Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado
Encyclopedia
Msgr Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado (Konkani
Konkani language
KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

: सॆबास्तियाँव रॊदॊल्फ़ो दाल्गादॊ; 8 May 1855 – 4 April 1922) was an Indo
Indian people
Indian people or Indisians constitute the Asian nation and pan-ethnic group native to India, which forms the south of Asia, containing 17.31% of the world's population. The Indian nationality is in essence made up of regional nationalities, reflecting the rich and complex history of India...

-Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 priest, theologian, orientalist
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

 and linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

. He became widely renowned during his lifetime as a Konkani language scholar for his significant contributions towards its study.

Early life

Fr. Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado, was born in Assagao, Bardez
Bardez
Bardez is the name of a region and taluka in North Goa. The name is credited to the Brahmin immigrants who migrated to the Konkan via Magadha in Gangetic India from Aryavarta, in the north-western part of the Indian sub-continent. Bardez or more properly Bara desh means "twelve countries"...

, Goa, to a Goan Catholic family of the Bamonn
Roman Catholic Brahmin
The Roman Catholic Brahmin, also referred to asBamonn in Konkani, is a caste among the Goan and Mangalorean Catholics, of modern-day descendants of Konkani Brahmin converts to Roman Catholicism.-Origins:In Goa, the Brahmins were originally engaged in the priestly occupation, but had taken up...

 caste. He had six brothers and a sister. The family surname was Desai, before being replaced by the Portuguese surname Dalgado, after conversion to Christianity. Second son of Ambrose Dalgado, a landowner with land in Bardez, and Florinda Rosa de Souza, had six brothers and one sister. Among the siblings include Daniel Gelásio Dalgado, who was medical director of health services from Sawantwadi and an eminent botanist, Patrocínio Dalgado, ophthalmologist, and Eduardo Dalgado, a lawyer in Lisbon.

Career

After completion of studies in elementary Assagao, completed secondary education in Mapusa
Mapusa
Mapusa also spelt at Mapuca, Mhapsa or Mapsa is a town in North Goa, India. It is situated 13 km north of the capital Panaji. The town is the headquarters of Bardez Taluka. It is located on the main highway NH-17, linking Mumbai to Trivandrum...

 and joined the Rachol Seminary
Rachol Seminary
Rachol Seminary, also known today as the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol , is the diocesan major seminary of the Primatial Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman.-Historical Outline:The edifice that presently houses the seminary, was constructed by the Jesuits with...

, Margao
Margao
Margao and commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It is the administrative headquarters of South Goa district and of the Salcete taluka.- Etymology :...

, where he was ordained a priest in 1881. Considered the best student of his course, was selected for further studies and then on to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, where he enrolled at the Seminary of St. Apollinaris.

In Rome his doctorate in Canon Law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

 and Roman Law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

, and was exceptionally authorized to submit evidence of degree, with exemption of course, in Sacred Theology, there is also approved.

After a brief stay in Lisbon in 1884 he returned to Goa missionary named royal, where the Patriarch of East Indies, Don António Sebastião Valente, the appointed inspector of schools and workshops of the Patronage of the East and a professor of Scripture and Canon Law at the Seminary of Rachol. He also performed the functions of the high judge of the Ecclesiastical Goa.

Held after intense missionary activity in India, has been vicar general of the island of Ceylon and more of the Portuguese mission in the city of Colombo, which was abolished by Concordat of 1886, then Calcutta , where he founded a school for girls and a dispensary for the poor in Nagori, and Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, then the Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

 east. This activity enabled him to close contact with various language communities, which enabled him to acquire the mastery of several Indian languages, including Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

. However, learning these languages was made possible thanks to its deep knowledge of the Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

. Between 1893 and 1895 was vicar-general in Honnawar, Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

, serving a community of language Konkani and Kannada, a language learned. It took some time and Sawantwadi, with his brother Gelasius Dalgado, there doctor, learning other dialects of Konkani.

When he was vicar general of Ceylon rejected the bishop's miter that Congregation of Propaganda Fide had given him, probably in the context of the dispute between Portugal and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 on the extent and powers of Patronage of the East.

During his stay in Ceylon, he wrote several sermons and homilies in the dialect Indo-Portuguese of Ceylon which includes in its workdialect Indo-Portuguese of Ceylon,published in 1900 inThe contributions of the Geographical Society of Lisbon ,in commemoration of the centenary of the Discovery of sea route to India.

His first published work was the first part of Konkani-Portuguese Dictionary, written using the alphabet Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

 and Latin, which was published in 1893 in the city of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

. In 1895 he settled in Lisbon, where he completed the publication of Konkani-Portuguese Dictionary (out in 1905) and devoted himself to study the influence of English on the language of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

.

In view of its studies and published in 1907 was appointed Professor of Sanskrit in Studied of Arts, changing then to the faculty founder of the Faculty of Letters of Lisbon, where, in 1911, that course was integrated the University of Lisbon, created this year.

In 1911 he was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences
Academy of Sciences
An Academy of Sciences is a national academy or another learned society dedicated to sciences.In non-English speaking countries, the range of academic fields of the members of a national Academy of Science often includes fields which would not normally be classed as "science" in English...

, and received the title ofDoctor in Letters,which was granted by the Council of the Faculty of Arts of Lisbon and dedication to his intelligence.

He suffered from diabetes, which ultimately resulted in the amputation of both legs (1911 and 1915.) From this point forward, Dalgado used a wheelchair. Because of its failure, the Faculty of Humanities has granted a particular privilege of performing the duties of chair in his home, where his students around him to hear his lessons. He also maintained the daily celebration of Mass in his wheelchair by special permission from the religious.

When he died, on April 4, 1922, his funeral rites show the prestige that had won. In attendance were the Patriarch of Lisbon, the Apostolic Nuncio in Lisbon, the Minister of Education and representatives of colleges and academies of Lisbon. Eulogio The funeral was pronounced by canon José de Santa Rita and Sousa, professor of Colonial School, where he taught the chair of Konkani language. The press coverage was great, with consequences throughout the Lusophone world.

It was philologist eminent, publishing, among other works, A glossary: Luso-Asianin two volumes. It was also the author of outstanding works in the field of Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

 Portuguese as Indo-Portuguese dialect of Ceylon; Konkani-Portuguese Dictionary; Indo-Portuguese dialect of Mumbai and suburbs; Influence of Wordsin Portuguese Asian Languages; Dialects Indo-Portuguese of Goa, Daman and Ceylon; Fundamentals of Sanskrit language, and Indian Proverbs.

In his works have earned high praise, including that of Dr. Gonçalves Viana
Aniceto dos Reis Gonçalves Viana
Aniceto dos Reis Gonçalves Viana was a Portuguese writer and orientalist who led a committee that reorganised the spelling of Portuguese.-Biography:...

 that appreciating his work entitledThe influence of the Portuguese vocabulary in Asian Languagesto qualify as a work of wide breaththat perhaps no other wise Portuguese or foreign, could carry out satisfactorilyand the Brazilian philologist Dr. Solidonio Leite that only said that "Monsignor Dalgado could undertake and carry out those works that attest to the well-exceptional value of this great man".

In recognition of his work in 1904 received the honor of honorary chaplain of the Pope's extra urbem, with the right to use the title of "Monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...

". He was a member of the Lisbon Geographical Society, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 (1895), a member of the Institute of Coimbra (1896), Doctor Honoris Causa by the Faculty of Arts, University of Lisbon (1911), corresponding member Academy of Sciences (1911) and its member (1922) and member of the Royal Asiatic Society
Royal Asiatic Society
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...

 in London (1921). In 1922, the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, which bequeathed the 300 documents that constitute the Fund Monsignor Dalgado admitted him posthumously as a member. Along with Shenoi Goembab
Shenoi Goembab
Waman Raghunath Shennoi Varde Valaulikar known popularly as Shenoi Goembab was a noted Konkani writer and activist.-Education:...

 and Joaquim Heliodoró da Cunha Rivara, Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado is widely considered to be a pioneer in the defense of Konkani language.

The city of Lisbon honored him in its place names given its name to a wide located in the parish of São Domingos de Benfica. In 1955 the Office of the State of India issued a postage stamp to 1 real celebration of the centenary of the birth of Monsignor Sebastiao Rodolfo Delgado, accompanied by a postcard in agreement, containing a photograph of the honoree.

In 1989 he was created in Panaji the Dalgado Konkani Academy, an academy to promote the use of Konkani language
Konkani language
KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

 in the form of written using the Latin alphabet (the Konkani Romi lipi
Konkani in the Roman script
Konkani is a language that is spoken by 3.6 million speakers mostly on the western coast of the Indian states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. Konkani is written in five scripts – Devanagari, Roman, Kannada, Malayalam and Perso-Arabic. Of these, the Roman script has the oldest preserved ...

). The Dalgado Konkani Academy established the Monsignor Sebastiao Rudolfo Dalgado Award to be awarded annually for activities to promote the study and use of Konkani.

External links

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