page_title: Mangalorean Catholics
section_title: Historical society
hierarchical_section_title: Mangalorean Catholics / Culture / Historical society
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the photograph of an extended family belonging to the Pais-Prabhu, a Mangalorean Catholic clan hailing from Falnir in Mangalore. The family in this photo are the descendants of Juze Pais, great-grandson of Salu Pais. Salu and his brother Domingo migrated from Mormugao to Mangalore in about the mid-16th century, and were the sons of one Cojma Pais.
context_page_description: Mangalorean Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Catholics following the Latin Rite from the Mangalore Diocese on the southwestern coast of Karnataka, India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani language.
  Contemporary Mangalorean Catholics descend mainly from the New Christians of Portuguese Goa, who migrated to South Canara between 1560 and 1763 throughout the course of the Goa Inquisition, Portuguese–Adil Shahi wars, and the Portuguese–Maratha wars. They learned Tulu, and Kannada whilst in South Canara, but retained Konkani as their mother tongue and preserved much of their pre-Portuguese ways of living. Their 15-year captivity at Seringapatam imposed by Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, from 24 February 1784 to 4 May 1799 led to the near extinction of the community. After Tipu's defeat and subsequent death in battle against the British in 1799, the community resettled in South Canara, and later prospered under British rule.
  Although early assertions of a distinct Mangalorean Catholic identity date from the migration period, a developed Mangalorean Catholic cultural identity only emerged following the captivity.
context_section_description: Mangalorean Catholics retained the same caste system as their ancestors in Goa. They were mainly divided into four castes: Bamonns, Charodis, Sudirs, and Gaudis.
  The biggest group were the Bamonns, who were converts from the priestly Brahmin class. All Brahmin sub-castes such as the Goud Saraswat Brahmins, Padyes, and Daivadnyas, especially the goldsmiths and a few merchants, were lumped into the Christian caste of Bamonn. The descendants of Goud Saraswat converts comprised the majority of this caste. The Bamonns were further divided into other castes according to rank. In Mangalore, they were sub-divided into Sirudhegars (the highest class), Alhdhengars, Cutdhnangars, Dhivodegars, Nathnolegars, Sashragars, Puruvargars, and Maidhegars. These names are taken from the villages to which they once belonged. This group constituted the landed gentry. In accordance with traditional Hindu law that allowed a Brahmin to practice any occupation except cultivation, the Bamonns refrained from cultivating their lands, and leased them to tenants.
  The Charodis, the second-largest group, were converts from the Kshatriya (warrior class) and Vaishya (merchant class) castes. They were generally engaged in trade and commercial vocations. The artisan converts formed the third-biggest group and were known as Sudirs (the Konkani word for Shudras, which were the labour class). They were workers and agricultural labourers engaged in service professions. The converts from the fisher caste residing around Ullal, Kuloor, and other places around the seacoast were called Gaudis, and formed the fourth group. They cultivated the lands of the Bamonns and the high-caste Hindus. Other minor castes included the Padvals, whom historian Severine Silva assumes to be local Jain converts.
  The Mangalorean Catholics constituted a small community widely scattered across the South Canara district. Rather than being a closely knit and united group, the Goan Catholic immigrants and their progeny did not associate with the native Catholics on account of caste, origin, and language, and even among themselves were strongly divided by caste. The Hindus, including the indigenous Brahmins (mostly belonging to the Shivalli, Havyaka, and Kota sub-groups) and Bunts did not associate with the Catholics and would not admit them into their houses on account of their religion. However, a close contact was kept by the Catholics with the Hindus of the same caste who were refugees from Goa. Catholics would invite their Hindu cousins to festivities such as birth celebrations, weddings, and funeral feasts. The Hindus accepted such invitations. Unlike his Hindu counterpart, a high-caste Mangalorean Catholic did not consider himself polluted upon physical contact with a member of the lower caste, but members of different castes did not fraternise or invite each other home for dinner.
  Marriage between members of the various castes was not permitted, and such matches were strictly discouraged by the elders. For instance, a Bamonn boy would only marry a Bamonn girl and a Charodi boy would only marry a Charodi girl. The Bamonns and Charodis would invite neighbours and friends belonging to the Sudir and Gaudi castes to special occasions such as weddings and baptisms, although the latter would have to observe certain restrictions with regards to sitting and eating. The lower castes felt honoured if they were invited and usually accepted such invitations. The upper castes usually did not attend the ceremonies of the lower castes, even if expressly invited.
  It was difficult for the few priests who had accompanied the Christian emigrants to South Canara to look after them properly. Thus, the Gurkar system came into existence. Gurkars were Mangalorean Catholic men of good moral character who were selected as headmen in Christian settlements. They were entrusted with the social and religious supervision of the community. After migration, the only possible occupation of a Mangalorean Catholic was agriculture, since they were skilled farmers. Every farmer practised carpentry, but it was quite primiti
caption: An extended Catholic family in Mangalore belonging to the Bamonn caste. Circa 1929.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:11:16 07:11:48", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6315", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "962", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "658"}