The genesis of the present publication can be traced to a remarkable series of International Seminars initiated in Goa in 1978. Since then, the series has continued at regular intervals of between two to three years. In 1998 the host institution for the Ninth International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History was the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, through its history of science programme.
This publication comprises the papers presented at this forum which had concentrated on the transformations in science, technology and material culture generated in India through processes of interaction, exchange and assimilation consequent to the meeting of cultures inaugurated by the opening of the Cape route by Vasco da Gama in 1498.
The subjects of the publication fall within the domains of missionary activity through which fresh intellectual perspectives were opened, as well as Luso-Indian contacts in areas such as architecture, medicine, botany, physical geography, cartography, fortification, marine archaeology, astronomy, navigation and instrumentation, eastern pilotage, calendrical systems, ship building, linguistic developments and gastronomy. The theme of piracy has been visited afresh. The pacific theatre has been explored while the journey of plants has been traced multilaterally from the Latin American, African as well as the Asian angles.
The Portuguese maps of singular beauty add yet another novel aspect to the publication. As reference material it is bound to constitute a valuable component in the work of researchers from disciplines such as history, architecture, geography, underwater archaeology, naval architecture, history of science, astronomy, medicine and agriculture.
Contents:
- Vol. I:
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I. Missionary Activity, Luso-Indian Contact:
- The arrival of the Portuguese in India and the new spread of Christianity through Asia/Joao Paulo Oliveira e Costa
- Catholic Missionaries in the Estado Da India and their insights into Indian culture, science, medicine, life and manners/Charles J. Borges
- Konkan conquered for Christ by priests of the society of Jesus: some socio-cultural expressions/Pratima Kamat
- The daily life of viceroy count of Sarzedas in Goa 1655-1656/Artur Teodoro de Matos
- Education in Goa during the 18 century: influences, agents and results/Maria de Jesus dos Martires Lopes
- Feeding status: food and social stratification in Goa/Rosa Maria Perez.
- II. Medicine, Botany:
- Difference and interaction: 15-16 century Portuguese contact with Indian medicine/Aloka Parasher-Sen
- Portuguese sources and new world plant introductions in India/Jaweed Ashraf
- The Iberian expansion and the fortune of Indian plants in the west/Luis Filipe F.R. Thomaz
- Indo-Portuguese connections: botanical perspective/S.K. Jain
- DeSilva family of Portugal and its contribution to unani medicine/Syed Zillur Rahman
- Firanga-Roga: Portuguese influence on Indian medicine/Srabani Sen.
- III. Physical Geography, Cartography, Marine Archaeology:
- Physical geography of Bengal in 16 century as perceived through Portuguese writings/Aparajita Basu
- Portuguese and coastal India: impact and interactions/K.S. Behera
- From river to sea catching the monsoon: concepts of the maritime cultural landscape/Christer Westerdahl
- Recent discoveries of Portuguese shipwrecks: new missing links in the origin of the Iberian-Atlantic shipbuilding tradition/Francisco Alves and Filipe Castro
- A Maratha Map of South India/P.P. Gogate and B. Arunachalam
- Cartographic knowledge of India in late 15 century Portugal/Inacio Guerreiro
- Pandarane, an important harbour on the coast of Malabar/Jose Manuel Malhao Pereira
- Physics of the sea for seafarers/C.S. Murty and M.P. Tapaswi.
- Vol. II:
- IV. Astronomy, Navigation, Instrumentation:
- The Chola mode of Navigation in the Northern Indian Ocean/B. Arunachalam
- The importance of Ujjayini and Lanka in Indian Astronomy/A.K. Bag
- The Jesuit response to Copernicanism and its impact on the Portuguese contribution to the development of science in India/S.J. Job Kozhamthadam
- Indian Rutters: the indigenous tradition/Lotika Varadarajan
- Approaches to Arab nautical tradition in the Indian Ocean: two Yemeni nautical poems/Michel Nieto
- Kamal or Rapalagai/C.K. Raju
- Instrumentation for astronomy and navigation in India at the advent of the Portuguese/Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma.
- V. Eastern Pilotage, Calendrical Systems, Ship Building:
- Early pilots on the Indian waters/Francois Bellec
- Two ritual calendars in Southern Goa/Rowena Robinson
- Thangal Calendar in Lakshadweep/E.P.A. Thangal
- Naval architecture in Portuguese India with special reference to the Malabar Coast/K.S. Mathew
- From decline to prosperity: shipbuilding in Daman 18-19 centuries/Erestine Carreira.
- VI. Cultural Interaction, Piracy, Fortification:
- Inscribing the other? notes on a 17 century Bengali-Portuguese religious Pamphlet/Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay
- Domestic architecture in Goa as heritage: intervention methodologies/Angelo Costa Silveira
- Indigenous knowledge and cultural interaction/Jan Brouwer
- Gastronomy of Bengal/Ena Desai
- Spices and fruits: re-encounters with old flavours/G.S. Goncalves Lima
- European perceptions of the culture of the Moluccas/Manuel Lobato
- My grandfather's house: prescription and practice in the food system of the Iyengars of Tamil Nadu/G.V. Soumitri
- The Portuguese elements in Bengali culture: an exploratory note/Tarapada Santra and Gautam Sengupta
- Indo-Portuguese architecture: structural aspects focus on architecture of Diu and its influence in the region of the Erstwhile Junagadh state/R.J. Vasavada
- Piracy in the Indian Ocean: exploring perspectives/Lakshmi Subramanian
- Indo-Portuguese fortification/Francisco Sousa Lobo
- Mysore Hill Forts (1400-1800)/Jean Deloche.
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