Goa travels: An anthology of travellers from 16th century

Over 450 years of Goan history, as seen and observed by countless foreign travellers from faraway lands of Brazil to Portugal, Italy to France, which included Jesuit priests, diamond merchants, adventurers, explorers, colonial spies and nirvana-seeking hippie tourists, is the subject of a new anthology.
"Goa Travels: Being the Accounts of Travellers from the 16th to the 21st century" has been edited by poet and story teller Manohar Shetty.
Long before Goa emerged as epicentre of anti-establishment or counter-culture of the 60s and 70s, it was a sprawling beach with plentiful sun and sand, that had a thriving trade with Cylon, China, Persia, Arabia, Armenia and with the advent of the 15th century, even with the European countries.

By mid-fifteenth century, Goa was the prized possession of the Portuguese, the El-Dorado of the east, a classic European colony set in the heathen-oriental world, where drawn by its fabled wealth and legendary riches in spices, diamonds, precious stones, and all the promises of a vast-hinterland waiting to be explored and proselytised, travellers and adventurers were drawn to its magnetic appeal.
Goa, remained a Portuguese colony for the next four-long centuries, much after the Indian independence in 1947 and on its future, hinged the future of Indian subcontinent, out of which Portuguese wanted to carve out an eternal governoate, which is profusely Catholic and ruled by Lisbon.

The inveterate travellers, who came from diverse backgrounds and in vastly different historical time and settings, have left behind vivid and riveting accounts of their sojourn in the 'Rome of the East'.

The book is divided into three sections - The Early Traveller, The Inquisition in Goa, and The Contemporary traveller, that includes essays by famous English writer Graham Greene, Katharina Kakar and the editor himself.
Travelogues and personal accounts of bygone era, sometimes just by their very antiquity tend to fascinate us. Among the early travellers is Portuguese Duarte Barbosa, who arrived before the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510 and lived in India for 16 years. In 1519, Barbosa joined his legendary brother-in-law Ferdinand Magellan who circumnavigated the globe to prove conclusively that earth was round.

Barbosa witnessed the abominable practice of Sati in early 16th century in the nearby Vijayanagar state and records his impressions.