It’s 1510. The Portuguese arrive in Goa armed with guns, swords and crucifixes to the agricultural village of Adolshi, where Hindus have been living peacefully. A sense of foreboding fills them as tigers prowl, cow bones appear in wells, chariot wheels break on festival day. The Portuguese king has licenced Jesuits to take over and staunch white men move about preaching the word of the Son of God. Land is seized, families broken. But Padre Simao Peres is convinced that love and not force will bring about a change of heart. With the Inquisition looming like an axe over everyone’s heads, a saga of choice plays out for the people of the village. Recounting a history forgotten to most people now, Mahabaleshwar Sail’s epic novel, Age of Frenzy, documents a turbulent past of religious rifts, caste hierarchies and power shifts which changed the ethos of a significant part of the western coastline of India forever.
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