Ancient Portuguese Map showing Portuguese settlements (1724-1726) of the southern
part of East Bengal (now known as Bangladesh).
Chittagong was Xetigram, Dhaka was Decca, Diang was Dianga etc.
Very few of us can trace our ancestry back far enough to identify a forebear who crossed the oceans from an ancient Portuguese province of Lusitania and settled in the Indian Sub-Continent and so, I decided to record the history of the Gonsalves (my grandfather) and the Rozario (my grandmother) family beginning with the history of the early Portuguese settlers to illustrate to my siblings and all my cousins and their children, their Portuguese roots.
I have to make this very clear that I am not a historian but my burning desire to know my maternal origin I had to take a deep dive into history which ultimately created this unquenchable thirst toward history and historical facts.
Prior to embarking on my genealogically journey to record the Gonsalves / Rozario ancestry, I had to go back in time to where they originated from and how my ancestors ended up in East Bengal and in order to do that I went back in time to a province in Portugal that was known as Lusitania. In this endeavour, I will also attempt to briefly describe how the Portuguese colonized Goa and then moved further East and landed in Chittagong moving north to Dhaka and Noakhali.
Lusitania (Portuguese: Lusitânia, Spanish: Lusitania) or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca). It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people). Its capital was Emerita Augusta (currently Mérida, Spain), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid 2nd century BC. A war with Lusitanian tribes followed, from 155 to 139 BC. In 27 BC, the province was created.
As with the
Roman names of many European countries, Lusitania was and is often used as an
alternative name for Portugal, especially in formal and literary or poetic
contexts. The 16th century colony that would develop into Brazil was named Nova
Lusitânia ("New Lusitania") [after being named Vera Cruz] In common
use are such terms as Lusophone, meaning Portuguese-speaking, and Lusitanic,
referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries—once Portugal's
colonies and presently independent countries still sharing some common
heritage.
To get a somewhat clear understanding of my maternal genealogy, I had to look
even deeper into my maternal ancestry and my research took me on a journey to
the ancient Lusitanian World where I
found that the Lusitani, who were Indo-European and may have come from the
Alps, established themselves in the region in the 6th century BC, but
historians and archeologists are still undecided about their origins. Some
modern authors consider them to be an indigenous people who were initially
dominated by the Celts, before gaining full independence from them. This hypothesis
is also backed by Avienus, who wrote Ora Maritima, inspired by documents from
6th century BC, and describes the coastal Iberians. The investigator Lambrino
defended the position that the Lusitanians were a tribal group of Celtic origin
related to the Lusones (a tribe that inhabited the east of Iberia). Possibly,
both tribes came from the Swiss mountains. But some prefer to see the
Lusitanians as a native Iberian tribe, resulting from intermarriage between
different tribes. The first area colonized by the Lusitani was probably the
Douro valley and the region of Beira Alta; in Beira they stayed until they
defeated the Celts and other tribes, then they expanded to cover a territory
that reached Estremadura before the arrival of the Romans.
The connection between Lusitania (or Portugal) and the India began with the first Portuguese encounter with the subcontinent on 20 May 1498 when Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on Malabar Coast. Anchored off the coast of Calicut, the Portuguese invited native fishermen on board and immediately brought some Indian items. Gama's expedition was successful beyond all reasonable expectation, bringing in cargo that was worth sixty times the cost of the expedition.
Another Portuguese named Pedro Álvares Cabral sailed to India, marking the arrival of Europeans to Brazil on the way, to trade for pepper and other spices, negotiating and establishing a factory at Calicut, where he arrived on 13 September 1500. However, the locals and Arab merchants were not too happy with the presence of foreigners and matters worsened when the Portuguese factory at Calicut was attacked by surprise by the locals, resulting in the death of more than fifty Portuguese. Cabral was outraged by the attack on the factory and seized ten Arab merchant ships anchored in the harbour, killing about six hundred of their crew and confiscating their cargo before burning the ships. Cabral also ordered his ships to bombard Calicut for an entire day in retaliation for the violation of the agreement. In Cochin and Cannanore Cabral succeeded in making advantageous treaties with the local rulers. Cabral started the return voyage on 16 January 1501 and arrived in Portugal with only 4 of 13 ships on 23 June 1501. In 1502, the Portuguese built the Pulicat fort with the help of a local ruler.
Vasco da Gama once again sailed to India for a second time with 15 ships and 800 men, arriving at Calicut on 30 October 1502, where the local ruler was willing to sign a treaty. Gama this time made a call to expel all Muslims (Arabs) from Calicut which was vehemently turned down. He bombarded the city and captured several rice vessels. He returned to Portugal in September 1503.
In 1509, Alfonso de Albuquerque, who was serving the Portuguese government in India as a naval commander, was appointed viceroy (governor) of the Portuguese possessions in India. A year later in 1510, he defeated the Sultan of Bijapur with the help of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire, leading to the establishment of a permanent settlement in Velha Goa (or Old Goa). The Southern Province, also known simply as Goa, was the headquarters of Portuguese India, and seat of the Portuguese viceroy who governed the Portuguese possessions in Asia. Alfonso de Albuquerque strengthened Hindu-Portuguese relations by permitting the Portuguese to take Indian wives – hence, the origin of today’s Goan Christians. However, his attitude towards the Muslims was one of bitter hostility. He died five years later in 1515.
Now to make a connection with the Portuguese colonization of the Southern Indian Province of Goa and East Bengal, I will move to Chittagong (Xatigan in Portuguese), which today is the second largest city and main port of Bangladesh, was home to a thriving trading post of the Portuguese Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries.
During the twilight years of the sultanate, the first Portuguese expedition in Bengal landed in Chittagong on 9 May 1518. Providing access to the rest of Bengal through the Meghna-Padma-Jamuna river links and to the rest of the world via the Bay of Bengal, the Chittagong port became the most important for the Portuguese. They called it "Porto Grande" (Large Harbour). In 1536-37 the Portuguese established trading stations or "feitorias" in both Chittagong and Satgaon (referred to as "Porto Pequeno", Small Harbour) after receiving permission from Sultan Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah who also gave them custom house in both these towns. Hence, Chittagong was the first European colonial enclave in the historic region of Bengal.
In the last two decades of the sixteenth century, during the Mughal push into the heart of the delta, the Portuguese established the major port of Hooghly (downstream from Satgaon), built up their community in Chittagong, and established mercantile colonies in and around Dhaka. The Portuguese settled at Dacca about 1580. The remains of the Portuguese trading factory, close to the church of Our Lady of Rosary, were still evident in 1919 . Although the Portuguese never replaced Asian merchants in Bengal’s maritime trade, as is often supposed, the appearance of European merchants in the sixteenth century certainly stimulated demand for Bengali manufactures, which served to accelerate local production of those goods.
The settlement of Chittagong (or Chotogam in the local dialect) grew into a great trading center. The Jesuits erected two churches and a residence. About 1590 the Portuguese also captured the fort of Chittagong and made the island of Sandwip a tributary. In 1598 there were 2,500 Portuguese and Eurasians in Chittagong and Arakan. In 1602 Sandwip was conquered by Domingo Carvalho and Manuel de Mattos. This island was, however, lost a short time later (1605 ?).
Towards the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese also settled in Dianga (today’s Bunder or Feringhi Bunder), opposite to Chittagong across the southern bank of the Karnaphuli River. In 1607 the King of Arakan massacred about 600 Portuguese inhabitants of Dianga. The Portuguese settled again in Dianga after 1615. Despite the Dianga massacre a small number of Portuguese managed to escape and settled on an island at the mouth of the Ganges.
Portuguese pirates, named Sebastião Gonçalves Tibau and Carvalho, leading 400 Portuguese, attacked and conquered the island of Sandwip and ruled the island for several years having under his command a force of 1,000 Portuguese. Each year about 300 salt loaded ships sailed for Liverpool from Sandwip. Sandwip was very famous for its ship-building and salt industries at that time. In 1616, after the arrival of Delwar Khan, a high-ranking Mughal naval officer, the Portuguese pirates were driven away from Sandwip and Delwar Khan ruled the island independently for about 50 years.
After Tibau’s defeat the Portuguese in Eastern Bengal (out of the control of Goa) devoted themselves to piracy. They allied with the King of Arakan and settled in Dianga and Chittagong. They allied with the King of Arakan and settled in Dianga and Chittagong. When the Mughals took Chittagong in 1665, they moved to Ferenghi Bazar** (South of today’s Dacca), where Portuguese descendents still reside to the present day.
The harbor of Chittagong became the most important port to the Portuguese because of its location, navigational facilities and safe anchorage. The port is very close to the mouth of the Meghna which was the principal route to the Royal capital of Gouda.
Evidently the Portuguese found Chittagong a congenial place to live. By the end of the sixteenth century. The Chittagong port had emerged as a thriving port, which attracted both unofficial Portuguese trade and settlement. According to a 1567 note of Caesar Federeci, every year thirty or thirty five ships, great and small, anchored in Chittagong port. In 1598 there lived about 2,500 Portuguese and Eurasians in Chittagong and Arakan.
The increased commercial presence included bureaucrats, merchants, missionaries, soldiers, adventurers, sailors and pirates. The enclave had a highly laissez-faire administration led by traders. Slave trade and piracy flourished. Major traded products included fine silk, cotton muslin textiles, bullion, spices, rice, timber, salt and gunpowder
** There are two Ferenghi Bazars – one in Dacca and one in Chittagong
A painting indicating the battle between
the Portuguese and the Mughals in Karnaphuli River in 1666.
Painting of ships moored off Chittagong
in the late 1820s.
Christianity spread across Bengal by the Portuguese traders along with the Christian missionaries. Although Christianity had already reached Bengal with St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 CE, the Portuguese set up the first Christian churches in Chittagong. The Portuguese merchants, most of whom were Christian, called Chittagong as Porto Grande de Bengala. In 1498, Christian explorer Vasco de Gama traveled Bengal.
The Roman Catholic Church was established in Bengal during Portuguese rule in Chittagong. The port city was the seat of the first Vicar Apostolic of Bengal. The Portuguese also encouraged intermarriage with the local population.
The ancient name of NOAKHALI, or NOACOLLY, is actually Bhulua. In the 1660s (it was renamed to Noakhali in 1868), the agricultural activities of the north-eastern region of Bhulua were seriously affected by floodwater of the Dakatia River following from the Tripura hills. To salvage the situation, a canal was dug in 1660 that ran from the Dakatia through Ramganj, Sonaimuri and Chaumuhani to divert water flow to the junction of the river Meghna and Feni. After excavating this long canal, Bhulua began to be known as "Noakhali". The name "Noakhali" was originated from the term Noa (New) and Khal (Canal). The Christian population in Noakhali are mostly direct descendants of Portuguese colonials and they still carry Portuguese family names. Under a truce with East India Company, Portuguese colonials were forced to leave Noakhali and Barisal coast and resettled in Goa, Domon and Dew of India. But they left behind the non-combatant Portuguese civilians. Most of the Portuguese Forts and Churches in the district were destroyed when Noakhali city submerged in the Meghna River.
Father Francesco Fernandes and Father Domingo da Sousa -- two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries from Hooghly -- with the permission of Raja Pratapadittya (1561-1611), built the first church of Bangladesh at Chandecan (also called Chandika, Iswaripur or Old Jessore) in the Sunderbans forest area of the present district of Satkhira. They dedicated their church on January 1, 1600. Later, Father Francesco Fernandes and Father Andre Boves built a small chapel in Chittagong. This is the second church in East Bengal. The first Mass was offered there on June 24, 1601. Later Portuguese Jesuits had to discontinue their work in East Bengal, but they were replaced by Portuguese Augustinian priests.
Christianity also spread to Bhulua (old name of Noakhali District), Bacola (or Bakla or Chandradwip or Bakerganj), Chandipur (Chandpur), Padrishibpur of Barisal District, Tejgaon of present Dhaka city, Dhaka, Nagori (of Gazipur District), Sripur (of Munshiganj District, but eroded into the Padma River), Loricul (or Norikul of Dhaka District), Katrabo (or Katarab of Dhaka District), and Hosenpur (of Netrakona District), and so on.
According to the Analecta Augustiniana (Augustinian Analects or selected reports) of 1682, the whole of Bengal had 27,000 Catholics. Among them, the West Bengal had 12,880 Catholics and East Bengal (known today as Bangladesh) had 14,120 Catholics: Dhaka - 2,000, Chandipur (Chandpur) - 2,000, Loricul (Noricul) - 2,000, Tejgaon - 700, Iswaripur or Old Jessore - 400, Bhusana (in present Gopalganj District) - 20, and Dianga (Diang) and Chittagong - 7,000.
The Portuguese, who married local Bengali women, naturally converted them to Christianity. In some other cases, no doubt, there were forced conversions, but, in most cases, missionaries converted low-caste Hindus, who were victims of discrimination and ill treatment from fellow high-caste Hindus. In order to improve their status, they accepted Christianity. It is to be noted that conversions to Christianity from Muslim community were very few.
Muslims and Hindus in the Indian subcontinent (present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) used to call the Portuguese and other Europeans, who were whites, Firingi (or Feringhi), and local converted Christians, who were dark in colour, Kala Firingi -- kala means 'dark.' The Arabic/Persian word of Farang means 'foreigner.' From farang evolved the word Firingi (or Feringhi).
From Chittagong, the Portuguese proceeded to establish settlements in other Bengali ports and cities, notably Satgaon, Bandel and Dhaka. Satgaon became known as Porto Pequeno (Little Haven). Portogola in Old Dhaka hosted the city's Portuguese community.
Like Portuguese-converted Catholics elsewhere in the world, Roman Catholic Christians in the greater Dhaka District, and the districts of Chittagong, Noakhali and Barisal still to this day carry Portuguese names, especially surnames (last names) instead of their paternal names they had at the time of their conversions. When the Portuguese first converted them, they gave them the first names after Catholic saints and changed their Bengali surnames to Portuguese ones.
This change of names had dual purpose: First, the Portuguese wanted that local converts take the changed names so that they could be identified instantly as Christians. Second, they wanted to uproot the new Christians from the influence of their former Hindu society. They knew that if names were changed, these people could not revert to their former religion, nor could they be accepted easily by their Hindu relatives.
Some of the first names that the Portuguese gave to the new Christians were thus: Antonio (Anthony), Augustinho (Augustine), Domingo (Dominic), Pedro (Peter), Rosa (Rose), Maria (Mary) and so on. These first names continued for a long time, but, later, with the arrival of non-Portuguese missionaries, the first names began to be given in English.
The Portuguese surnames, though, are still continuing today in Bangladesh. Some of these are: Ascensao (Ascension of Jesus), Costa (coast), Corraya or Correia (belt; strap), Cruz (the cross of Christ), da Costa or D'Costa (of or from the coast), da Cruz or D'Cruz (of or from the cross), da Rosario (da Rozario) or D'Rosario or D'Rozario (of or from the rosary -- of the Virgin Mary), da Sa or D'Sa (of or from the manor house; this particular Portuguese surname is wrongly written as Dessai in Bangladesh -- actually, Dessai or Desai is an Indian Gujrati word meaning 'landlord'), da Silva or D'Silva (of or from the forest), da Sousa (da Souza) or D'Sousa (D'Souza) (of or from the salt-marsh), Dias (days), Dores (sorrows), Gomes (a man; a male), Gonsalves (battle; one who fought without weapons), Mendes (son or descendant of Mendel or Mendo), Palma (palm tree), Pereira (pear tree), Pinheiro or Penheiro (pine tree), Peres (or Pires or Piris) (rock), Purificasao (purification), Rego (ditch; furrow), Ribeiro or Rebeiro (river), Rodrigues (famous power), Rosario or Rozario (the rosary of the Virgin Mary), Serrao (of or from the mountain), Silva (of or from the forest), Sousa or Souza (salt-marsh), and Toscano (a man from Tuscany -- of Italy).
This legacy of these Portuguese names is still alive. Now with increasing migration of Bangladeshi Catholic Christians, these names are also visible among them in different part of the world.
However, besides the conversion, there were Portuguese who enjoyed the lavish lifestyle in the Indian sub-Continent. Many of them had families back in Portugal and so these men went back and returned to the Indian sub-Continent with their families and settled there.
Hence now you had two classes of people of Portuguese descent .. one local with Portuguese ancestry and the other Portuguese who left their homeland to settle in the Indian sub-Continent.
The descendants of the Portuguese traders in Chittagong are known as Firingis. They live in the areas of Patherghata and Firingi Bazaar in Old Chittagong. There are numerous Portuguese loanwords in the Bengali language, including many common household terms, particularly in Chittagonian Bengali.
Can you imagine Bengali cuisine without roshmolai or chillies? Or the Bengali language without pao-ruti or janala?
These words were not originally in the Bengali vocabulary. They are the centuries-old remnants of a complicated history with the Portuguese, which seeped into the Bengali language and food, and whose flavour still lingers on the tips of our tongues.
According to some accounts, it was the Portuguese who introduced the process of making ricotta cheese (chhana), which lead to a variety of mouth-watering Bengali sweets such as roshmolai and shondesh. Moreover, the Portuguese were already renowned confectioners and bakers. It is through them we have our pao-ruti (the Portuguese word for bread is pão) and steamed egg tarts. The Portuguese brought many exotic fruits, flowers and plants, especially from their South American Brazilian colony. They introduced chillies, delonix regia (or Krishnachura in Bangla)), potatoes, tomatoes, cashews, guavas, pineapples, papayas and Alfonso mangoes to Bengal.
Household words such as janala, almari, verandah are also of Portuguese origin. Peculiarly, the Portuguese meddled with the most intimate of Bangali attire: the sari. Chittagonian women still refer to them as saya and kamis, Portuguese words meaning skirt and shirt respectively. They also introduced non-Portuguese words from their other colonies, for example kerani (clerk) from Malay, and ananás (pineapple) from Guarani, an indigenous Brazilian language.
A Portuguese missionary in British Calcutta published the first book on Bengali grammar. The oldest churches in Bangladesh and West Bengal trace their origins to Portuguese missionary missions which arrived in Chittagong in the 16th century. Most Bangladeshi Christians have Portuguese surnames.
After the independence of Bangladesh, Portugal recognized it on 20 December 1974 following the Carnation Revolution, when it established relations with many decolonized nations. The Portuguese have had a great influence on trade, culture, character and language of the people of Chittagong.
Very few physical vestiges of the Portuguese presence are found at present in Chittagong and Bengal, generally. Darul Adalat, the first court building of Chittagong is located in the Government Hazi Mohammad Mohsin College campus, is a structure built by the Portuguese. The structure is locally known as Portuguese Fort. According to college documents, the Mohsin College authorities bought the building along with the hill from government in 1879 at the price of 30 thousand taka. From then on, they used it for various purposes and abandoned it in 2002, terming it 'risky'. Later, they planned to demolish the building in 2009 to replace it with a new one. But the government halted the plan considering its historic importance. Initiative has been taken by the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh to preserve the vestige.
Darul Adalat
building is located inside the Mohsin College compound, on top of the Madrasa
hill. It is commonly known as the Portuguese building or fort to the locals.
There are few churches and ruins. Some geographical place names remain, like Dom Manik Islands, Point Palmyras on the Orissa coast, Firingi Bazaar in Dhaka and Chittagong.
By the early eighteenth century, the Potuguese settlements on the southeastern coast were located at Dianga, Feringhee Bazar in Chittagong district and in the municipal ward of Jamal Khan in Chittagong.
In closing, I would have to say that while conducting my genealogical research on my maternal family I learned that the Portuguese had a tremendous influence in Bangladesh. What I also learned is that my grandmother’s ancestors - the Rozario family were very influential in East Bengal especially in Noakhali. DNA results of my cousins from my mom's side have also confirmed that the Gomes family (which is also one of our ancestors) had the biggest Portuguese trading fleet that used to travel on the Hooghly. The Gomes family owned land in Bandel and in Calcutta. There are two roads in Calcutta i.e. Dixon & Gomes Lanes, one is still remaining. Unfortunately, the vast lands that was once owned by the family, the deeds were held by the Monsignor at the Bandel Church and was destroyed after his death. The Bishop who took over after the first Bishop's death made a deal with the Bengal Government whereby the Government took possession of the Calcutta properties and the Bandel Church was given ownership of the Bandel properties that the family owned. The family lost most of its wealth almost overnight.
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