Paper short abstract:

Colonial, Post Colonial are political terms. In Multi Cultural context Past merges in Present to make Future. Sanskrit Studies, officially began in 1877.Vasconcelos Abreu was Founder-Professor,succeeded by Dalgado, Saldanha, who taught Marathi and Konkani also. Now these studies, struggle hard to continue to enrich Future .

Paper long abstract:

Term Orientalism is often used by Occidental scholars. Indology, is a part of Orientalism, here it is in the center. Colonial and post colonial are words of political demarcation. Here trust is on intellectual and secular studies. Vasconcelos Abreu belongs to famous Geração de 70, during his days in University of Coimbra he was attracted to the Indological subjects like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Manu Smruti, Bhagvad Gita; etc.This induced him to study literature and Sanskrit the ancient language of India. With dedication he became first Sanskritologist of Portugal. He persuaded the Government to begin the class of Sanskrit studies in Curso Superior de Letras in 1877.

Vasconcelos Abreu held the position of Professor till 1907, contributing with 14 important books and 11 articles, grammar, translations from Sanskrit literature. He was succeeded by S.R.Dalgado, an eminent polyglot, who was also given responsibility to teach Marathi and Konkani in Lisbon. His work on influence of Portuguese on Asiatic Languages is important. Mariano Saldanha succeeded him, who went to Santineketan, before coming to Portugal, to meet the Poet- Philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. His essay on «Poet of University, University of Poet» is educative and illuminating. After him, the institutional education of Indology effectively declined in Portugal. After 1961 appeared a generation which began to study Luso-Indo or Indo-Portuguese topic with academic perspectives. Some are mentioned below: Historian Teotónio de Sousa, Poet António Barahona, Anthropologist Rosa Maria Perez, Translator Olivinho Gomes and others. All these works shall be explained in full text of paper.