PANJIM: Retired superintending archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Goa Circle, Nizamuddin Taher on Friday said that the Government of India decided to hand over the relics of St Queen Ketevan of Georgia to its government due to its religious and sentimental value to the people of Georgia.
When asked for his reaction to this government decision, Taher, who discovered the relics at Old Goa, said that the only reason behind this is the religious and sentimental value of the relic to the people of Georgia.
According to Taher, in 2004 the location was narrowed down near St Augustine complex, Old Goa and a year later bone relics were found and in 2013 it was confirmed to be of a woman of Georgina descent. The relics were taken to Georgia in 2017 and after confirmation it travelled across Georgia and returned to Goa within six months as per the deal.
St Queen Ketevan also known as “Ketevan, the Martyr” for her show of resistance towards the Safavid King, Shah Abbas of Persia, who tried to force her to convert to Islam and join his harem but she chose to resist faced public torture.
It is said that after the torment she endured, two friars who she had befriended took it upon themselves to transport her body to her son, who buried her Alaverdi monastery in eastern Georgia. Later on based on a possible rumoured attack on Georgia, the remains were to be transported to a safer location during which an accident took place and her remains were considered to be lost forever.
In 1980, teams from the Soviet Union started looking for the ruins in Goa taking a cue from a book written by Roberto Gulbenkian. In 2004, when the relics were discovered Taher it was sent for DNA verification to Hyderabad.
