History of Konkan

The Sahyadri Mountain range ("Western Ghats") forms the eastern boundary of the Konkan, and the Arabian Sea marks the western boundary. The southern boundary is the Gangavali River. The "Mayura" River forms the northern boundary.

The Gangavali flows in the district of North Canara ("Uttara Kannada") in present-day "Karnataka State"; the cis-Gangavali portion (seen from Bombay) of this district is the southern-most part of the Konkan. The towns of Gokarn, Honavar, Karwar and the cities of Hubli & Dharwar fall within the Konkan.

The exact identity of the Mayura River, the northern limits of the historic Konkan, is indeterminate. However, it is certain that the Gramit or Gamit tribals of Maharashtra Konkan (districts of Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad or Alibag or Colaba, Bombay Urban, Bombay Suburban and Thane in "Maharashtra State") are the original Konkani prolectariat of Maharashtra Konkan, who have been driven into forest lands and reduced to tribal and "low caste" status by Marathi and Gujarati colonists in the Konkan.

Gamit is the Prakritic form of the Sanskrit Gramit, which means a legal constitutent of a Grama or Village-Commune. By definition, a forest-dweller, Adivasi or "low-caste" person cannot be a Gramit. That the Gamits are today of a low status is proof that they have suffered social, political and economic degradation as a result of dispossession or displacement.

It is also certain that the "Konknni", "Konkna", "Konknni", "Koknni" and "Kunkna" tribals native to the territories of Maharashtra Konkan, Dadra & Nagar-Haveli, Daman and Cis-Narmada Gujarat, are also descended from displaced Konkani prolectariat driven into forest lands and reduced in status by Marathi and Gujarati colonists.

The "Greater Konkan" or "Sapta-Konkan" (literally, "Seven Konkans") of ancient Indian records is the Konkan plus the further ethnic homelands of Haiva (trans-Gangavali part of "Uttara Kannada"), Tuluva (largely "Dakshina Kannada" or the Districts of Udipi and South Canara, and lastly the "Keralapatti", which is Kerala or Malabar District.

It is probable that the northern-most boundary of the Konkan, the "Mayura" River, is identical to the Narmada River, but there is no concrete evidence. However, the Dangs prove that the historic Konkan extends at least close to the Narmada.

The Dangs

The Dangs, a country in the Konkan populated by natives speaking the Dangi dialect of Konkani, was ruled by several petty kings. After 1947, it was integrated into the Bombay Presidency province, and later it was incorporated into the state of Gujarat, to which it belongs administratively at present.

Anomaly of the Bene Israelis and Chitpavans

Four communities stand out as anomalies in the Konkan: The Bene Israelis, the Samvedis the Navaiyats and the Chitpavans.

The Bene Israelites were originally Teli by caste, Vaishyas or Shudras specializing in the extraction of vegetable oil and its commerce. It is claimed that they are descended from Jewish refugees in the Konkan. However, their mother tongue is Marathi, not Konkani. (Their language is described as Judæo-Marathi, but it is admitted that this is not a truly distinct dialect).

The Samvedi are descended from a Brahmin sub-caste that settled around Bombay, or more exactly around the then entrepots of Thane, Kalyan and Sopara, for Bombay did not exist then. They adopted Christianity as a result of missionaries sent by the Portuguese who had conquered the area from the Arab controlled Sultanate of Cambay in present-day Gujarat State. They have existed in the Konkan from at least 500 B.C., so they predated any Jewish refugees-settlers. Yet they have retained their dialect of Konkani as their mother tongue, unlike the other "Norteiro people" (natives of the former Portuguese "Court of the North", centered around Baçaim) who were forced to adopt Marathi by the Maratha conquerors under Baji Rao Peshwa, and who renamed themselves "East Indian" about the 1870s.

The third community is that of the Navaiyats or "Newcomers", Muslim Arab refugees from a civil war in Arabia, the Karmali rebellion, who also settled in the Konkan about 800-900 A.D., and whose mother-tongue is the Navaiyat dialect of Konkani.

The existence of the Samvedi and the Navaiyats militate against the claim of a Jewish ancestry of the Bene Israelites, for, if they were descended from Jewish refugees settled in the Konkan, their mother tongue would have been Konkani, not Marathi. That their mother tongue is Marathi proves that they are immigrants from the Maharashtra Desh - the original Marathi homeland, into the Konkan.

The fourth anomalous community, the Chitpavans are hypothetized to be of East European, Scytho-Iranian or Ashkenazi origin as per the DNA analysis. One can easily make out a prototype Chitpavan by his distinct European looks, fair skin, and light eyes.

The Bene Israelis claim that Chitpavans are descended from their fellow-Jewish survivors who converted to Hinduism for social reasons.

The Chitpavans appear to be the last of the immigrants to the Konkan. While the exact dates and events pertaining to their arrival in the Konkan and subsequent conversion to Brahmanism are not recorded in history, their presence in Konkan region does not appear to be older than 500-600 years. Regardless of when they immigrated, they indisputably assimilated and spoke a dialect of Konkani called Chitpavani. Later on in the 17th and 18th century, they emigrated to the Desh (the original Maharashtra) and adopted Marathi as their language, although some of them still use Chitpavani at home. The Chitpavan immigration into Maharashtra proper began when Balaji Vishvanath Bhat was made the Peshwa of the Maratha kingdom, replacing the earlier Pingle dynasty of Peshwas. Today, a small number of Chitpavans remain in their original homeland in the Konkan and continue to speak their Chitpavani dialect of the Konkani language.