Literature – Saraswat History, Language and Culture

The Navathi online bookshop has a very good list of books about our culture, language and community that can be purchased on them. They however seem to deliver only to Indian addresses.

History of the Saraswats: Gopalakrishna Baliga Interesting details on our history. Available to buy on Navathi bookshop

Swapna Saraswatha by Gopalakrishna Pai

Saga of migration of a community called Saraswaths in the west coast of India, extending from Goa to the south of Mangalore. Kannada/English/Malayalam version available to buy on Navathi bookshop or Amazon India. Please check out my review here

Ta ta tingana: Paramparagata konkani janapada kavya sangraha by Shri Santoshkumar Gulvady  A must have for all the GSB parents with newborns. It is an exhaustive compilation of all the konkani rhymes for children. Available to download for free here. Also available to purchase from the Vishwa Konkani Kendra. Write to baraya@vishwakonkani.org or worldkonkani@gmail.com

Business Brahmins: The Gauda Saraswat Brahmins of South Kanara by Harald Tambs-Lyche  A casual read. An outsiders view of the the culture prevalent in GSB families in Udupi – their history and way of living. Available to buy on Amazon India.

Journey of a Konkani Family : Mulki R Bhat  What a wonderful well researched, detailed work. The author has left a reference for the future generations of his family. The book transported me to my good old days with my grandparents and stories I heard from them. Available to download for free here.

Saraswatha Heritage If I had to buy one book to pass on to my kids, it would be this. A must have reference book in every GSB household. Amazing effort! I purchased my copy from The GSB Hitarakshan Vedike office by calling on their office number (+91 94487 60380).

Dakshinatya Saraswats A detailed research on the history of Saraswats that makes for an interesting read. It is available to download here on the author Mr. Nagesh Sonde’s website.

Konkani Bhashecho Itihaas Authored by Mr. Nagesh Sonde, this book is in Konkani written in Devanagari script and details the origin of the language. Available to download here http://nageshsonde.com/images/Konkani-Bhashecho-Ithihas.pdf