12 Dec 2023  |   05:50am IST

History of Pre-Portuguese Goa through a collector’s item

A piece of history itself, ‘An Outline of Pre-Portuguese History of Goa’ by Gerald A Pereira, was re-released 50 years after the release of the original book in 1973. Gerald Pereira’s daughter, Lara Pereira Naique and her son Tanmay learnt a lot about Gerald, through his writings, political career and as an editor of the magazine ‘Goan Age’

Dolcy D’Cruz

 A 

locked cupboard in an office can have many secrets. That too if it is being opened after nearly five decades after the person who owned it has passed away. Lara Pereira Naique was going through different emotions as the Godrej company employees used their well-trained skills to open the lock of the cupboard without breaking the lock itself. What she and her son found inside was truly a treasure, not only for the family but the rest of Goa who wants to learn about its history.

Vasco-based Lara’s father, Late Gerald Pereira was a noted man. Though he lived his life in Mumbai and Goa, he played a major role in the Liberation of Goa. A lawyer, a freedom fighter, a politician and a trade union activist, he fought passionately especially through his words in the magazine, Goan Age. He was the founder of the Left trade union and communist movement in Goa. A political and economic student, he was convinced to change his subject to History of his thesis at the University of Bombay. He decided to study and write an outline of the Pre-Portuguese History of Goa under the guidance of Dr V D Rao. With much research at the Asiatic Library and even living in the house of historian Dr D D Kosambi in Pune for verifying details, he finally presented his thesis in 1963. Ten years later, he published the thesis, ‘An Outline of Pre-Portuguese History of Goa’ for a wider audience. The thesis now had a beautiful cover of a black and white photo of the Shri Mahadv Temple at Tambdi- Surla while the aback cover had an image of the Buddhist Caves at Harvalem.

Limited to a libraries and few readers and researchers, who received signed copies of the book, like history itself, the book is back in the market as Lara came across nearly a thousand copies in that locked cupboard. It was not easy opening the cupboard, as they required the original bill of purchase of the cupboard. Being a methodical man, Gerald preserved the bill and five decades after his death, the bill was traced and submitted to Godrej.

Interestingly, it was the chats on Whatsapp about the history of Goa and the works of Gerald Pereira that encouraged the daughter and grandson, Tanmay, to find out more about Gerald. Lara was just seven years old when her father passed away in 1976 and learnt about her father through her mother, siblings and his colleagues. “I had the memories what my mother had narrated and whoever we met through his friends. Prior to this, I had written a blog on Gerald Pereira and mentors wherein I mentioned all those people. I also write for Global Goan e-magazine, which is widely read by the Goan Diaspora, edited by Salus Correia. My most recent blog is about his political stint in Goa and Mumbai,” says Lara.

After the passing of her brother, Adv Thalmann in 2017, Tanmay came across many people who were interested in the book through a Whatsapp Chat. An engineering student then, he decided to check the locked cupboard. “With no keys to open the cupboard in the party office in Vasco, we approached the Godrej company in Goa. Though everyone knew it was my dad’s cupboard, the company still needed proof. They were surprised that we have an old cupboard of theirs and the bill. They loosened the lock and opened it without breaking. We found about 600 books of the original 1000 copies that were published. We had a mega sale where we sold more than 400 books. These books are now collector’s item as they are 50 years old. There are three versions of the book, including the paperback edition which is now hardbound,” explains Lara.

The book is divided into ten chapters and includes maps and dynasty charts. Right from the origin of Goa and the early settlers, the book throws light on the Bhoja Kings, the West Coast Silaharas, the Kadamba Dynasty, Vijaynagara Empire, Adil Shah’s Rule in Goa to the Conquest of Goa through the various battles.

“My mother used to always narrate to us lots of anecdotes of that era. She has supported him a lot. They would go to Asiatic Library and the Pune Library. There is lot of writing in those libraries. My father was editing the Goan Age magazine, where he could publish a lot of articles written by him in English and Konkani as well. The editorials are beautiful and he had a good writing style. They kept all those issues bound together which we are having in our Bombay house. In one of his articles, he mentioned that there was a lot of Goan literature, maybe in Konkani that was taken to Portugal. They have preserved it in Portugal. The English and the Portuguese were always very good at preserving historical documents,” explains Lara.

She further adds, “In India, we lack that art of preservation because the art of passing on the information to the next generation was oral. That is why it was orally narrated and kept with the privileged class. That knowledge was passed only from one person, from one generation to another only among the privileged class in India.”

A writer herself, Lara has been gaining popularity for her own detailed blogs on the various cultural aspects of Goa. her most recent blogs on, ‘Gauti upai: Age-old local and home remedies for ailments’ received great response. “I'm getting a good feedback about my blog. Readers are asking me to publish it as a book. So I'm thinking in the near future even I will publish one about the cultural aspect and maybe another book about my father. I will think seriously of doing it,” concludes Lara. ‘An Outline of Pre-Portuguese History of Goa’ is available online and at Dogears Bookstore in Margao.