Bardez

Bardez is the name of a region in North Goa. The name is credited to the Brahmin immigrants who migrated to the Konkan via Magadha in Gangetic India from Aryavarta, in the north-western part of the Indian sub-continent. Bardez or more properly Bara desh means "twelve countries" (or lands). The form "country" probably refers to clan territorial limits, or to the Brahmin comunidades, of which the twelve, in no particular order, are Aldona, Moira, Olaulim, Nachinola, Siolim, Anjuna, Candolim, Serula, Saligao, Sangolda, Assagao, and Pomburpa.

Bardez is delimited on the north by the Chapora River, on the south by the Mandovi River, on the east by the Mapusa River which originates in Bardez itself, near the capital city of Mapusa, and on the west by the Indian Ocean.

What to see

• Bardez is the site of the legislature of Goa, in the southern village of Britona.
• Other famous sites are the fort of Aguada, the beaches of Candolim, Sinquerim, Calangute, Baga, Anjuna and Vagator villages. The hill-top monastery and boarding-school of Monte Guirim which was restored by Padre Luna after Pombal's devastation.
• The village communities of Salvador do Mundo, Penha da Franca, Siolim, Moira, Porvorim, Colvale, Saligao and Sangolda, to name but the most prominent.