Grinding Stories Retold: Songs From Goa

Grinding stories, songs from Goa was first published in 2018. Several new storytellers have emerged since then and many new resources have added their stories. In this volume, we have added those new discoveries in the original, interpreted them into the English language and added some beautiful images of Kaavi, a unique Goan architectural art.

These songs, called oviyos in Marathi and Konkani, are sung by women as they work at the grinding stone, a household chore that began a woman's day in rural Goa. Most of the songs in unison. When the christian community in Goa was banned from singing oviyos at their pre-wedding ceremonies, their Hindu neighbours obliged, singing for them. Even so, a small community of Christian Gavdas, living in the village of Parodaa, Quepem, South Goa, have managed to preserve to oviyos that were once sung by their grandmothers.

The tradition is highly endangered today and this volume is an attempt to document this unique and extraordinary expression of Goan oral history for posterity.