TENSING RODRIGUES
Could we reconstruct a reasonable profile of this community that we have called the ‘mith gaudi’? In the absence of documentary sources or great-grandmother’s tales, that is, oral narratives transmitted over generations, it must be once again done by joining the dots. It is largely the political history that gets recorded on copper plates or inscribed on stones or, in modern times, published in research journals or compiled in books. The history of the lives of ordinary mortals dies with them. If we feel the need to reconstruct it, we must perforce resort to joining the dots.
We begin with the fact that the ‘mith gaudi’ had something to do with the mith (mitth) – salt. We know they were affluent and influential. Therefore, we have already presumed that they were most probably ‘very rich salt traders’. We have also established that conditions in Goa at the time, as even later, were likely to have been conducive for a lucrative trade in salt, particularly considering the prospects of exporting it to markets across the ghats and possibly beyond. So, it is reasonable to assume that the ‘kathiyavadi ksatriya’ salt traders, who had to flee Kathiyavad after the salt trade was disrupted there because of rising sea level, established a flourishing trade in Salcete and elsewhere in Goa. And we suppose they prospered thereafter till the Anglo-Portuguese treaties of 1878 and 1880. Consequent to these treaties, production of and trade in salt in Portuguese India became the monopoly of the British government. The proprietors of the salt works in Goa were paid compensation for exploitation of salt. [da Costa, 2002 :History Of Trade And Commerce In Goa – 1878-1961, 33] Probably that was the end of the road for the ‘mith gaudi’.
Were there no such big salt traders elsewhere in Goa? Or in the rest of the west coast? There could have been. But we know as little about them as we know about the ‘mith gaudi’ of Salcete. However, I have been told by a friend from Kanyakumari that a similar class of people did exist on the Tamil Nadu coast and that a name equivalent to ‘mith gaudi’ was used for them. But again, this is purely from oral sources; probably he heard this from his elders. It is possible that some ‘kathiyavadi ksatriya’ families, like those who came to Goa, also travelled to the east coast drawn by the prospects of salt trade. With 11 lakh sq km of land-locked market for sea salt, the trade had to be lucrative. We have seen earlier how several Silahar families went down the daksinapath to explore trading opportunities in the Deccan. According to Desai, one Silahar family probably travelled as far south as Kurnool district of Madras Presidency (now in Andhra Pradesh), where one of them, Satyarasa, became the mahamandalesvar during the reign of Western Chalukya king Somesvar II around 1072. He also built a temple in the village in the name of his father Bikkarasa. But Kurnool is not on the coast; so, it cannot throw much light on salt traders on the east coast. It only indicates how far south the Silahar went in search of trade opportunities; this is the southernmost Silahar family that we have found.
Our interest in this byte of history, however, is on account of another reason; the names Satyarasa and Bikkarasa, son and father, both have the root ‘arasa’. [Desai, 1956: Akkalkot Inscription of Shilahara Indarasa, in Chabra& Rao, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVII, 70] That indicates that they began as ‘arasu’, that is ‘village chieftains’ or heads of village assemblies or ‘gamvkaris’ and held the title hereditarily.
We have earlier found an instance of another ‘kathiyavadi ksatriya’ family, other than Silahar, holding that title hereditarily. And that was in Goa. In a homily preached in Arossim in 1651 and published in his compilation ‘Vonmalyamco Molo’ (Jardim dos Pastores), Fr. Miguel Almeida s.j refers to a man named ‘arusu’, who according to him was the ‘saibu’ of Arossim. (Words ended in ‘u’ short or ‘i’ short in Salcete Komkani of that time; they still do in the colloquial dialect there.) According to Almeida, he was the lord not only of Salcete, but had won over the kings of entire Komkan up to Miraj. His first son Kumvarunaiku had conquered the entire Kanara territory and ascended the throne. His second son Kumvarugaudu was the owner of vast areca nut and coconut orchards and rice fields. His third son Kumvaruxeti built ships and traded across the oceans. (sresthin = very rich ship owning merchants) Almeida dates this ‘arusu’ around the 3rd century CE. [Pereira D’Andrade, 1898: Documentos Konkanis Para A Historia De Goa, Vol 1, 2] This bit of information on the ‘arusu’ of Arossim gives us some idea of how the ‘kathiyavadi caddi’ operated; though we do not have corroborating evidence. We do not know if this family had any interests in salt trading but possibly it had interest in trading in areca nut and coconut and probably rice.
Not all ‘kathiyavadi ksatriya’ families who spread throughout the country ended up creating kingdoms. As we have said before, political power was not their primary goal; they acquired political clout to further their economic pursuits. That is the main reason it is difficult to trace the rise and fall of the ‘mith gaudi’ of Salcete. Nevertheless, they left their mark in history by their sheer achievements. Of course, it is difficult to separate the role played by their wealth; in modern times, they had the access to superior education, including education overseas; this had a multiplier effect. Therefore, it is not surprising that the list of ‘kathiyavadi caddi’ in Goa reads like a who’s who of Goa. Francisco Luis Gomes was from the Colmorod-Navelim Gomes family; Tristão de Bragança Cunha’s father was from the Cunha family from Cuelim, Cansaulim, and his mother was a Bragança from Chandor; Luís de Menezes Bragança’s father was a Menezes from Chandor and his mother was a Bragança from the same village. Timoja (an ancestor of Mergulhão of Telaulim) helped Albuquerque in the fight against the Adilshahi forces. [Santos Pereira, 1898: Chatrias, 43] Proença of Calangute have a common ancestry with the Rane of Sanquelim, the family to which belonged Kustoba Rane, who resisted for long the Portuguese capture of the north-eastern territories of Goa and who was treacherously murdered. [de Miranda, 2005 : ‘O Testamento’ in O Sorriso de
Satya, 32]