Krishnadas Shama

Krishnadas Shama, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin, native of Quelossim (Keloshi) near Cortalim, Goa, India, is the author of Krishna Charitrakatha. According to ovis 245-250 of this work, it was commenced on 25 April 1526, or Vaislakh Shukla of shake 1448 according to the Hindu calendar. The manuscript of this was discovered by Prof. Mariano Saldanha in the Public Library of Braga in Portugal (first 130 pp. of codex 773, Marathi MS, Roman script). The work has 19 chapters (ovesvaru) and 3,123 verses (ovis). It is a rendering of the 10th Adhyaya of the Bhagavata Purana. It may be the first extant prose work by a Goan in Marathi.

Shama may also be the author of the Konkani texts contained in codices 771 and 772 of the Public Library of Braga. These contain stories in prose from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The MS were found in the Seminary at Rachol (Raitur), in the possession of Don Francisco Garcia. They were transliterated into Roman script by Jesuit scholars in the 16th century. These may be the first extant prose works in Konkani.

The new building of the Goa State Central Library, Goa, at Patto, Panjim, has been dedicated to Krishnadas Shama. It is now therefore known as Krishnadas Shama Goa State Central Library.[1]

The Central Library is the oldest Public Library in India. It was established on 15 September 1832 by Vice Roy Dom Manuel de Portugal e Castro as ‘Publica Livraria.’ It had a beginning as ‘Academia Militar de Goa’ (Military Training Institute). In 1836 the name was changed to ‘Bibliotheca Publica’ and enriched with bibliographical repository transferred from the Convents run by religious orders that were suppressed in 1834. In the same year the Library was shifted to premises where the Municipal Proceedings were held, however, the collection on Mathematics and Military sciences was left in Academia and books on Administrative and Legislative matters were transferred to Secretariat Library. On 15 February 1897 the status of Library was raised to that of a National Library and renamed as ‘Bibliotheca Nacional de Nova Goa’. In March 1925, it was annexed to the academic and cultural institution, (Instituto Vasco da Gama) and redesignated as "Biblioteca Nacional Vasco da Gama’. By Decree Law no. 38684 dated 18 March 1952, the privilege of ‘Deposito Legal’ (Delivery Act) was made applicable to this library and by virtue of it the library received all publications from Portugal and her overseas Provinces. From September 1959, the Bibliotheca was detached from the Institute and put under the administrative control of ‘Servicos de Instruccao e Saude’ (Education and Health Services); it was then renamed as Biblioteca Nacional de Goa. The collection of pre-liberation period consists mainly of Books and Journals in Portuguese, French, Latin, English and very few books in local language like Konkani and Marathi. The total pre-liberation collection was about 40,000 volumes.

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