Excerpt from the book titled " Vengurla: Forgotten Port Town of Konkan" by Ar. Ritwik Butte
Vengurla Town Library & Rameshwar Temple Tank. Photograph: Ritwik Butte
Port towns have been integral nexuses which have historically facilitated and celebrated exchanges of cultures. Although trade and commerce have been the ulterior motives of establishment of such interfaces of land and sea, these exchanges often have resulted in strengthening and propagation of local and cross cultural traditional knowledge systems. These confluences have shaped the socio-economic, political, cultural and more often than not, also ecological identities of Port towns across the vast coastline of the Indian Subcontinent.
Surprise Attack on three Portuguese Galleons in the Bay of Mormugão, 30 September 1639, Hendrick van Anthonissen
The western coast of the subcontinent especially had been exposed early to western trade links pertaining to primary arrival points and ease of access. The Konkan region of the western coast is well known throughout history for its enchanting coast being a narrow strip of land between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats majorly the Sahyadri mountain range. The Konkan Coast has been known for its importance of commercial ports such as Sopara, Chaul, Dabhol, Bassein, Thane, Kalyan in the North and Rajapur, Ratnagiri, Malvan, Vengurla in the South Exhibiting a vast network to the forelands as well as their corresponding hinterlands their maritime activities connected with ship building, fishing and trading activities grew throughout early history. Some of the minor intermediary ports such as Kelshi, Anjanvel, Jaigad, Sangameshwar, Achra, Chiplun, Harnai, Jaitpur, Banda, Redi, Vagotan, Burundi (Nabar, 2005) played an important role in establishing these connections.
The earliest mentions of these port in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greco-Roman text of the 1st Century AD, highlight the character of these port towns along the western coast. In it also emerges
‘Sesecrienae’, a group of islands believed to be the Vengurla Rocks, 14 km from the ancient port of Vengurla. Vengurla, A natural harbour which later transformed to a vibrant commercial port which grew pertaining to its geo-political function apart from a commercial one.
Arab records dating to before the 15th century CE refer to the place as ‘Tomaschek’ (Tibbetts, 1971). Portuguese records, from the 16th century CE, this coastal town is referred to as “Bamda harbour”, possibly named after the town of Banda, 30 km inland from the Vengurla coast (Barbosa, 1918). In 1638, under the name Fingerla, Vengurla is mentioned as a very “convenient haven, where the Dutch had a trade settlement and victualed their ships daring their eight months blockade of Goa.” Between 1638, The Dutch VOC locked horns with the Portuguese armada in a long battle (figure 2) resulting into blockading Goa for an entire year. But before this attempt, many unsuccessful attempts beginning from 1604 led to the establishment of the Dutch factory at Vengurla. In the 17th century CE travel accounts of the Dutch, French, English and Italian officials and travellers, the town has been referred to multiple times as Fingarle, Mingrela and Wingurla
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch spy turned writer in the late 16th Century published his accounts in India and particularly Goa in his book Itinerario (later translated as Discours of Voyages into Ye East & West Indies). He goes ahead describing Vengurla as a place full of “beautiful and lovely women” and its “streets covered in gold.” However metaphoric, these statements are a testament to Vengurla’s colossal wealth in the 17th Century. Around the same time, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant and traveler has written a brief account of Vengurla saying
“Vengurla is a large town, situated half a league from the sea, in the kingdom of Bijapur. It has one of the best anchorages in all India, and the Dutch always came there for supplies when they blockaded Goa. And they still supply the ships which they employ to trade in many parts of India, for excellent water and very good rice can be procured at Vengurla.”
Wouter Schouten, a Dutch surgeon who carried out extensive travels in Bengal as well as the western coast of India, in his 1676 travelogue The East Indian Voyage describes Vengurla as “Wingurla, better than other towns and places, is known to the Dutch, but lies a little north of Goa, on sea, serves as good refreshing place for us; is used during these wars against the Portuguese, every year during the monsoons, sizeable number of warships, in front of or around Goa to prevent the Portuguese navigation, besides to oppress the Portuguese in the sea.” Schouten in one of his voyages to Kochi met the then writing minister of VOC Philippus Baldaeus. Baldaeus when descibing Vengurla writes it as “…a place very comfortable, not only for its plenty of wheat, rice, and all sorts of provisions but also for its proximity to Goa”.
Sea battle off Goa between the Dutch and Portuguese fleets in 1638, Johannes Vinckeboons
Although, along with its proximity to Goa, its ecological abundance, an exiting well established hinterland-foreland network and deep estuarine waters which enabled ships to anchor as close to the harbor as possible, have to be credited for its rise to such a prominence in the later half of the 17th century. Merchants of Vengurla had released the importance of well established hinterland connections early on as it became part of the newly formed Adil Shahi empire in the 15th century. The behemoth challenge of penetrating the western ghats was tackled by commissioning two key passes through the ghats with the development of Parpoli Ghat (present day Amboli Ghat) towards the Northeast and Ram Ghat (present day Tilari Ghat) in the southeast. Both of these passes connecting Vengurla with Kolhapur and Belgaum proved a major revolution in enhancing the communication systems and ensuring increased efficiency of trade. Along with trade, this also facilitated in-migration.
The only surviving cartographic reference of Vengurla before the formation of Survey of India by the British in 1767, comes from ‘Representation of the lodge at Wingurla’ a representative sketch of the town’s morphology along with detailed architectural sketches of the Dutch lodge by the Dutch land Surveyor Isaak de Graaf dated somewhere between 1690-1743. A superimposition this early-18th century map with today’s vengurla gives rather surprising results. The density of the town is much more as it should be, compared to present day Vengurla. Although no offcial records of population of the town in the 18th century exist, the superimposition suggests the existence of thriving communities possible at the peak of their population during this time.
Multiple census records and documents claim that the aboriginal castes of Vengurla were predominantly engaged in fishing and agriculture. The Kolis, Bhoi and Gabit all declared as backward castes of Maharashtra constituted a majority of these aboriginals. As communication systems grew, neighboring merchant class flocked to benefit from a thriving economy. Merchants as far from Surat and southern parts of Gujarat settled here in the 18th century. Shenvi, a Hindu upper caste from Goa were subjected to preposterous practices by the Portuguese against their Hindu worship were forced to leave Goa in search of a more tolerant land.
These upper cast communities formed their own ‘wadis’ away from the port and aboriginal settlements, claiming various businesses and agricultural land. It could be argued that Vengurla’s golden period was to be arrived with the onset of British interests in the port towns of Konkan. No other port towns of the Konkan leaving Mumbai, had the opportunity of hosting vast British colonial social infrastructure like Vengurla had. Amongst rising regional tensions, the Sawants of Sawantwadi who had claim over this land after the death of Shivaji Maharaj had to cede the port to the British in 1766. Along with the construction of multiple churches, missionary schools, commercial and administrative institutions, an idea of building a cantonment to deflate the congestion in the historic core was conceived in this period. A quick stroll around this camp area of Vengurla could be enough to understand pompous plans of the British that were left severely incomplete. For years to come Vengurla was about to enter into its darker years which saw the downfall of one of the great ports of the Konkan.
Much of literature on Vengurla until the 20th century comes from various accounts , travelogues, two exceptional cartographic pieces, official letters from Netherlands and English surveys. Contemporary historians, researches & conservationists have shown a meek effort in documenting its cultural heritage resources leaving the port rudderless. Much of what exists, is the romanticized effort of documenting a mere 6 decades of the Dutch presence. One must take into cognizance that Vengurla’s port has existed even before the dawn of 1st century AD which deserves a fair chance. With its cultural resources and built heritage being almost invisible amidst a mass standardization of the town.
With rise in mass out-migration often to neighboring cities, Vengurla has failed to revive its glory even as tourism has skyrocketed since the last decade. Much of this credited has to be awarded by the faux fantasies of Beach tourism which have shown their back towards the town. With a steep rise in infrastructure catering to peripheral tourism, the heritage encapsulated within the town is more than often neglected. A lack of organizational presence of a heritage bodies is deeply felt as one tries to gauge the plethora of heritage lying within the town. With multidisciplinary and collaborative efforts focusing on community centric engagement the fate of Vengurla may see a new sunrise. The purpose of this book shall be fulfilled if it at least stirs a dialogue around it.
The Jetty at Vengurla Port. Photograph: Ritwik Butte
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