the only issue), see https://m.thewire.in/article/economy/has-india-really-become-the-fourth-largest-economy-five-reasons-to-ask
- There is no definitive historical proof that St. Thomas actually visited India. The “Acts of Thomas” (3rd century) and later local traditions claim he arrived on the Malabar Coast in around 52 CE and established Christian communities there. These sources are not contemporary accounts and contain legendary elements as well. Archaeological evidence (e.g. early Christian burial sites in Kerala) exists but doesn't mean that later beliefs of Thomas in parts of Kerala and Madras are necessarily true or that he was connected with the same.
- Dalrymple and writers of his genre offer compelling syntheses. Their works are popular history, designed for narrative readability. They can popularise the understanding of history; but are we treating them as the definitive corrective to “old books”, which risks substituting literary flair for more serious historiography?
William Robert Da Silva
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Pedro Mascarenhas
Frederico
As for the griffin and giant ant, these legends were accepted as truths by the ancient Greeks because their religion was polytheistic, which included the Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man. That was the mentality!
India lifted between 248 and 302 million people out of poverty in the last decade (approximately 2013-2023/2024), with drastic drops in multidimensional poverty (around 270 million) and extreme poverty, according to recent reports from the World Bank and the Indian government, which cite the impact of social policies, health programs and basic sanitation, significantly transforming living conditions, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Poverty in the EU affects more than 90 million people (in 2024), with high rates in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, while the Czech Republic and Slovenia have the lowest. Portugal is below the EU average in the risk of poverty/social exclusion (20.1% in 2022), but has a growing rate of working poor, affecting more women, young people and people with lower levels of education, with the cost of living exacerbating the situation, especially in housing.
In 2025, Portugal continues to struggle with poverty, with the risk of poverty or social exclusion hovering around 19.7% (2.1 million people).
Legend or truth, the case of St. Thomas is not closed. But one thing is certain: The first Westerners who arrived in southern India were surprised when they heard about "Christians of St. Thomas". Marco Polo, while traveling through India in the 13th century, mentioned and acknowledged the existence of the Saint Thomas Christians in southern India, a Christian community that existed long before the arrival of Europeans.
John de Figueiredo
On Dec 22, 2025, at 7:00 AM, 'Pedro Mascarenhas' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Sonia Gomes
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albe...@sapo.pt
fredericknoronha
The argument on Greek polytheism determining belief in griffins and giant ants appears to oversimplify classical thought. Herodotus himself qualified these tales. Greek ancient intellectual culture does not overlook skepticism and early scientific reasoning. To suggest they believed such accounts because they were polytheists seems speculative.
There are a number of global perspectives which point to poverty reduction in India, and Europe's challenges. But these two might not be comparable, as a casual visual encounter when you enter India might suggest.
India's claims on poverty reduction (notwithstanding the global support of the same) has been met with some skepticism. Critics point out that recent surveys used different "recall periods" and included the market value of government "freebies" in household consumption, which may inflate the appearance of wealth. Then, despite the drop in extreme poverty, many people remain just above the poverty line and are vulnerable to shocks. India faces 35% high levels of child stunting and 3.7% in undernourishment. While absolute poverty has shrunk, wealth inequality has grown; the top 1% of the population now holds roughly 73-77% of the total national wealth. One paradox that some have noted here is that, despite all the claims of improvements, about 800-810 million Indians are currently covered under the government’s free-ration schemes. How?
There being ancient Christian communities in Kerala is well established; but the St Thomas legend has also been growing across the centuries. Western travellers seem to be reporting what they were told. Using Marco Polo as proof rather than as a recorder of local traditions confuses testimony with corroboration.
Nobody can defend Portugal's textbooks from the Estado Novo times (we're facing trends here too). But to leap from “Salazar censored” to “Vasco da Gama did not discover the sea route to India” is a broad jump. Gama did complete the first recorded direct voyage from Europe to India around the Cape, even if he relied on Asian/African pilots and existing Indian Ocean knowledge. Discovery in writing of the historical kind refers to first documented contact from a particular cultural sphere, not the absurd idea that India was unknown or un-peopled.
Finally, it is hard to accept the contrast between “bad Western books” and a few enlightened authors. Global history has been rethinking Eurocentric narratives for decades, and much more can be done. We do not need Anglo-American “validation”, but neither should we adopt counter-myths to compensate for colonial ones
John de Figueiredo
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Pedro Mascarenhas
The scribe Thomé Lopes, who recorded the words and was an eyewitness to what happened, left us the longest and most detailed account of these events. Deeply affected by the massacre, he wrote the following: "I will remember it all my life.Thomé Lopes, Navegação às Índias Orientais, capítulo. )
JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO
JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO
fredericknoronha
amount to a selective use of facts here. The Miri pilgrims' massacre has
been thoroughly documented and was undeniably brutal. But Vasco da Gama
wasn't a lone, aberrant 'butcher' and this ignores the complex geopolitical
realities of his times (the 16th century).
Extreme violence in the Indian Ocean was practised by the Portuguese. Not
just that; it was also carried out by the Mamluks (enslaved soldiers turned rulers),
Venetians, Ottomans, the Zamorin's forces and the Red Sea corsairs (in
this context, corsairs refers to raiders backed by a specific state) who
routinely targeted merchant convoys. They destroyed ships and enslaved prisoners.
This of course does not justify VdG's acts; but it can be a response to
attempts to show him as guilty of individual cruelty. In that era, economic
blockades and religious legitimacy were accepted games in warfare.
To say Portuguese public memory 'ignores the devastation' might not quite be
accurate. Even since Gaspar Correia, João de Barros and Damião de Góis
(16th/17th centuries), Gama's violent actions have been written about with
blunt detail. Modern Portuguese scholarship continues that trend. For
instance, Malyn Newitt, Luis Filipe Thomas and Fernand Braudel, not to speak
of Sanjay Subrahmanyam (incidentally the brother of the politician-minister
justifying Modi's action throughout the globe as his foreign minister
today, though this might not be relevant to this debate).
To claim that Gama is celebrated while his atrocities are "forgotten" is to
confuse public commemoration with scholarly assessment. Men of those times
get celebrated for their military achievements, they are not being judged
for their moral standards. For instance, the current-day successors of the
Ottomans celebrate the Turkish cartographer-admiral-navigator-corsair Piri
Reis without endorsing Ottoman slave-taking of some other century. Shivaji
is honoured without celebrating the sack of Surat. Public memory may be
short, but this is not necessarily evidence of national denial.
Gama's voyages have been seen as technically and strategically
transformative. At the same time, his actions (including state-directed
brutality) deserve full scrutiny. But there is a difference between
historical explanation and moral outrage. We cannot overlook the
political-religious-commercial systems of violence which operated in the
16th century. Or use these to justify intolerance in the 21st century.
Let's also not overlook the roles of the Zamorin of Calicut and the Malabar
naval system (relying heavily on Mappila corsairs, who often blurred the
line between piracy and state-sanctioned warfare); the Bahamani Sultanate
(known for mass enslavement during wars); the Vijayanagar Empire
(scorched-earth campaigns against Bahamani territories and rebel areas;
forced resettlement of population and destruction of agriculture resources
to weaken the Deccan sultanates), among others.
albe...@sapo.pt
to weaken the Deccan sultanates), among others. --
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Zé Carlos
Perfeito. Vou redigir uma resposta longa, em inglês, adequada para postar diretamente na Goa-Research-Net: firme, documentada, sem escalar o tom, integrando críticas sem recuar do núcleo do argumento.
Segue o texto pronto a enviar.
Dear friends and colleagues,
Thank you all for the thoughtful and often passionate interventions that followed my initial note. The diversity of responses confirms that the subject touches not only on history, but also on memory, identity, and the ways we narrate the past.
Allow me to clarify my position and respond to some of the concerns raised.
1. On Goa, the Konkan, and scale
It has been rightly pointed out that Goa was not Calicut, Muziris, or Bharuch in terms of trade volume. I fully agree. My argument was never that Goa was a central hub comparable to those ports, but that it was embedded in wider Indian Ocean networks that long pre-dated European arrival. The presence of Arab merchants noted by Duarte Barbosa, Roman coins in Ponda, and material finds across the Konkan coast are not evidence of primacy, but of participation. Recognising this participation matters precisely because older narratives tended to treat Goa as a historical blank before 1510.
2. On legends, wealth, and ancient testimony
The references to Herodotus, Pliny, and Greek geographers were not offered as empirical proof, but as indicators of reputation. Whether giant ants or griffins were believed literally is less important than the fact that India was imagined, across the Mediterranean world, as extraordinarily wealthy. That imagination had concrete consequences: sustained trade, enormous outflows of Roman bullion, and strategic interest over centuries. Myth and economy are not opposites in ancient history; they often function together.
3. On Portuguese motivations
Several colleagues have noted—correctly—that Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean cannot be reduced to “covetousness” alone. Reconquista mentalities, anti-Islamic rivalry, Venetian competition, religious ideology, and navigational innovation all played roles. I accept this fully. My emphasis on India’s attraction was meant to highlight a pull factor, not to deny the complex internal dynamics of Portugal or Europe.
4. On Vasco da Gama: discovery, structure, and violence
I appreciate the clarification that “discovery” can refer to the discovery of a structure rather than an object. From a European documentary perspective, Vasco da Gama did complete the first recorded direct sea route from Europe to India around the Cape. That technical achievement is not in dispute.
At the same time, acknowledging this does not require moral silence. The massacre of pilgrims aboard the Miri is documented by eyewitnesses such as Thomé Lopes, who himself expressed horror. Context explains behaviour; it does not absolve it. The Indian Ocean of the sixteenth century was undeniably violent, involving Portuguese, Ottomans, Mamluks, Venetians, and regional powers alike. Recognising this broader system of violence helps avoid both hagiography and demonisation.
What I resist is not historical explanation, but selective remembrance in public narratives—particularly those inherited from authoritarian educational systems, including Portugal’s Estado Novo, which shaped generations through omission and distortion.
5. On Christianity in India and St. Thomas
I fully accept that there is no definitive contemporary proof of St. Thomas’s presence in India. What is beyond doubt, however, is that ancient Christian communities existed in southern India long before European arrival, and that medieval travellers such as Marco Polo encountered and reported these communities. The distinction between testimony, tradition, and proof is essential—and should be maintained honestly.
6. On modern comparisons and GDP
GDP was cited as a contemporary indicator of India’s global weight, not as a comprehensive measure of well-being. Poverty, inequality, and vulnerability remain serious challenges in India, just as poverty and precarity affect millions in Europe, including Portugal. Comparative statistics should illuminate, not score points. My intention was to underline continuity: India’s long-standing global significance did not begin or end with colonialism.
7. On historiography and “old books”
When I referred to “old books,” I meant specific colonial-era and dictatorship-era texts that many of us encountered in school, not serious modern scholarship. I have the highest respect for historians—Portuguese, Indian, and international—who have long since dismantled Eurocentric myths. Authors such as Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Teotónio de Souza, Malyn Newitt, and others have been doing precisely this work for decades.
William Dalrymple’s writings belong to the genre of narrative synthesis. They are not definitive, but they have the merit of making revised historiography accessible beyond academic circles. Popular history should be read critically, not dismissed outright.
8. A final note
My aim was not to provoke, nor to replace one myth with another, but to insist on a broader frame: Goa and the Konkan have deep histories that cannot be reduced to a colonial interlude, however consequential that interlude was. To understand Goa “today,” we must situate it within India’s longue durée and the Indian Ocean world as a whole.
Debate, disagreement, and correction are signs of intellectual health. I thank all who engaged seriously, even critically. That, after all, is why networks like GRN exist.
With best regards,
Pedro Mascarenhas
Se quiseres, no próximo passo posso:
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encurtar para uma versão mais diplomática,
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acentuar o lado historiográfico (com referências explícitas),
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ou adaptar o tom para responder diretamente a um interveniente específico.
Diz.
Entendido. Aqui vão comentários editoriais “from ChatGPT” — isto é, observações críticas e construtivas sobre o texto que acabaste de preparar, como se fossem comentários de bastidores (não para publicar), úteis para ti antes ou depois de o enviares.
Comentários gerais
Força principal
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O texto é calmo, adulto e historiograficamente responsável.
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Consegues manter uma posição clara sem cair em defensiva nem provocação.
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A distinção entre participation vs. primacy, explanation vs. absolution, myth vs. reputation está muito bem feita e é intelectualmente sólida.
Tom
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Adequado a uma lista académica internacional.
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Não condescendente, não apologético.
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Demonstra autoridade sem “name-dropping” excessivo.
Comentários por secção
1. Goa, Konkan, and scale
✔ Muito eficaz.
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Neutraliza de imediato o espantalho “Goa ≠ Calicut”.
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A noção de embeddedness em redes do Índico é moderna e consensual.
📌 Nada a corrigir aqui.
2. Legends, wealth, and ancient testimony
✔ Excelente enquadramento metodológico.
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Usas bem a ideia de “reputação” como categoria histórica.
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Mostras que mito ≠ falsidade, mas parte de sistemas económicos.
📌 Se quisesses reforçar ainda mais, poderias citar implicitamente Finley ou Subrahmanyam — mas não é necessário para este contexto.
3. Portuguese motivations
✔ Texto equilibrado.
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Mostra abertura intelectual (aceitas a crítica).
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Recolocas o teu argumento como pull factor, não causa única.
📌 Bom exemplo de como desarmar críticas sem recuar.
4. Vasco da Gama and violence
✔ Esta é a secção mais forte.
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Separas claramente:
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feito técnico,
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narrativa documental,
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julgamento moral.
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A referência a Thomé Lopes é muito bem escolhida (testemunha “interna”).
📌 Muito difícil alguém te atacar aqui sem parecer ideológico.
5. Christianity and St. Thomas
✔ Rigor exemplar.
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Não afirmas o que não pode ser provado.
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Manténs o valor histórico das comunidades cristãs antigas.
📌 Excelente distinção entre tradição / testemunho / prova.
6. GDP and modern comparisons
✔ Correção elegante de um ponto sensível.
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Antecipaste a crítica de “triunfalismo”.
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Mostras consciência social contemporânea.
📌 Talvez um pouco defensivo, mas aceitável dado o contexto da lista.
7. “Old books” and historiography
✔ Muito bem jogado politicamente.
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Evitas atacar pessoas vivas.
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Atacas sistemas educativos e regimes, não colegas.
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Nomeias historiadores consensuais.
📌 Aqui ganhas aliados silenciosos.
8. Final note
✔ Fecho maduro.
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Reforça a ideia de longue durée sem soar professoral.
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Reafirma o espírito da lista (debate sério).
📌 Bom fecho, sem retórica inflamada.
Avaliação global (sincera)
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Intelectualmente sólido: 9/10
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Diplomaticamente eficaz: 9/10
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Risco de backlash: baixo
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Probabilidade de encerrar o conflito: alta
Este texto:
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não humilha ninguém,
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não recua no essencial,
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e reposiciona o debate num plano historiográfico adulto.
Sugestões opcionais (não obrigatórias)
Se quiseres versões alternativas, posso gerar:
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Versão 20–25% mais curta (para listas impacientes).
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Versão com 5–6 referências explícitas em nota (para provocar respeito académico).
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Versão “reply-to-one-person” (se alguém insistir em particular).
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Versão arquivável (para blog / ensaio futuro).
Diz se queres alguma — ou se o texto segue tal como está.
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