i would like to add 1 more thing to ur discussion, i am from divar and i have many evidence which clearly says portuguese have distroyed our temples,i can show u n numbers of proofs to those who still dont agree or believe to it.

also i would like to mention the Maharashtran and north indians are our brothers and these protuguse are outsiders.who distroyed hindu culture because of which still we r suffering. still some people in my village they speak Portuguese language and feel shy in speaking hindi……….. shame to all those people

There is a history to the site of this photograph that exists, accept it or deny it, or seek to “mitigate” it like jc did. The only useful lesson of history is that we must defend the worthwhile things that we create – there are too many forces out there that will happily destroy them.

-Soter

Thanks for the courtesy of your reply.

If one understands ‘religion’ in the context of power and control, the way I do, one will come to the same conclusion as I have personally reached i.e. those in quest of power will destroy any symbol or centre which does not submit to it. Those that submit are absorbed within the power structure, albeit at varying levels on the power-ladder.

This would not be a novel idea. And no one people has been immune from this effect of power + land grab.

As far as the magnitude of the problem, it is possible for it to be debatable. Personally, I am not sure if ALL the events were recorded, and that too recorded in a non-partisan fashion. For, those who record history, tend to glorify their own and demonify the other side.

So, one has to fall back on a reasonable explanation as to why the Buddhist shrines almost disappeared from the subcontinent; that too, before the arrival of the Muslims.

Accordingly, I disagree with you but I accept that the past is what one learns from – so that one does not repeat the evils of our forebears.

good wishes

jc

Very briefly (since this is a photography blog) -
There is NO symmetry in the business of destroying religious places of worship. The number of Hindu places of worship destroyed by the Muslims and Portuguese is so large that it is meaningless to even compare them with Hindus destroying other peoples’ places of worship. Furthermore, there is a BIG difference: the Portuguese and Muslims destroyed Hindu temples because Hindus were idolators, because Hindus worshipped a ‘false God’, because they wanted to convert Hindus to their Book. The relatively insignificant instances of Hindu kings destroying other places of worship were almost always in warfare, where mosque or temple destruction might have been collateral damage and not targeted/deliberate religious desecration.

Warm regards,

Rajan

Thanks for the photograph and the amendment of the script. There is no need to give undue credit (in this case, discredit) to the Portuguese.

The business of Hindus destroying mosques and Muslims destroying temples was well afoot in Goa (Old Goa) during the era of the various Hindu v Muslim regimes which fought over this important port on the West Coast of the subcontinent.

It might be worth asking: Was Goa never under the Buddhists (as in Ashoka)? Did they never construct places of worship? What happened to them?