12th century Kadamba Jayakesi I, Velliapura site in present day Velim, South Goa . There is lot of information translated by Kannada language experts from ancient stone inscriptions on Velliapura of which they themselves don’t know the whereabouts of this place, as this place being under Portuguese for 451 years is almost foreign to them. Very little information about Velliapura is written by world renowned Historian George M. Moraes in Kadamba Kula, the history of Ancient and Medieval Karnataka as he never came across the 'coterie'. This place is very well known to small number of members of the Coterie who come across the ghats to Velliapura Jayakesi site present day Velim every year as pilgrim and link Roque Santana ancestors as the descendant of Hangal section of this ancient family so as a search for this link as to why this pilgrims who come to pay homage to this ancient place call themselves as 'Pilgrims'? and If this site belongs to Jayakesi of Goa, why the family living in it is linked to the descendants of Hangal?.
As gathered from the available resource that the Kadamba sovereigns were hailed as 'Kadambarasa' meaning supreme or Gods or Godly or sovereign therefore the members of this coterie call themselves as pilgrims. The inscription stones in kannada found at Velim site tell that descendant of Jayakesi of Goa, Suriya-Deva'1345CE slain-ed sovereign of Chandrapura ' his wife 'Vinomaih-devi' was the daughter of 'Kadambarasa of Hangal', Purandara-Deva, died and was cremated in Velliapura by her nephew Jayesha, grandson of Purandara of Hangal. According to Haliyal stone inscription this same Jayesha founded a small timber business in Haliyal, over the centuries family owned and operated this business which was only source of income for them and their workers by hereditary who call themselves as coterie, was confiscated by the British Governor George Harris in 1840's and most of this pilgrims are the descendants of those workers . According to their resource after the 1345 massacre the surviving Queen 'Vinomaih devi' moved away from the furious Mohammedans in Chandrapura present day Chandor and was taken into hiding in this royal compound by the foothills of Velliapura by the kingdoms blacksmiths, her father and brother joined her sometime thereafter. After their death the descendants were converted to Nazrani Christianity for fear of Muslims from there on they are in possession and actually still lives here on this historical site. therefore they hold that the family living in Velliapura site are the descendants of Purandarai of Hangal.
Jayakesi I son of Shashtha-Deva was a very powerful ruler, 12 century copper carvings tell us that princes and lords from neighbouring kingdoms traveled in to Chandrapur present day Chandor to pay homage to Jayakesi who was the Sovereign of Konkan. Velliapura viragal tell that Jayakesi I himself in a battle with his rival to retain this place Velliapura won a decisive victory, which was his southern capital, three horses stables and few officials residences were destroyed in the battle according to the Kannada version the days following the victory the wives of the commanding officers or soldiers celebrated in the royal compound by lighting and floating ‘ponti’ in the royal pond ‘Toloai’ in front of the capital building. According to Portuguese record of 1922, a complaint was filed with the Portuguese ‘Regdor’ by the ancestors of Roque Santana following the excavation of that toloai. The Coterie has always objects to the family members contesting direct elections in present day Democratic setup saying it is of the people, by the people and for the people and this family is not, In1962 they objected to Roque Santan contesting the first ever election in Goa, earlier they hailed his 'Satyagraha' to bring Democracy to the people of Goa. I first visited 12th century Kadamba Jayakesi I, Velliapura, site in Sept of 2006, the compound gates were secured when I inquired with the neighbours they directed me to a man who was looking after the house, he had given me the email address of Roque Santana as (roquesantan@legislator.com). I had written to Mr.Roque Santana seeking an appointment at this site in Velim to which he replied to me that at that time he was in NY and he will get back to me when he returns to Velim, It was very sad to read the news from the news papers of his sudden untimely demise. A year later I wrote to his daughter Maria Suhashini in London she gave me the London based house address of Venkatesha Upadhiaya who was member of the Coterie he never replied to me, I wrote to one of his sons in USA but no reply. People in Velim had told me that the Portuguese installed road side direction stone leading to the site went missing or destroyed in late 60’s and were never replaced by the Archaeological survey of India. It is important that the family or well wishers co-operate with researchers working within this above mentioned framework in the interest of South Indian history.
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