Fr.Sebastiao Rodolfo Dalgado

Msgr Sebastiao Rodolfo Dalgado was an Indo-Portuguese catholic priest, academic, university professor, theologian, orientalist and linguist. Dalgado was born on 8th May 1855 in Assagao, Bardez, Goa. His preconversion surname was Desai, replaced by the Portuguese surname Dalgado, after conversion to christiainity. Ambrose dalgado and Florida Rosa Desouza were his parents.
career
After completing his elementary studies in Assagao, the young Dalgado completed his secondary education in Mapusa and joined the Rachol Seminary, near Margao, from where he was ordained as a priest in 1881. Considered the best student of his course, he was selected for further studies in Rome, In Rome his doctorate was in Canon Law and Roman Law. His Deep knowledge of Sanskrit made him easier to acquire a mastery of several Indian languages, including Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Sinhala and Bengali. He has Published Konkani – Portuguese Dictionary (1893), written both in Devanagari and Roman script. His other famous works include – The Indo-Portuguese Dialect of Ceylon (1900), The Indo-Portuguese dialect of Mumbai and suburbs, The influence of Portuguese vocabies in Asian Languages, The Indo-Portuguese Dialects of Goa,Daman and Ceylon, Fundamentals of Sanakrit language and Indian Proverbs.
Honours
In 1904 he received the honour of honorary chaplain of the Pope’s with the right to use the title of “Monsignor”. He was the member of the Lisbon Geographic society (1895), a member of the Institute of coimbra (1896). He was awarded with Honarary Doctorate from University of Lisbon 1911. He was corresponding member Academy of sciences 1911. He was member of the Royal Asiatic society in London 1921. In 1989, in his honour the Dalgado Konkani Academy was established in Panjim, Goa to promote the use of Konkani language in Romi script. The Dalgado Konkani Academy has established the Monsignor Sebastiao Rudolfo Dalgado award to be awarded annually for activities to promote the study and use of Konkani