Salcete ( Konkani: ''Saxtti''/''Xaxtti''; pt, Salcette) is a sub-division of the district of South Goa, in the state of

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, situated by the west coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Sal river and its backwaters dominate the landscape of Salcete. Historically, the sixty-six settlements south of the

River Zuari The Zuari River ''Zuvari,'' pronounced ) is the largest river in the state of Goa, India. It is a tidal river which originates at Hemad-Barshem in the Western Ghats. The Zuari is also referred to as the Aghanashani in the interior regions. It fl ...

formed the original Salcette territory. Salcete forms a part of the bigger

Konkan The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...

region that stretches along the western shoreline of peninsular India. In erstwhile

Portuguese Goa Old Goa ( Konkani: ; pt, Velha Goa, translation='Old Goa') is a historical site and city situated on the southern banks of the River Mandovi, within the Tiswadi ''taluka'' (''Ilhas'') of North Goa district, in the Indian state of Goa. The ...

, the Salcette ''

concelho Concelho () is the Portuguese-language term for municipality, referring to the territorial subdivision in local government. In comparison, the word ''município'' () refers to the organs of State. This differentiation is still in use in Portugal ...

'' (county) located in the ''

Velhas Conquistas {{Unreferenced, date=November 2008 ''As Velhas Conquistas'' or "the Old Conquests" are a grouping of the areas in Goa which were incorporated into Portuguese India early in the sixteenth century AD; as these areas underwent urbanisation they were ...

'' (Old Conquests) was co-terminous with the undivided Salcette territory (Salcete and Mormugaõ ''talukas''). In 1917, the ''concelho'' was bifurcated into the present-day ''talukas'' of Mormugao and Salcette. The contemporary Salcete ''taluka'' has been classified as a rurban area.

Margao Margao or Madgaon is the commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It stands on banks of the Sal river and is the administrative headquarters of Salcete sub-district and South Goa district. It is Goa's second largest city by population ...

serves as the administrative headquarters of both Salcete ''taluka'' and the South Goa district.

Etymology

"Salcete" is the modern anglicised spelling of the historical lusitanised version ''Salcette''. This word "Salcette" has been derived from the Konkani word ''Saxtti''; ; (

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

: )—a corruption of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word ""; ''ṣaṭa-ṣaṣṭi'' (

: )—meaning "sixty-six". According to the Hindu mythology of the Konkan, the original sixty-six settlements of the Salcette territory were established by sixty-six

Saraswat Brahmin The Saraswat Brahmins are Hindu Brahmins, who are spread over widely separated regions spanning from Kashmir in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. The word ''Saraswat'' is de ...

clans who had emigrated here from

northern India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

. In Goan Konkani, the natives are referred to as ''Saxtticar'' or ''Xaxtticar''; /; (

: or ). The Salcete Konkani dialect of southern Goa known as "Saxtti" is notably different from the "Antruzi" ( Ponda) and "Bardescari" (

Bardez ''Bardez'' ( kok, Bardes; pt, Bardes; IPA: ) is a ''taluka'' of the North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. It was a ''concelho'' in the Portuguese State of India before 1961. Etymology The name is credited to the Saraswat Br ...

) dialects of northern Goa.

History

King Viramarmadeva of the Kadamba dynasty issued a copper-plate inscription in 1049 CE concerning a grant of a piece of land called ''Tudukapura'' in ''Kudtarika agrahara'' of ''Chhat sathi desha''. This inscription suggests that ''Chhat sathi'' refers to modern Salcete, known as "''Sāṣṭī''" in the local language.

Salcette territory

Historical Salcette

The original sixty-six settlements of Salcette are as follows:Rodrigues 1990, p. 245

Contemporary Salcete

Salcete taluka comprises nine ''comunidades'': Benaulim, Betalbatim, Colva, Curtorim, Loutolim, Margao, Nuvem, Raia, and Verna. The sub-district consists of two cities, eleven towns, and thirty-five villages as per the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

South Goa District : Census 2011 data
{{Goa topics Taluks of Goa Geography of South Goa district