Pereira, Jose I Martins, Micael.

1984.

Goa and its Music. No. 1.

In:

Boletim do Instituto Menezes Bragan9a, No. 144, pp. 75-82. Panaji, Goa.

(Refer also to No. 145, pp. 19-112, No. 153, pp. 89-108, No. 154, pp. 41-48, No.
155, pp. 41-72, No. 156, pp. 25-40, No. 169, pp. 67-77.)
 GC)A & ITS MUSIC
Jose Pereira
&
Micael Martins

INTRODUCTION ,.

·-.rhe va·~ue and disturbed popular image of Goa hangs as

a raH over the depths of its real interest. A smallness
of ~;ize deceptively masks its character as a crucial turning
point in hbtory. ( 1 ) On it as hinge Asia's ponderous swing
to wards Europe began. Not long after Constantinople had
.
fallen ( ~ ), :::he domain of an immemorial and senescent Tropical
Old World was punctured by a chain of eruptions. A hot
flood of :i:te political and cultural energy of a Europe still
fully alive broke through and cascaded on a dying landscape.
Goa was the scene of the first blast and from there the storm
passed OVf r to other parts of the eastern world.
There t' >o, the lava first cooled into a new layer of fertile
soil that tccame embedded in the older environment. Never
since has ~.c harmonious a fusion of the two worlds been achiev-
ed. (3 ) Today, submerged in oblivion, this little cultural crater
oflndia's west coast still preserves its characteristics of embryo,
repository, miniature world and channel. It is, to begin with, a
Latin Asia :n embryo; a full picture, on a minute scale, of what
the contini:r.t would have been lil<:e had the Portuguese expan~
sion there been as successful as tho Spanish ,in Latin America.
was to be.
 7& BOLETIM DO INSTITUTU MENKZES BRAGAN\A

In the seco:1d place. it is the repository of some of the old

ideas and form; of living of India and Europe. The basic con-
cepts of Indian civilization there preserve a freshness belonging
to the period of their first formulation, without the bitter matur-
ity they acquired in most parts of the subcontinent. (4 ) There
too some of the devotions and mystery plays of mediaeval
Europe survive. (5 ) Musical forms prevalent in Renaissance
Europe are still popular ( 6 ) ; and the blaze of Baroque courts
has an afterglow in the stately ceremonial dances of the Brahmin
, aristocracy. A music with the sadness of old India is accom-
panied by dane~ steps and pageantry that reflect the glamour
and gilding of the court of Louis XIV. {7 )
Thirdly, i1 is a miniature world- one of those outlying
areas which, though small in their geographical context, seem
complete world~ in themselves, surrounded by a rim of darkness.
Some other ex;unples are Bali, Et}Jiopia. Armenia and Japan.
In the center of the Goan cosmogony is the body of Xayier,
shrivelling in its tomb of silver and jewels. Around it, the vaults
and towers of the Rome of the East have collapsed in ruin. '
Circling tht! desolation is a phalanx of white churches in an
undulating landscape - emblazoned with fields and lakes and
revealed under :1 vivid sky. Beyond this, a deepening wilderness
woos the Baroq u.! of the Hindu temples and then breaks in dense
waves on a sheer mountain wall. In this domain, at once spark~
ling and gloomy, the ghosts of Old India and Europe live their
twilight existence. The oufer darkness, however, has two
luminous gaps of remote and mystical vision ; the monasteries
and palaces of Lisbon rising above a cluster of caravels and
Rome's constellation of cupolas - crowned by Dome poised
in glory over Peter's tomb.
Lastly, it iE a channel through which European cultural
 GOA & ITS MUSIC 77

forms passed into India. Music was among the most important
and the musicological value of Goa to Europe and India is ·
considenble. Students of European music· will find in Goan
Song an unsual handling of mediaeval and early polyphonic
forms ; z, discovery of possibilities in them unsuspected in the
land of fneir origin .. These insights were brought into being
mainly through the influence and challenge of traditional Indian
music, vestiges of which remain in the works of Goan compos-
ers. (8 ) Scrutiny of their work for purely European elements
would thus whet the appetite for more integrally Indian fare~
found best in India's classical tradition.
On the other hand, a systematic examination of Goan Song
can be a great help to students of Indian music, particularly
Indian folk music. This is f-1 vast and uncharted area and very
little of its material has been organized. The science of folklore,
European in origin, has familiarized itself more with European
material than with the non-European. A good place to start
systematic research would thus be a part of India having strong
cultural links with Europe, such as G.oa.
As we mentioned above, Goa is a miniature world; a tiny
image, in its own way, of both India and Latin Europe. The
smallnesb of its size and its clearly defined cultural characteris-
tics are ·;v~lcome from the poi.nt of view of relative simplicity of
scope anc easy manageability of material. Work on the musical
tradition of this diminutive India will enable one to take in
hand, with greater confidence, tht! immensely complex task of
defining and coordinating the output of the rest of the mac-
rocosmk subcontinent lyintr. heynHd its mountains.
How.~ver, this book is mainly concerned not with Goa's
Folk Song, but with its Art Song, and in just one of its forms~
the Mando. A niche that is its own by right has thus to be
78 EOLETIM DO INSTITUTO MENEZES BRAGANCA

found for the Mando in the edifice of Indian Music. At the

same time, it is of great relevance to the history of folk song
as well. Art music is often a sublimation of much that is best
in a tradition of folk music; the Mando stands at the end of
a long history of evolving song types, nearly all of which have
strands woven into its texture. The contribution which this
book has to make to Indian music will consist in applying
a systematic method to define, classify and describe the unfold-
ing of the folk song types found in one part of India ( Goa)
and to show their link with the art music of that area in its
chief song fcrm.
Goan Song, composed in the Konkani language, is only
one facet of 1.he larger tradition of Konkani Song. The habitat
of the lang!Jage extends for a considerable distance on both
sides of Goa, especially to the South. Studies on Goan Song
-:the most iutensively examined branch of Konkani Song-are
abundant, rr,..)re so perhaps than any other musical tradition in
the whole subcontinent. ( 9 ) This fact increases in significance
if we take into account the smali size of Konkani-speaking terr~
itory. From this angle, it is doubtful if any Indian song tradi~
tion possesses a body of appreciative analysis proportionately
equalling ou:-s in quantity of studies and the frequency of their
appearance. Much of their content is speculative, a fair amou,nt
amateurish and hardly any organized. Our work aims at remed-
ying these defects.
Counterbalancing the fruitfuln~ss in production is a quality
of evanescence- effecting most t hilljl'l on Konkani soil- that
·blights its preservation. A proCt!SS or rapid growth, blossoming
and decay seems to control research in this body of song. The
books where studies of it appear soon become very rare, for the
vicious damp and the crawling white menace of termites have
 GOA & ITS MUSIC 79

destroyed whole libraries. As regards the usually obscure

periodicals in whose pages. they have appeared, when stray
numbers have not found their way into unsuspected private
hands, surviving copies are almost impossible to trace. Man-
uscript studies of great value hav~ been either lost or destroyed.
The on1y way out of this unfortunate situation is the systematic
; examination of private collections. We hope that some inves-
tigator with zeal will undertake this task soon.
There is also a wealth of manuscript and printed sources about
10
Goa, widely scattered over libraries in India and Europe. ( }
While it is unlikely that they m1y contain examples of
Konkani Song, a not inconsiderable portion of them comprises
\Vorks of early Konkani 1\teratur~. AU these sources throw
light on life as it was lind in th~ villag~s of G~a -the cradle
and nucleus of Konkani Song. · When this material comes to
be examined, w~ shall know m::>rG about the land '5 social condi-
tions, economic life, administrative organization, legal institu-
tions, folk habits and mod~s of religious behaviour. An
inexhaustible fund of information on these factors as existing
in the nineteenth century-period of the apogee of Goan Song-
are the Goan newspapers (1 1 ) and local literature. One important
12
novel, ?rancisco Joao da Costa's (or" Gip's") Jacobe Dulce ( )
i8 pr:celess in this regard. AU these works depict the '
conditions of living in a settled,
,. agricultural Goa -valid for
most of its history b;,forc the oo11ing of industrializ1tioa.
We have only picked up the nugg~ts on the surfaca of this.
mme. As an exploration of Goan Song in all its dimensions:.
therefore, our work is inadequate. Yet, from another angle it
is quite ambitious, for it sets out to synthesize what has so far
been said about Goan Song. In other words, it aims at encom-
passing the subject's lenght, without endeavouring to sc::tle its.
· 80 BOLETIM DO I~STITUTO MENEZES BRAGAN<;A

heights or plumb its depths : it aspires to an integrated work,

which will render tractile and pliable, in a coordinated fashion,
the· diffuse and hitherto unrelated material of Goan Song.
Our quest has taken us to unthought-of places. We have
passed fro~ the sunlight of the Konkan to grim monastic libra-
ries. Problems arising on the fringes of the jungle have led us
for their solution to the dark and smelly ghetto-like flats in
Bombay where so many Goan families live. Had we ourselves
not originated from the area where most of Goan Song derived
its origin, Saxtty ( Salcete ), many of its treasures might have
remained hidden to us and thus forever lost. ( 13 ) However, the
places one least thinks of as being likely treasure spots reveal
bright veir,s of ore to stubborn miners. It will be the privilege
ofthose who belong there to unearth these ricbes and pile them
in the thesaurus of Konkani Song-before it is too late and the
fairy gold. disappears.
This;tantalizing but often only apparent scarcity of material
is not the only difficulty. Many researchers -like ourselves in
the early stages of our exploration-must also have experienced
frustration at the chaos of known forms and types in the reper-
toire of Konkani Song. If one does not buckle under this chall-
enge, one is driven to resolve that the recalcitrance of the subject
shall be humble. Di:fficultieR involving field work will always
remain ; nonetheless, we crt n eonlldcntly say that some paths
have been cut through the knotted jungle. We thus hope that
our work will be a useful contribution, on the one hand towards
promoting a study in depth of Konkani Song, on the other,
beginning the systematic mapping out of the territory of local
Indian musical traditions.
Goan S::mg, especially the Mando, is the highest expression
of the Kon 'kani spirit ( 1 4 ), imprisoned in melancholy but
 GOA & ITS MUSIC 81

obsessionally drawn to the stars. ( 15 ) Its intrinsic value is for

us an ultimate, and its sympathetic interpretation is our finality.
For this end it is imperative that some of its fine examples be
made known. While its music has an irresistible appeal, it is
unlikely that Goan Song, on its poetic side, will ever become
popular in a large way outside the Konkan. Unremittingly
suppressed by agp,n!ssor,r; n11d powerful neighbours, the lang-
uage of its expression, Konkani, has shown a vitality and a core
'
of adamant that om: would not have thought possible in a lang-
uage so inadequately protected against such massive attack. Its
resilience bas few parallels anywhere. The smallness of its
territory and population, and its lack of cultural selfconscious-
ness are factors which in any language can easily be exploited
for its dissolution. If mere efficiet:J.cy could ensure death, the
organization and resolve of its usually unscrupulous enemies
would long ago have mowed down the sweet tongue - were it
not for the steel and fire of its hidden sinews of resistance. e 6
)

It was the subcon,scious apprehension of its own uni-

queness at its highest level - Konkani Song- that repelled
these lethal forces. It will be our greatest reward if our book
can help this subconscious to grow into a reflexive awareness
of the Konkan's cultural riches. It is possible to do this in our
days more than before, when adverse historical factors were
arrayed against it in even denser serried strength. That such .
.an awareness will grow is beyond question, as few song traditions.
82 BOLETIM DO INSTITUTO MENEZES BRAGANCA

have been upheld so enthusiastically as Konkani Song by the

Konkanis. Hs realization and official acceptance will be a
vindication of the immemorial Indian cultural genius for allow-
ing varied and maturing cultural modalities free play within the
expanse of its oneness.