Mumbai group turned sleuths to find missing bells from abandoned Portuguese churches

The bell tower at St Josephrsquos Church Vasai Fort PicsDatta KumbharThe boggy pathway that cuts into the lush forested stretch inside this fortified city has just witnessed the roughest showers of this year Our pair of trainers occasionally landing on quagmire and mossinfested stones are already on slippery ground Yet walking through the 110acre land inside the fourcenturiesold Fort Bassein rechristened Vasai fort mdash never mind the grind of covering the distance mdash will animate any devotee of historyBell lying in a godown at Jejuri ndash Shri Khandoba temple PuneThe fort once the centre of Portuguese power in the Western coastal region was left to its own devices after the Marathas emerged victorious in the Battle of Bassein 17371739 Little wonder then that every visit here generates greater curiosityBell at Shikhar Shignapur SataraItrsquos the need to fit the missing pieces of one such puzzle that saw Vasaiborn Father Francis Correa dedicate 21 years of his life and two study groups before he could finally put a finger on itMenavali temple SataraThe question plaguing his mind was simple in theory but a tough one to unriddle What happened to the bells in the seven abandoned churches inside the fort That the curious case of the missing church bells would land him at the doorsteps of Hindu temples was not something he had foreseenToke AhmednagarHis search took him to more than 30 shrines across Maharashtra where he found 34 missing bells which now find mention in his justlaunched book Old Ambassadors of The New Era Church Bells in Hindu TemplesBaneshwar PuneNotwithstanding this astonishing find itrsquos the tale of how these bells landed here that led Fr Correa to the beginning of the end of this storyFr Francis Correa centre flanked on his left by Afegine and Augustine Tuscano and on his right by Pascal Lopes and Berina DrsquoSilvaA symbol of Maratha victoryWhen the Marathas decided to wage war against the Portuguese they didnrsquot attack Vasai directly Instead they systematically clipped off its wings by conquering territories and forts in the proximity ldquoIn the process they captured the former Salsette Islands which included the Portuguese fort and settlement of Thanerdquo says Dr Fleur DrsquoSouza former HOD of History at St Xavierrsquos College She introduced Fr Correa to the research of Punebased Mahesh Tendulkar who had written Hindu Devalayant Portuguese Ghanta Portuguese bells in Hindu Temples in 2008 The churches were attacked ldquonot for religious but political reasonsrdquo says DrsquoSouza ldquoWhen the church was conquered it was taken for granted that the village was conqueredrdquo Fr Correa writes in his bookBy the time the Portuguese surrendered in Vasai the Marathas had already destroyed 80 churches including those in Chaul Daman and Diu and Revdanda ldquoIn the translated Maratha documents Selections from the Peshwa Daftar edited by GS Sardesai there is a note from the Peshwa to the lieutenants to pick up the bells from these churchesrdquo adds DrsquoSouzaAccording to Fr Correa Maratha commander Chimaji Appa brother of then Peshwa Bajirao now famous as Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos protagonist appointed a team to distribute the bells among army officials as gifts ldquoso that the valour of the champions would be remembered by the country cousinsrdquo ldquoThey were victory symbolsrdquo he explainsTendulkar who first began research on this subject said that installing the bells in the temples was a logical course of action ldquoBoth Hindu and Christian religious places use bells though for different purposes And hence these church bells known mostly for their sound came to find their way into templesrdquo he saysHow the bell trail beganFr Correa first began researching the subject in 1995 ldquoIn a book in 1876 historian Jose Gerson da Cunha had made certain references to three missing church bells from Vasai This got me interestedrdquo he saysThe priest who has previously published two books on Vasai Fortrsquos history had also heard locals mention how a few temples within Maharashtra rang church bells that belonged to the region ldquoI kept listing the names of the temples in my diary till I had 25 of themrdquo the 76yearold priest recallsYounger and sprightlier then Fr Correa set out with a group of interested students on the missing belltrail ldquoOur interest was purely historicalrdquo he saysAlthough they managed to find a few temples with churchlike bells at the time the group disbanded as the members got busy It was when Fr Correa came across Tendulkarrsquos book through a student of DrsquoSouza he realised he had been working in the right direction all alongIn 2014 he formed a new study group comprising advocate Berina DrsquoSilva numismatist and archaeology student Pascal Lopes history professor Afegine Tuscano St Gonsalo Garcia College Vasai her photographer husband Augustine and Joseph Pereira who drove the team across the length and breadth of Maharashtra With a GPStracker in tow the group went to cover nine districts in the North Konkan region before they would finally find answers to a 400yearold mystery that was waiting to be solvedSpot the differenceTo physically witness the bells in the temples ring the same sonorous melody which enchanted the Christian faithful in the medieval times was an overwhelming experience recalls the study group ldquoIn some temples they are elegantly decorated and in others like the temple of Shikhar Shignapur in Satara where a shrine has specially been built around it they enjoy a place of honourrdquo says Fr CorreaBut as bells are also commonplace in Hindu temples distinguishing them from the ones that they were in search of was important ldquoMost church bells had Christian iconography symbols or inscriptions on them making it easy for us We also considered the year they were made If a certain bell had the year of casting after the battle of Vasai 1739 they werenrsquot consideredrdquo says Pascal Fr Correa adds ldquoEven in appearance the church bell looks very different Its hexagonal hook resembles a crown and its shape and moulding is unlike other bells The bells used by the Portuguese churches were imported from Macau Portugal and Goa and made from a combination of five metals panch dhatu such that when the tongue hit the surface it created a loud soundrdquoIn need of preservationOf the 34 bells that were traced to temples in Jalna Pune Satara Raigad a majority of them are still in good condition says Prof Afegine However many temple trusts have had the tongues removed because of the booming thud these bells produce In fact in Jejuri mdash Shri Khandoba Pune district the bell is deliberately not tolled because locals complained its sound alarmed the entire village The largest bell has been traced to Rajur in Jalna and is 43 inches in diameter and 38 inches in heightThere are some that have developed cracks and are now lying in temple godowns ldquoBecause of their gigantic size the bells are to be tolled in a certain manner But due to lack of knowledge people move the tongues in a way that could cause damagerdquo says Fr Correa ldquoAlso itrsquos metal at the end of the day It has been subject to heat cold and wear and tear of time So conservation is needed which can only happen with awarenessrdquo says PascalWhile it would be difficult to pinpoint which bell belonged to which of the 80 churches that were attacked during the war Fr Correa says that there are two bells mdash one in Bhimashankar Pune and Naro Shankar Nashik mdash that have enough documentation to prove they were brought from Vasai fort At present the only church to boast of a bell from the wartime is St Francis Xavierrsquos Church in Dabul Chira Bazaar ldquoNowhere in the world will you find church bells enjoying such prestigious positions in places of worship of other faiths Arenrsquot they a great example of national integrationrdquo asks Correa