ANCESTRAL GOAN HOMES

Traditional Goan Home
Line Artwork by Tony Fernandes

Middle class homes such as the one shown above were constructed with mud bricks or manually mud-cast walls. There were then finished off with mud-slurry with trowels and painted white.

They consisted of a sitting room/prayer room (Konk. 'vosro), large hall (sala - Port.) usually with a bed at one end. Most of the houses had a bedroom behind the vosro. The bedroom had another small room (Konk. 'kudd') that served as a storage area for provisions with an attic (Konkani: 'ma-o') above it. A narrow corridor from the 'vosro' led to the kitchen with an adjacent bathing area (Konk. 'mori'). The kitchen at the rear opened into a compound wall or a fence made from bamboo poles and palm leaves. Trees such as the guava, drumstick or moringa (Konk. 'mooshing'), vegetable and other medicinal plants served as reinforcements to the fence. The roofing tiles used in these houses were semi-circular red clay tile variety. Longitudinal rafters cut out from the coconut tree served as supports, and lateral ribbing made from split bamboo poles fastened to the rafters with coir rope were used in turn to support the tiles.

These houses were built by tenants (Konkani : 'mundkari') on properties which were owned by landlords (Konkani: 'battkar'). The mundkars in return looked after the property. Some of these folks also worked for the landlords - in their houses or looked after the landlords' other properties elsewhere.

The out-house of such homes was far away - usually along the perimeter of the village wherever possible.