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The Island of Diu, its Architecture and Historic Remains

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02666030.2010.514743

2153-2699

Mehrdad Shokoohy, Natalie H. Shokoohy,

Asian Studies and History

Abstract Diu, unlike many ex-Portuguese colonies in India, preserves a variety of cultural and historical edifices of many communities. While impressive churches create landmarks and Portuguese houses give the narrow lanes and urban and village squares a Mediterranean flavour, the legacies of Hindus, Muslims, and Zoroastrians are also evident in the island. In the authors' ongoing project of recording the historic remains of Diu to provide a comprehensive study of the history, architecture, and urban development of the island, papers on the earliest mosque, the fort, and the town have appeared in this journal. The present article explores the island to show how Diu has preserved its rich and diverse culture from the thirteenth century to the present. Starting with the pre-Portuguese Muslim remains on the coast near the town we then trace the ancient road – with wheel-marks engraved in the rock – leading to Fudam, where the church of Our Lady of Remedies stands. In Fudam's vicinity, near the coast, is the Gangeśvara rock-temple dedicated to Śiva, and near the temple are other Hindu remains and the two Zoroastrian Towers of Silence (dakhma), one of which is well-preserved and provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the design and construction of dakhmas. Further west, we go to the shrine of Pīr Ḥabash Bābā (the name indicates Abyssinian origin) revered by Muslims. Finally, at the west of the island, the fishing village of Vanakbara is explored, with its shady urban square, the Jamā'at khāna (mosque) of the Khoja Ismā'īlīs, and the Church of Our Lady of Mercy. Keywords: DiuarchitectureIndo-Portuguese architectureZoroastrian dakhmas Towers of Silenceurban planninghistoryarchaeologyPortuguese India Notes 1. Shaikh Abu'l-Faḍl 'Allāmī Fahhāmī b. Mubārak Nāgūrī, Ā'īn-i Akbarī, ed. by H. Blochmann, 2 vols (Calcutta, 1872–77), I (1872), 498. 2. Shaikh Abu'l-Faḍl 'Allāmī Fahhāmī b. Shaikh Mubārak Nāgūrī, Akbar nāma, ed. by M. Abdu'r-Rahīm, 3 vols (Calcutta, 1878–86), III (1886), 254–55, 270. 3. K. K. Muhammed, 'Excavation of a Catholic Chapel at Fatehpur Sikri', Indica, 28(1) (1991), 1–11; G. A. Bailey, 'Architectural Relics of the Catholic Missionary Era in Mughal India', in Arts of Mughal India, ed. by R. Crill, S. Stronge, and A. Topsfield (Ahmadabad, 2004), pp. 141–51. 4. M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, 'The Karao Jami' Mosque of Diu in the Light of the History of the Island', South Asian Studies, 16 (2000), 55–72; M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, 'The Portuguese Fort of Diu', South Asian Studies, 19 (2003), 169–203; M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu, its Churches, Monasteries and Other Historic Features', South Asian Studies, 23 (2007), 141–88. 5. M. Shokoohy, 'The Zoroastrian Fire Temple in the ex-Portuguese Colony of Diu, India', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 13(1) (2003), 1–20. 6. John Huyghen Van Linschoten, The Voyages of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies, from the Old English Translation of 1598, ed. by A. C. Burnell, 2 vols (London, 1885), I, 58–59. 7. The fort stood until the nineteenth century and its inscription, apparently in situ, was reported by J. H. da Cunha Rivara, Inscripções de Diu, trasladas das proprias em Janeiro de 1859 (Nova-Goa, 1865), p. 33, inscription no. 87. The inscription recorded that as the area was vulnerable and had been twice invaded by the Arabs, the fort, named St James the Greater (S. Thiago Maior), was built in 1744 by order of the Castellan and Governor of the Fort of Diu, Matheus Vieira da Silva Bandeira, a knight and Lord of the House of S. M. (presumably Santa Maria, the family were Knights of the Royal House). This is the only record of Matheus Vieira da Silva found in Diu. We were unable to trace the inscription but Rivara notes that the text was not entirely legible and gives the following reading: Sendo Castellão e Governador desta fortaleza de Dio Matheus Vieira da Silva Bandeira, Fidalgo da Casa de S. M. e Cavaleiro. Professo de Xpõ mandou fazer este forte com o titulo de S. Thiago Maior por defensão desta enseada porque sendo o lugar por que o inimigo arabio invadio esta ilha duas vezes com grande prejuiso dos moradores e mais moradores de Dio [sic] e o bizo [?] era o em que de contino desembar- cava o inimigo Sage [?] a fazer agoa e a rouber as povações vizinhas. Entrarão para a despesa della os Baneanes de Brancavará e Bonchivará, e tomou o tra- balho de correr com a adminis- traçao da sua factura M. R. P. João Ignacio da Companhia de Jesus Reitor do Collegio desta fortaleza no anno de 1744. 8. The original is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. One version is reproduced in F. C. Danvers, The Portuguese in India, 2 vols (London, 1894), I, fig. facing p. 400; and another in F. P. Marjay, Portuguese India, a Historic Study (Lisbon, 1959), pl. 16a. This version was also given in Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', p. 149, fig. 8. 9. See our earlier reports in Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Karao Jami' Mosque', pp. 66–69 and Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', pp. 143–44. 10. Examples include the Jāmi' mosque of Veraval built during the reign of Muḥammad b. Tughluq in 732 AH/AD 1331–32, the Raḥimat Masjid built at the time of Fīrūz Shāh in 784 AH/AD 1382–83, and the Rāvalī Masjid, built probably as late as in 1401 during the reign of the last Tughluq sultan Maḥmūd Shāh. The latter two are both in Mangrol, and all are fairly close to Diu. See H. Cousens, Somanātha and Other Mediaeval Temples in Kāṭhiāwād, Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, 45 (Calcutta, 1931), pp. 34, 65–66. The Rāvalī Masjid may, however, be earlier: Z. A. Desai, who studied its worn out inscription, suggests the date 788 AH/AD 1386–87, also putting this building into the time of Fīrūz Shāh. See Z. A. Desai, 'Khalji and Tughluq Inscriptions from Gujarat', Epigraphia Indica, Arabic and Persian Supplement (1962), pp. 30–32. 11. For the general form of the tombstones of the sultanate of Gujarat see J. Burgess, The Muhammadan Architecture of Ahmadabad, Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, vols XXIV, XXXIII and Archaeological Survey of Western India, vols VII-VIII (London, 1900, 1905), part I, p. 40, pl. facing p. 39 and pl. 45 at the end of the book showing some of the tombs of the queens of Aḥmad Shāh. 12. M. Shokoohy, Bhadreśvar: The Oldest Islamic Monuments in India (Leiden/New York, 1988), pp. 17–18, 57–58, pl. 11. 13. Examples of elaborate miḥrābs of the early Gujarat sultanate can be seen in the Haibat Khān Masjid, the Sayyid 'Ālam Masjid, the Jāmi', the Quṭb al-dīn Shāh Masjid, and the Muḥāfiẓ Khān Masjid in Burgess, part I, pls 22, 26, 35, 54, 59, 90, 100 respectively. Our specimen is closer to the earlier sultanate miḥrābs, as in the later miḥrābs the arch does not rest on the engaged columns of the jambs, which are much slimmer and continue upwards making an inner frame. The arch of the prayer wall is fitted within its frame with its lower ends decorated with hanging finials. Examples can be seen in the Bāī Ḥarīr Masjid, the mosque at Sarangpur, the Rāṇī Rupāvatī (Rupāwantī) Masjid, and the Alif Khān Masjid in Burgess, part II, pls 18, 34, 38, 49 respectively. 14. The inscription reads: [Above] ESTRADA BRITO CAPELLA [Below] SENDO ENCARRE- GADO D'OBRAS THEODORICO M. P. SOUSA, E M; CABLA GIVANE 1876 15. Burgess, part I, pp. 52–53, pl. facing p. 1. 16. Nūr al-dīn Muḥammad Jahāngīr Gūrkānī, Jahāngīr nāma, ed. by M. Hashim (Tehran, 1980), pp. 239–40. Jahāngīr notes that it was in a ruined state and was restored by Ṣafī Khān, the Bakhshī of Gujarat, for Jahāngīr's visit. 17. Burgess, part I, pl. 65. 18. Ibid., part I, pp. 50–51, pl. 63. 19. Ibid., part II, p. 91, pl. 72. The Mānasarovar and the lake-size tank at Sarkhij are not of the polygonal type, but inlets with three circular sluices are common in all sizable reservoirs of Gujarat. 20. J. Burgess and H. Cousens, Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujarat, Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, XXXII, Archaeological Survey of Western India, IX (London, 1903), 55–57, pls 31, 34. The Khān Sarovar is a square tank. 21. Ibid., p. 110, pl. 100. 22. António Bocarro, Arquivo Português Oriental [Nova Edição], part IV, História Administrativa, II [1600–99] (Lisbon, 1938), part II, pp. 404–05. 23. The temple has already been described in our report on the town of Diu in Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', pp. 144–45. 24. Father Mariano Goes Proenca, 'Diu: An Island with Unique History', Souvenir-Diu, supplement to Boa Nova de Diu, Parish bulletin, Church of Immaculate Conception, Easter Special (1997), p. 13. Certain Hindu communities regard the Virgin, particularly Nossa Senhora de Remédios, to be one of the sisters of the goddess Lakshmī and protector of new-born babies. See B. R. Solanki, N. K. Sinha, and J. F. Pereira (eds.), People of India: Daman and Diu, Anthropological Survey of India, XIX (Bombay, 1994), 11. 25. Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', pp. 169–74, figs 36, 42. 26. Proenca, p. 13. 27. Ibid. 28. For Rivara's publication see note 7 above. Although Rivara, who travelled around the island, must have visited the church and would have seen the foundation stone if it was in situ, he does not appear to have seen the many loose inscriptions which were scattered about the island. 29. José Pereira suggests that the design of the piazza crosses derives from that of Hindu temples, but those in Diu and elsewhere, including those illustrated by Pereira, are all entirely European in design, and no hint of Hindu design can be found in any of them. See José Pereira, Baroque India, the neo-Roman Religious Architecture of South Asia: A Global Stylistic Survey (New Delhi, 2000), pp. 371–91. 30. The inscription was found leaning against the west façade by the steps. It is in four lines of capital letters with serifs. The stone is cracked and filled with cement at the right side and what remains can be read as follows: ESTA CRVS : M : ... A : R : B : EL O ... [filled with cement] R : D : S : Do S RE MEDIOS AIE ... R AD 1667 31. Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Portuguese Fort of Diu', pp. 193–97; Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', pp. 169–71, 34–40. 32. For a general discussion on the forms of the Portuguese churches in India see C. de Azevedo, Arte Cristã na Índia Portuguesa, Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, Estudos, ensaios e documentos, LVI (Lisbon, 1959), 21–47. 33. Pereira, pp. 356–60. 34. Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', p. 176, fig. 54. 35. Zoroastrian funeral rites are discussed in many works by both Parsi scholars and others. For a brief but informative description of Zoroastrian funeral rites and the towers of silence see M. Monier-Williams, Modern India and the Indians, Being a Series of Notes, Impressions and Essays, 3rd edn (London, 1879), pp. 80–96. For more comprehensive accounts see J. J. Modi, 'On the Funeral Ceremonies of the Parsees, Their Origin and Explanation', Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay (1890–92), pp. 244–52; J. J. Modi, The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees (Bombay, 1922), pp. 244–52. Modi also gives some architects' drawings produced for the construction of a dakhma, most likely the largest dakhma of Bombay. These drawings – freely available and given in many other publications – show a dakhma similar in principle to those of Diu, but markedly different in its details and also certain concepts. 36. M. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism (Leiden/Cologne, 1975), p. 326, referring to Vendidād 3.9 and 3.13. 37. A full study of the dakhmas with detailed survey drawings and many photographs is being prepared for separate publication. 38. Bocarro, p. 404, records that the Parsi population in 1794 was 104. 39. R. Shahmardan, Parastishgāh-hā-yi zartushtiyān (Bombay, 1967), p. 259. The founder of the dakhma also paid for the construction of the fire temple of Diu, which was inaugurated in AD 1830 according to ibid., p. 234. 40. According to Zoroastrian belief the rising sun should shine on the interior of a dakhma through the entrance. Without a permanent ramp, the entrance – situated above eye level – could be left without a door, but with the introduction of the permanent ramp in India the entrance of the towers had to be fitted with metal doors which are kept locked at all times to prevent possible intrusion or even someone looking into the towers. 41. See note 36 above. 42. Shahmardan, pp. 256–66; B. B. Patell, 'Notes on the Towers of Silence in India', Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, 2 (1890–92), 55–64. 43. Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Karao Jami' Mosque', pp. 66–68, figs 8, 12, 16. 44. Shokoohy and Shokoohy, 'The Town of Diu', p. 177, fig. 57. 45. Farang was a term used in India and Iran for Europeans in general, and in this context for the Portuguese. See H. Yule and A. C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, ed. by W. Crooke (London, 1903), under Firinghee. 46. Sikandar b. Muḥammad, known as Manjhū b. Akbar, Mir'āt-i Sikandarī, ed. S. C. Misra and M. L. Rahman (Baroda, 1961), p. 162. 47. 'Abd'ullāh Muḥammad b. 'Umar al-Makkī al-Āṣafī Ulugh Khānī, Ẓafar al-wālih bi Muẓaffar wa ālih, An Arabic History of Gujarat, ed. E. Denison Ross, 4 vols (London, 1910–1928), II, 640–43. Al-Makkī seems to have been personally acquainted with the Shaikh. 48. The Sīdī Sa'īd or Sīdī Sayyid mosque is renowned for its jālī (pierced stone screen) work, illustrated even in tourist brochures. For studies of the mosque see Burgess, part I, pp. 41–43, pls 46–51; M. Shokoohy, 'The Sidi Sayyid or Sidi Said Mosque in Ahmadabad', African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat, ed. by K. X. Robbins and J. McLeod (Ahmadabad, 2006), pp. 144–61. 49. Solanki, Sinha, and Pereira, pp. 168–73, under Siddi. 50. The tombs of Kamāl Maulā and Maḥmūd Khaljī have not yet been investigated. For the mosque of Kamāl Maulā at Dhar (c. 1400) see P. Brown, Indian Architecture (Islamic Period) (Bombay, 1942; 7th repr. 1981), p. 60. M. Shokoohy and N. H. Shokoohy, Nagaur, Sultanate and Early Mughal History and Architecture of the District of Nagaur, India, Royal Asiatic Society Monograph, XXVIII, (London, 1993), 46–47. 51. See note 44 above. 52. Rivara, p. 33, inscription no. 86. The text of the missing epigraph, according to Rivara, read: José Telles da Silva sendo Castellão Governador e Superintendente da Fortaleza e Ilha de Dio mandou á sua custa fazer este forte, e demolir a forti- ficação chamada Raia Cotto novamente edificada na fron- teira desta Aldea Brancavará junto á de Vellane, no anno de 1774, segundo do seu governo. 53. Solanki, Sinha, and Pereira, pp. 85–92, 99–108. 54. Khojas are followers of the Aga Khan and differ from the Bohras, another Ismā'īlī community in Gujarat who trace their origins to the Fatimid caliph al-Musṭanṣir (427–87 AH/AD 1036–94) and do not follow the Aga Khan. Solanki, Sinha, and Pereira, p. 93. 55. The inscription reads: SENDO ENCARREGADO DO GOVERNO DE DIU. O EX MO [excelentísimo] SENHOR TENENTE JOSE QUIRINO DA CAMARA JUNIOR, FOI COLOCADA ESTA LAPIDA COM A SEGUINTE INSERICÂO: – OS INDUS NOS, SEUS CORTEJOS NÂO PODERÂ TOCAR E NEM DANCAR DESDE ESTA COLUNA ATÉ OUTRA QUE TEM A MESMA INSCRICÂO. DIU, 8 DE JULHO DE 1927. 56. Bocarro, pp. 619–20. The construction of this church and another called Veracruz is noted in letters exchanged between the Marquez of Alemquer, duke of Francavilla, dated 28 March 1617, and the viceroy of India. In his letter the duke mentions the Viceroy's letters of a year earlier, when the archbishop was in Diu, making the most probable date for the church 1616. The location of Veracruz is not known as there is no church by this name in the town of Diu or on the island, but only a few churches of Diu have survived. As far as the date of the Vanakbara church is concerned, Father Proenca (p. 13) gives it as 1630 and José Pereira (p. 244) as late as 1787. We can presume that Proenca relied on church documents at his disposal, and his date, thirteen years later than the date of the Duke's letter, may refer to some aspect of the completion of the building. Pereira does not give his source, but it may refer to a renovation. Many of the Diu churches were restored in the eighteenth century. 57. It is perhaps the date of this porch that Pereira (pp. 140, 244) gives as the date of the church itself. 58. The wood of this retable and others has not been tested to see whether it is East African rosewood or Burmese teak, both of which were imported by the Portuguese for carving. Proenca, p. 11.