His Story

VI: The March of the Muslims

ALEXYZ delves into the pages of history
but with his usual tongue-in-cheek manner

THE Kadambas were on the verge of Nirvana in Parashuram's Paradise Resort for they seem to have discovered their Shangri-la at last.

But their shanty was shattered for with the coming of the 14 th century also came hordes of Muslims, who were determined to take over the management of Parashuram's resort and have a blast.

But it was more than just a blast for they went berserk in their belligerence and saw to it that all vistas of the glory and grandeur of Govapuri, the capital of the Kadambas, was kayoed and grounded,

And not content with that, some year later, thundered in Mohammed Tuglak into the old capital of Chandrapur and literally left half of its inhabitants half-dead and totally dumbfounded.

The Govapurites were soon bent and broken and pleading on their knees;
And as the year 1352 came by, Govapuri was in the transitory stage of an auction call of going, going, gone in toto to the Muslim rule of the Bahamanis.
The Bahamanis lolled in leisure on Govapuri's golden sands, gaped at the glorious greenery, went coco nuts and feasted on the abundance of fish for 25 long years,

And made life hell for the natives, most of whom sneaked away with their khattli-pottli down South only to return in 1378 when the Vijayanagar armies, in the bloodiest of battles, battered and booted the Bahamanis out of Govapuri amidst much celebration and cheers.

Peace and prosperity delightfully descended on the people.and what ascended was a new port amidst the debris at Ela near Old Goa and unlike today, when we import tourists and export iron ore and Goans the world over, the main import then was Arab horses for the Vijayanagar cavalry and exported the much-in-demand spices and, of course, tender and tough coconuts too;
However, the Bahamanis missed the pleasures of Parashuram's Paradise Resort and the titillating taste and the abundance of the spices of life and attacked and attacked Govapuri with wild vengeance from land and sea, and it once again became their holiday resort in 1472.

It was during this period that the Bahaminis built a new capital city around the present Ela farm near Old Goa and renamed it Govapuri and it became a busy port town swarming with sailors and in the hustle and bustle the name Govapuri got cut and quartered to the name our sound system is now familiar i.e. Gova.
And when the Portuguese, who were the next tourists to invade Parashuram's Resort, simply dropped the 'v' in Goa to give us what is now popularly called Goa!

Hardly had the Bahamanis raised the toast to their success and were in the process of painting the Resort red, there emerged a power struggle within and just like the MGP and Congress, split this way and that way.

Goa was thus inherited by Yussuf Adil Shah of Bijapur, one of the Bahamani Kings, who like the earlier warlords of Govapuri, was also seduced by the charms of the Resort and to impress his beautiful Begum post-haste, he built a palace on the banks of the Mandovi, a palace that we now know as the Secretariat and you may recollect that one of our ministers created more than a mini stir trying to relive Adil Shah's romantic sojourn during his brief stay.

Next: VII: The Coming of the Portuguese