Early modern Goa

Abstract

Indian trade, transcultural medicine, and the Inquisition BIndu MalIeckal P ortugal's introduction of the Inquisition to India in 1560 placed the lives of Jews, new christians, and selected others labelled 'heretics', in peril. Two such victims were Garcia da Orta, a Portuguese new christian with a thriving medical practice in Goa, and Gabriel dellon, a French merchant and physician. In scholarship, Garcia da Orta and Gabriel dellon's texts are often examined separately within the contexts of Portuguese and French literature respectively and in terms of medicine and religion in the early modern period. despite the similarities of their train-ing and experiences, da Orta and dellon have not previously been studied jointly, as is attempted in this article, which expands upon da Orta and dellon's roles in Portuguese India's international commerce, especially the trade in spices, and the collaborations between Indian and european physicians. Thus, the connection between religion and food is not limited to food's religious and religio-cultural roles. Food in terms of spices has been at the foundations of power for ethno-religious groups in India, and when agents became detached from the spice trade, their downfalls were imminent, as seen in the histories of Garcia da Orta and Gabriel dellon. Early modern Goa through the eyes of Garcia da Orta and Gabriel Dellon In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Indian textiles, wood, gems, and spices were exported to the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Mingling with merchants and doctors from across the Indian Ocean were Europeans who were merchants and doctors themselves. The Europeans were both tran-sients and immigrants, and among them were Jews and New Christians who were refugees from the Inquisition. These Jews and New Christians found a hospitable home in India, even in the Portuguese colonies of Goa and Cochin, until the introduction of the Inquisition to India in 1560. One figure from the sixteenth century is Garcia da Orta, a Portuguese New Christian whose thriving medical practice at Goa collapsed after the Inquisition targeted him for investigation. Although da Orta died and was buried in 1568 before being charged, his body was later exhumed and burned at an auto-da-f{é} in 1580. One hundred years later, the Frenchman Gabriel Dellon, also a physician-merchant