Letters of legacy

Alphonso mango

India’s famous mango variety is named after a Portuguese man, Afonso. But which Afonso? One theory points to Afonso de Albuquerque, the general who helped establish Portuguese colonies in India. Another links it to a priest, Nicolau Afonso. Either way, thank the Portuguese, specifically the Jesuit priests who introduced grafting on mango saplings in 1575 to develop more varieties. By the mid-1700s, Scottish voyager Alexander Hamilton declared the Afonso the “wholesomest and best tasting of any fruit in the world”.

Bombay

Where did the British get the name Bombay (changed to Mumbai in 1995)? From the Portuguese Bom Bahia, or Good Bay, for the deep natural harbour they took over from Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat via a treaty in 1534. The name Mumbai has a parallel history. Many historians believe Bom Bahia was a corruption of Mambai. A Persian history of Gujarat, dating to at least 1507, refers to a region called Manbai or Mambe. Maybe Mumbai simply takes its name from goddess Mumbadevi, whose shrine stood where the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus is now, until it was moved to Bhuleshwar in the 1700s.

Churches

To the Portuguese, churches represented the empire’s power, profit and prestige. It explains why they’re scattered abundantly across the city. Churches and chapels sprung up almost as soon as the Portuguese took over in 1534. Our Lady of Life was established inside the Bassein or Vasai fort in 1536 (it was destroyed when the Marathas captured the fort in 1739). The church in the suburb of Borivali, now known as Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, has been around since at least 1544. Also in Vasai, the Holy Spirit church has been standing since 1573. The St Andrew’s church in Bandra dates to 1575. To find remnants of Vasai’s lost churches, look to Maharashtra’s temples. At least 38 bells bearing the insignia of Christ or Mary were taken as war trophies by the Marathas and hang in temples across the state.

D’souza, Da Cunha, Di Lima and other family names

In most European cultures, a surname with a nobiliary particle (von, af, du) indicates aristocracy. But Portuguese law allows even regular folk to have two given names and up to four surnames. Those trails of da, das, dos and de carried over to the colonies. The grandiose names have simple origins. Pereira comes from the pear tree, Costa is cross, Fernandes is a variant of Fernand. Lopez, also spelled Lopes, is literally “clan of the wolf”.

East Indians on the West Coast

How did Bombay end up calling its local Christian community East Indians? It’s likely that the term was used to distinguish the Christians living in the triangle that stretched from Bombay to Bassein and Thane (who were already there when the British East India Company arrived) from the Christians migrating from Goa and parts of the west coast for the new economic opportunities. “The East Indians, because of their familiarity with the Roman script, found jobs with the Company and were granted land in payment,” says Alisha Sadikot, a Mumbai heritage expert. Their culture, which uniquely blends Portuguese, British and local traditions, lives on in festivals, foods, architecture and dress, and is fiercely protected.

Forts

Before the British, even before the Portuguese, the region we now call Mumbai was at least strategically important. The 13thcentury local king Bhimdev, who established his capital Mahikawati on Mahim island, may have built the region’s first fort here. The Portuguese re-fortified it between 1513 and 1514.

Portuguese defence structures reflected the value of the assets they protected. “Two-storey towerhouses, which included a residence and one item of artillery, were considered enough to rebuff low-scale attacks and dotted the Bombay area,” says Sidh Losa Mendiratta, a Portuguese scholar who has studied the city’s Portuguese history, especially its forts.

Larger forts were set up at Bassein, Thane and Alibaug, the strategic outcrop of land across the bay from what is now Gateway of India. In Bandra, the Castella di Aguada’s exterior fortifications, still stand, bearing an inscription with the date 1640.

Thane fort, built close to the end of Portuguese reign, in 1735, remodelled by the Marathas in 1737, and remodelled again by the British, still shows some original construction. Mendir