| abstract
| - The Witch Hunter's Amulet is the debut novel by author Marco Lobo. This historical novel spans the period from 1563 to 1582. Set mainly in Goa, at the time a part of Portuguese India, sections of the story are also based in Macau and Canton, China. The novel combines the themes of colonialism, religious zealotry, and the Catholic Inquisition. Plot summary The novel begins in northern Portugal. Manuel Andrade a witch hunter, armed with the Malleus Maleficarum orchestrates the arrest and trials of women accused of being witches. We learn that the Cardinal of Lisbon has ordered him on a mission to India, where he will assist the Grand Inquisitor of Goa to stamp out witch craft and indigenous religious beliefs. Andrade arrives in India with a severe sickness that he contracted on the long journey from Portugal, during a stop in Africa. Oblivious of the true conditions of the world which he has entered, Andrade clings to his old ways as he tries to create his own reality. Half-crazed, he goes in search of the jewels that he believes will restore his health. He blunders through a tiger hunt, goes to war, does his work in the torture chambers of the Grand Inquisitor and presides over a farcical witch-trial gone wrong.
* Bartolomeu Vaz Landeiro: A Portuguese official who plots against Andrade
* Dr. Abraham Garcia: Well-known doctor to the Muslim Sultan
* Avani: Garcia's assistant
* Carneiro: Andrade's sidekick
* Marques: The Grand Inquisitor of Goa
* Father Delgado: Dominican priest, inquisitor
* Nedaxe: A slave woman
* Ali Adil Shah: Fifth Sultan of the Bijapur Sultanate In 1545, Francis Xavier co-founder of the Jesuit order, suspecting that many newly converted Christians in India continued to practice their old religions, requested that the Inquisition be extended to Goa. It was not until 1560, eight years after Xavier’s death that the Inquisition was established in Portuguese India. In the two and a half centuries that it endured there, it was responsible for the deaths and misery of tens of thousands of people, most of whom were Indian. Over seventy autos da fé were recorded, with many victims burned alive at the stake or burned in effigy. Though the Santa Casa, the infamous structure and center of the Office of the Inquisition no longer exists, it was said to have been across the square opposite St. Catherine’s Cathedral in what is now referred to as Old Goa. The Santa Casa, once a palace, is reputed to have had two hundred rooms. Bartolomeu Vaz Landeiro arrived in Goa in 1557 and remained there until 1569 when he went to Macau. It is from Macau that he built a great fortune, trading with the rest of Asia and Japan, where he became known as the ‘King of the Portuguese’. It is said he went everywhere with a retinue of armed slaves. He cultivated a relationship with Chinese officials in Canton and is believed to have used two of his own ships to defeat a Japanese pirate fleet. Some references suggest that Bartolomeu, a new-Christian, was married to a Japanese woman. He was an active supporter and contributor to Jesuit missions in Asia. Abraham Garcia’s character is loosely based on Garcia de Orta (1501–1568). A new-Christian, he sailed for India in 1534 as physician of the Portuguese Viceroy. Settling in Goa, he established a successful medical practice. He was physician to Burhan Shah I of the Nizam Shahi dynasty and to several Portuguese Viceroys and governors of Goa and was granted a lease of the island of Bombay. His knowledge of Eastern drugs is revealed in his book, Colóquios dos simples e drogas he cousas medicinais da Índia, ‘Conversations on the simples, drugs and medicinal substances of India’, published in 1563. Garcia’s sister Catarina, was arrested and was burned at the stake for practicing Judaism in Goa in 1569. Garcia was posthumously convicted of Judaism − his remains were exhumed and burned in an auto da fé in 1580. The Battle of Talikota, fought in 1565 between Ali Adil Shah I (1558–1580) the fifth Sultan of Bijapur Sultanate, against Aliya Rama Raya (1485–1565), was the instigation for the demise of the Vijayanagar Empire. The ruins of the once great capital city of Vijayanagar, surrounds the holy city of Hampi, now a World Heritage site in modern day Karnataka, India.
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