José Pereira

Goa’s Michelangelo A tribute to Dr José Pereira Frederick Noronha, Editor 2021 Goa’s Michelangelo: A tribute to Dr José Pereira Copyleft 2021 Frederick Noronha This collection may be copied with credit to the respective authors. [email protected] or [email protected] +91 98 22 12 24 36 Released on Jan 22, 2021, what would have been the 90th birthday of Dr José Pereira. Published in 2015 by Goa,1556, Saligao 403511 Goa, India. http://goa1556.in Email: [email protected] +91-832-2409490 10987654321 Project co-ordination: Frederick Noronha. Typeset with LYX, http://www.lyx.org. Text: Utopia 10.4/14.4 Special thanks to Luis SR Vas for access to a collation of works related to Dr Pereira. Cover design: Bina Nayak. Available in an e-edition. See Goa,1556’s online catalogue at http://goa1556.in To a titan of a man, humble in his dealings, generous in sharing what he knew... one who cared for Goa. Deeply. Contents Goa’s Michelangelo... 5 Cousin, mentor and co-author 14 Scholar, Writer, Artist, Musicologist, Linguist 27 In Defence of José and the Hindu Faith 38 Earth and Heaven in Conversation 46 Scenes in the Sacristy 54 In Goa, East and West met... 61 José Pereira (1931-2015) 66 Synopsis of Goan history 71 Martins: Major Musical Achievements 103 The Forces Destroying Goa... 121 The Works of José Pereira 127 Goa’s Michelangelo... A fresco mural by José Pereira was unveiled by Al- ban Couto at a largely attended function in the Rosary Chapel Fatorda on April 26, 2008. The site of the mural, titled Creation Resurgent, is on the large nave of the chapel which has been largely restored by the efforts of the parishioners and by donations mainly from the artist José Pereira himself. Creation, the animal world, is being devas- tated, along with resources that it enjoys like food and water. It is being assaulted by hu- man greed that has no consideration for the ecology and the way of life of people who live in conformity with the environment. In ex- pressing the theme in vivid colour and loving detail of children, flora, and fauna as found in Goa, the overriding figure is that of Christ holding creation in his protective hands and 5 infusing fresh life into creation, for all creeds, humanity, and all forms of life. The parish priest Fr Boulais da Costa presided. Speakers included Percival Noro- nha, Dr Francisco Colaco, and Damodar Mau- zo. The third volume on mandos written by Dr. José Pereira, Michael Martins, and Fr An- tonio da Costa was released at the function. Dr José Pereira, in his speech, explained the significance of his painting and how it em- bodied the Goan vision of East and West and the spirituality of the Goan people. Alban Couto traced the career of José Pereira as an artist, the setbacks he received and finally the triumph of justice and vindication at Fa- torda. Engineer José Lourenco whose dedica- tion and commitment contributed to the suc- cess of the function gave a vote of thanks. (José Pereira was Professor Emeritus of The- ology of Fordham University, New York; he taught in various academic institutions in Lis- bon, London, and Varanasi; has published 20 books and over 140 articles on theology, history of art, on Goan and Konkani culture, lan- guage, literature and music. His paintings were part of the Display of Eastern Art at the Vatican, and his recent works include the mu- rals at Borda and Fatorda.) 6 Below is the speech by Alban Couto (1929- 2009) on the occasion: Great artists suffer labour pains. Though with less intensity, we also feel the pains. Till the very last moment of the unfolding of this fresco masterpiece, Creation Resur- 1gent, it was not certain that its creator, Dr José Pereira, himself would be here. His beloved daughter Sophia accompanied him, snatching a few days leave before she takes her father back to New York. He arrived in Bombay and in high fever. He was hospitalised; fortunately the infection has been treated with heavy doses of intravenous an- tibiotics. Even in that condition, he insisted on coming to Goa two days ago to launch the Bragança Pereia’s Ethnogra- phy of Goa, translated by my wife, Maria Aurora. For- tunately again, doctor’s orders forced him down. It is with great reluctance that the doctors have let him arrive here in time to witness the unfolding of his fresco masterpiece. So finally the saga of Creation has been fulfilled with the artist himself present. I take it as an auspicious sign, a divine benediction, for this masterpiece. In sharing the vision with all of you, permit me to recount the painful road to its creation, to justice and fulfillment in this Rosary Chapel at Fatorda. The Fatorda Chapel like many of the churches and temples in Goa is a fulcrum of light. The barreled vault is dramatically illuminated by light entering through 7 the oculi or eyes of the façade and the aisle windows, symbolizing in the words of José, the three eyes of the Indian divinity Shiva. It is in this luminosity that fresco painting comes to life; divine life. The masterpiece of this genre is the Sistine Chapel and its artist, the great Michelangelo. Both have inspired our José Pereira. He would talk of them in his student days in Bombay when we first met. A film popular at that time was ’Agony and Ecstasy’ about Michelangelo and his crusty patron Pope Julius. So if it is ecstasy that you feel here, forgive me when I talk of the agony. The comparison of José with Michelangelo is not far fetched. Since his post graduate student days in the fifties, José was astonishing us with his astounding command of the classics in its original languages – Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Persian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and his beloved Konkani. He was fluent in them, tak- ing pains to speak and even sing in their original ac- cents. I was thrilled by his knowledge, and sometimes em- barrassed. He put my infant daughter to sleep, when nothing could stop her yelling, by singing in Persian, the poems of Hafiz. But he almost got me demoted if not sacked when he won a slanging match of San- skrit slokas against some of my bosses in Delhi. Often I dearly wished that his charity could extend to bureau- crats. 8 Among the other classics venerated by José are Dante, and the great artists of Ajanta and Ellora whose masterpieces are a testament that great art and great faith go together, in fact one is not truly alive without the other. They may fight as another great contemporary Goan artist, Newton Souza, showed, using the stark silhou- ette of the Goan landscape and violent colours to epit- omize the demons that tore him. But for harmony and peace the artist has to imbibe the spiritual classics, theo- logical and mystical, St John of the Cross and the Sufis, and Bhaktis and the ladainhas, dulpods, and mandos of Goa. José absorbed all this, intellectually and with schol- arly erudition, expounding them in insightful books on theology, Baroque Art, Hindu-Christian theologi- cal concordance, Islamic Art,and the path breakers on Goan folk music. He traveled in remote villages in Goa, with a tape recorder in his shoulder pack, speaking to women and farmers in their fields and in their homes, and record- ing their songs and stories. Some of this went into his books, but the colour, vi- vacity, the fruits of the earth and of their labour, fish, mangoes, the harvested paddy, the chatter of their gos- sip and sabhin mai rosaries went into the frescoes of the Borda Chapel, and have been transformed into a kind of divine life in José’s frescoes in this Fatorda chapel. But before Fatorda of fulfillment, there was the half 9 tragedy of Borda of ten years and the complete tragedy of Juhu, Bombay, almost fifty five years ago. Borda remains incomplete, inspite of the manifesto agreed to by the Chaplain, a manifesto which advocate and writer, Udaybab Bhembre drafted and signed, a manifesto of Goan support to a great artist attempting to bring his love of Goa, of its land, of its people, of its many cultures and creeds, into one unifying vision of peace and harmony. I urge those who have not seen the frescoes in the Borda chapel to see them, and to see them again. Before Borda there was for the artist, the agony of the white- wash of the frescoes he had done in 1951 on the walls of the cemetery chapel at Juhu in Mumbai. His friends including myself saw him then at work in the hot sun, working with his bare hands, and with chisel, scalpel, turpentine, and paint, kneading them with lime plaster into the walls, till his knuckles bled. In Borda too, many years later, he could be seen prone on a high scaffolding in the sacristy so that he could en- ter his brush into the very pores of the vaulted ceiling. I often scolded him to take care as he was getting on in age; and he would retort that Michalangelo when he was no longer young did the Sistine Chapel high on his back, the paint, rubble, and dust almost blinding him, but he carried on to complete the greatest masterpiece of art of all time. Fortunately, for the Fatorda frescoes, José had the assistance of students of the Goa College of Art who 10 completed the work from the life size drawings of José.

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