Daman

Daman lies on the Arabian Sea coast south of the Gulf of Khambhat, divided by the mouth of the Daman Ganga. Its sheltered river mouth and position near the routes to Gujarat made it valuable to seaborne traders and to powers seeking control of the coast. Fortifications and churches record the long Portuguese presence that followed their conquest of the town.

The Gujarat sultan Mahmud Begada brought Daman under his influence in the fifteenth century. Portuguese fleets attacked the town repeatedly and took it in 1559 under Viceroy Constantino de Bragança. They fortified the settlement south of the river and built the fort of Saint Jerome on the northern side in the early seventeenth century. Daman formed part of Portugal’s northern Indian possessions, linked to Diu and Bassein by maritime routes. Its walls protected a colonial town whose position allowed the Portuguese to watch traffic along the Gujarat coast.