The Altar of Time: A History of India's Christian Art

For International Mother Language Day 2023, The Altar of Time team brings to you our first episode in Konkani. We return to the gleaming silver Pelican Monstrance at the centre of the Museum of Christian art. Why does it look exactly like a mythical Indian bird? Join us as we explore the ritual of the Eucharist and how Indians engaged with European Christian mythology in the early modern period.

The waves of the Indian Ocean were once scented with gunpowder. The Portuguese Estado da India established itself in this vast region through its forts on water—galleons. But as successful as their conquests were, they were ephemeral: within decades of the Portuguese arriving in the Indian Ocean, Indian and Arab merchants were building their own galleons, and Portuguese officers and sailors were busy integrating themselves into the culture of the Indian Ocean world. Incense boats in the Museum's collection will allow us to explore this fascinating maritime history. 

As in many religious traditions, Catholicism uses sanctified water as part of its rituals. Join us as we trace out its rich history and usage in Goa, and the surprising ways in which one particular holy water font in the Museum of Christian Art is linked to metalware from other Indian traditions.

The silent walls of the Convent of Santa Monica in Old Goa whisper the stories of hundreds of lives. The first major convent for aristocratic Portuguese and Indian Catholic women established in the subcontinent, its history is the history of Goa itself. Join us as we explore the lives of its former inhabitants, century through century.

Gleaming at the centre of the Museum of Christian art is a silver rendition of a pelican—but one that looks exactly like a mythical Indian bird. Join us as we explore the ritual of the Eucharist and how Indians engaged with European Christian mythology in the early modern period.