My cousin, mentor and
co-author of our books
of Mandos-Dulpods-Deknnis
Antonio Da Costa
mai...@msn.com
On January 31, 2015, this humble, unpretentious man, yet one
of the most brilliant minds and personality of Goa, India and
the world in general, has been laid to rest after a poignant
funeral Mass and services at the St. Margaret of Cortona
Church in Bronx, New York, USA. He died at the age of 84 on
January 26, 2015, the Republic Day of India.
The outpouring of love, respect and appreciation
for his lifetime's work and the special tribute at
the Xavier Centre for Historical Research has been
overwhelming. Thank you, thank you all.
[https://archive.org/details/jose-pereira-memorial]
He has been described as "Goa's intellectual giant", "Goa's
Michelangelo", "Goa's Da Vinci", a theologian, "an
Indologist", "a singular Indian of his generation", an
artist, a painter, a scholar, a teacher, an author/writer,
historian, a linguist, a musicologist, etc, etc.
He deserved all these accolades and more for indeed he left
us a legacy equal to none other. His 24 books and 145
articles spanned through multiple fields of arts and science
such as: (1) Theology & Philosophy: Catholic and Scholastic;
(2) Theology & Philosophy: Hindu and Its Comparison with the
Catholic; (3) Theology & Philosophy: Buddhist; (4) Theology &
Philosophy: Islam; (5) Art & Architecture: Baroque & Goan;
(6) Art & Architecture: Indian, Jain; (7) Art & Architecture:
Indian, Buddhist; (8) Art & Architecture: Indian, Hindu; (9)
Art & Architecture: Islamic; (10) Art & Architecture:
Religious; (11) Song: Konkani & Goan; (12) History & Culture:
Goan & Konkani; (13) History & Culture: Indian Christian;
(14) Language & Literature: Konkani; (15) Language &
Literature: Sanskrit.
A detailed list of his publications fills seven pages. If anyone
is interested please contact me at: mai...@msn.com
As my farewell to Dr. JOSÉ PEREIRA, I will share with you my
life experience with him in Goa, and New York.
To me José (and he was very particular to have the accent on
top of the vowel "e" of his name) was first and foremost my
dear cousin, son of my uncle Mateus Francisco Pereira, my
dear mother's brother. They have their ancestral home in
Corjém, Curtorim but they lived in Bombay where José was born
on January 22, 1931.
As most Goans do -- or did till very recently --
the family came to Curtorim in the month of May
each year for holidays. As far as I can remember,
José was always seen with a book in his hands,
always reading and learning, and interacting with
me and my siblings with jokes and anecdotes. We
lived close by in the next "vaddo of Xennoybhag".
It was from him that I first learned that my ward
was called such because it was the garden of Xennoy
Dessai, my pre-Christianity ancestor. He was
always keen on imparting lessons of history.
He was my mentor in my teen years and the person who inspired
me to learn about our Goan musical heritage of mando-dulpods
and deknnis. I was very fortunate to be born in a musical
family, a family that cultivated mandos, dulpods and deknnis
as well as Konkani religious music. By the age of 14, I knew
many of these songs by listening to my parents and my aunts
who were Dr. Pereira's aunts also.
He would call my mother Arsentina Pereira e Costa, her
sisters Carmelina Pereira and Aninha Pereira e Costa, living
Mando encyclopedists. José paid close attention to my
singing of mandos-dulpods and deknnis and began to educate me
about the origin and the composers of mandos. I began to
accompany him as he went around knocking on the doors of
households of the living composers and the mando lovers in
order to advance his research with the goal of preserving our
music for the future generations.
At that time I did not speak English and he did not know
Portuguese. I was just learning to read and write music and
he couldn't do that at all. So we combined our strengths.
In prior years he would listen to the older people
sing the mandos, memorize them or record them, and
then take the material to Bombay so our late
Maestro Micael Martins could write them in musical
notation. Once I learned English and mastered the
reading and writing of music at the Saligão
Seminary, José encouraged me to continue doing this
work on my own and provided me with lots of
literature and articles on Goan music, written by
him, Prof. Martins, Prof Lucio Rodrigues,
Prof. Ansther Lobo, and Floriano Barreto.
José had a phenomenal ability to learn languages in a very
short time. He spoke 13 of them. But he did not know
Portuguese until around 1959. He was studying at the JJ
School of Art in Bombay between 1957-1958, and was very
interested in learning more about the architecture of Goan
Churches and mansions.
I believe in early 1959 he was in Panjim, Goa making sketches
of the beautiful Panjim Catholic Church. When the Portuguese
police spotted him doing these sketches they suspected him of
being one of the Sathyagri, arrested him, and kept him in the
jail for a few hours until somebody identified him and
vouched for him as not being a spy. It was funny the way he
came home and related the incident to my mother: "Tia
Arsentina, what can I tell you? The Portuguese locked me up
when I was doing my sketches and all I could tell them is
'Aum to Juze Pereira, bamnnalo cholo' (I am José Pereira, son
of a Brahmin). But the fascinating thing about him is he
took this challenge, went back to Bombay, and within four
months he taught himself to speak Portuguese fluently and
secured a job in Lisbon to teach at the "Instituto Superior
de Estudos Ulatramarinos".
As most us know he taught there for only one year. In
September of 1960 he returned to Goa for holidays . A
special event was arranged to welcome him back as a
distinguished son of Goa and he was to give a lecture on the
Music and Literature of Goa. I was privileged to attend.
The Hall was packed and the Governor Antonio Vasalo e Silva
embraced José enthusiastically as he came in and took his
seat. It was a brilliant talk but the Portuguese and the
Governor could not accept the truth when Dr. Pereira stated
Goa had its own rich culture and music independent of
Portugal and through no merits of its influence over Goa.
As the adage goes, "The Hosannas from Palm Sunday
were not far away from the 'Crucify him' of Good
Friday". The Governor and his entourage furiously
turned their backs on Dr. Pereira and left the
hall. "A Vida", the daily in Portuguese in those
days, was censored and forbidden to print the
speech. Of course it was published by the late Fr.
Lucio da Veiga Coutinho on the second day following
the liberation of Goa. Once José returned to
Portugal he had to flee to London to escape
reprisals from Salazar.
José had met with harsh treatment from Goans as well. He did
not care about his appearance when he went knocking on the
doors of people in Curtorim, Raia, Loutulim, Margão, Macasan,
Chandor, Benaulim regarding his acquiring the
mandos-dulpods-deknnis. He learned to ride a cycle late in
life but he traveled on it dressed in shorts and sandals with
a bag on his back. People took him as someone coming to rob
them, asked him if he had come to tune the piano, or simply
ignored him by shutting the door on him.
A few times they let us in because I was dressed in
my Seminary uniform. I think those days a person's
worth was judged by the way one dressed and behaved
in a sophisticated way. Once an important person
in Curtorim doubted that José had earned a Ph.D
degree and asked me whether he was really what he
said or if he was paranoid and delusional. But
this same person did not wasted time to claim honor
for Curtorim when José returned from Portugal.
However, he let his works and deeds speak for
himself and never bothered to go after his detractors.
José's impetus afforded me the opportunity to meet face to
face with some of the great composers and the lovers of the
mando: Utilcia Rebelo; the wife of Arnaldo de Menezes who
provided so many of Arnaldo's compositions; Placido Da Costa;
Dr. Simeão Da Costa; Praxedes Da Costa; Joaquim da Costa
(Morgad Joku)... and many others. He provided me a solid
foundation to continue with our goal of looking for the
original composers as much as we could. He encouraged me to
introduce the mando in the Seminary and even sent me the
music of a particular mando from London when he was working
at the London School of Oriental Studies.
Due to the inspiration he provided me and while he was away
from Goa, I tried to carry on the work, safeguarding the
originality of our music by means of broadcasts over Radio
Goa, and two festivals of Mando in Pune. José also
introduced me to the late Maestro Micael Martins who
eventually became my music teacher. At that time, Prof.
Martins and I compared our long research and collection of
all the specimens of Goan music that included his own and the
ones José had provided him. I came to the USA in 1974 and
again José and I began to work together and to plan how to
combine all the items collected by him, Prof. Martins and
myself, and the joint effort (however without Prof. Martins
who had passed away) produced a series of books of mandos,
dulpods and deknnis.
The following is the complete list of books of Mandos-Dulpods
and Deknnis:
* Folk Songs of Goa: Anthology of Dulpods: (in collaboration
with MICAEL MARTINS & ANTÓNIO DA COSTA). Goa: GOA 1556 &
BROADWAY Publishing House, 2011
* Song of Goa: Crown of Mandos: (in collaboration with MICAEL
MARTINS & ANTÓNIO DA COSTA). Goa: GOA 1556 & BROADWAY
Publishing House, 2010
* Song of Goa, 3 Mando of News & Events: (in collaboration with
MICAEL MARTINS & ANTÓNIO DA COSTA). Goa: Palm Tree Press,
2008
* Folk Songs of Goa Mando-dulpods & Deknnis: (in collaboration
with MICAEL MARTINS & ANTÓNIO DA COSTA). New Delhi: Aryan
Books International, 2005.
* Song of Goa, 2 Mandos of Union and Lamentation: (in
collaboration with MICAEL MARTINS & ANTÓNIO DA COSTA). New
Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2003.
* Song of Goa Mandos of Yearning: (in collaboration with MICAEL
MARTINS). New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2000.
* A Sheaf of Deknnis: (in collaboration with MICAEL MARTINS).
Bombay: The Konkan Cultural Association, 1967.
José loved everything related to Goa and India. His multiple
books and articles witness this fact. He loved Konkani and
spared no effort to defend her against her enemies who wanted
to deny her identity. Here is an impressive list of his
publication on this subject:
* Konknni Mandakini. (An Anthology of Konkani Literature, 13th
to 18th centuries: in Konkani). Panaji: Goa Konkani Akademi,
1996.
* Literary Konkani. A Brief History (2nd ed.) Panaji, Goa: Goa
Konkani Akademi, Goa. 1992.
* Literary Konkani. A Brief History. Dharwar, India: Konkani
Sahitya Prakashan, 1973.
* Konkani A Language. A History of the Konkani-Marathi
Controversy. Dharwar: Karnatak University, 1971.
* The Beginnings of Konkani Literature, in MARIOLA OFFREDI,
The Banyan Tree. Essays in Early Literature in New
Indo-Aryan Languages. New Delhi: Manohar, & Venice,
Università degli Studi di Venezia, Departamento di Studi
Eurasiatici, 2000, vol. 1, pp. 317-331.
* The Beginnings of Konkani Literature, Sunday Navhind Times.
Panorama, 14 September 1997, pp. 1 & 3.
* Konknni Mandakini Parikarma, Rashtramat, Margão, Goa, 23
December 1990, p. 6 [in Konkani].
* A New Konkani Dictionary. SNT November 25, 1979, p 3.
* Xannai Goimbab, Konknnitso Vamanu ani Trivikramu (in
Konkani). Konknni, August 1, 1977, pp. 3-8.
* Vindication of Saxtti, SNT, July 31, 1977, pp 3 & 5.
* Ignazio Arcamone (1615-1683): First Italian Orientalist ?
East and West, Rome, March- June 1974, pp 153-157.
* A Brief History of Literary Konkani. Mahfil. A Quarterly
Journal of South Asian Literature, Chicago, nos 2 & 3,
Summer-Fall 1972, pp 59-83.
* Doni ati Prachina Konkanni Krityo (in Konkani). Panchkadayi,
Mangalore, India, 1971, p 11.
* Konkani's Enemies: Portuguese. NT, October 22, 1970, pp 2 & 5.
* The Struggle for Konkani Schools. In Essays on Konkani
Language and Literature (Professor Armando Menezes
Felicitation Volume). Dharwar: Konkani Sahitya Prakashan,
1970, pp 41-44.
* Konkani Among the Indian Languages. The Malabar Herald,
Ernakulam, Kerala, India. March 15, 1969, p 11.
* Ek Solla xatmanachem Konkanni Mahabharata [in Konkani: A
Sixteenth Century Konkani Mahabharata], Panchkadayi,
December 1968, pp 11-13.
* Adhunik Bharatiya Sahityik Bhaxentu Konkannichem Sthana [in
Konkani], Panchkadayi, July 1968, Editorial, pp 9-10.
* Karel Prikryl, S.J., Principia Linguae Brahmanicae. A
Grammar of Standard Konkani. Edited with an Introduction.
In Archiv Orientalni, Prague, Czechoslovakia, no 36 (1968),
pp 625-684.
* GASPAR DE S. MIGUEL, O.F.M., Arte da Lingoa Canarym, Parte
Segunda, Sintaxis Copiosissima na Lingoa Bramana e Pollida.
A Syntax of Standard Konkani. Edited with an Introduction.
Journal of the University of Bombay, September 1967, Arts
Number (no 42), entire issue.
* The Development of Konkani as a Literary Language, A Vida,
Margão, Goa, October 27, 1964; November 13, 14, 19, 20, 21,
1964; June 4, 5, 9, 11, 13, 19, 1965.
* A Roman Script for Konkani, A Vida, September 6, 11 & 25,
1963, all on p. 3 of each issue.
José's biggest joy of researching this subject was
his find in the ArchivOrientalni, Prague,
Czechoslovakia: A grammar of standard Konkani in
Latin "Pincipia Linguae Brahmanicae" written
between 1748-1761 by Karel Prikryl. S.J. Jose
edited it with an introduction in English in 1969
and presented me with a copy . It is a highly
scholarly work which I will cherish always.
José wanted to learn about everything and then share his
knowledge with others. He had a phenomenal memory. He would
read something once and then he could remember what he read
for ages. He would recite verses in Sanskrit appropriate for
the moment. He could recite inscriptions from anywhere. I
remember him reciting with great pride the inscription on the
main door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican which lists
Goa as one of the four Patriarchates of the West which I
verified myself when it was my turn to visit the Vatican.
Finally, because of José's profound love for Goa, he spared
no sacrifice in order for him to express this love in art
form via the frescoes on the ceiling of the sacristy at St.
Joaquim Chapel in Borda, Margao, Goa. It is a masterpiece
for which he prepared and worked for five years, and, in the
final year, he took his sabbatical, uprooted his wife and
children from NY to Goa, and laying on his back for six
months, completed this work for posterity.
José, my dearest cousin I am eternally grateful for your love
for Goa and everything Goan. Thank you for the encouragement
you gave me to love, understand and preserve our Goan musical
treasure. I will carry the torch to the best of my ability.
Thank you my cousin and friend. Keep on singing the mandos in
Heaven together with your parents and mine and our aunts who
taught us how to sing and love mandos.
###
Rev. Antonio Da Costa is a Goan priest based in Tempe AZ, United States.
