preserved and considered sacred by Tamil Hindus in Jaffna, and these Hindus also worshipped Hanuman. To the Portuguese inquisition officials and their European supporters, the term projected their stereotypes for the lands and people they had violently conquered as well as their prejudices against Indian religions. Persecution of Jews Goa was a sanctuary for Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity on the Iberian peninsula. These forcibly baptized converts were known as New Christians. They lived in what then came to be known as the Jew street. The New Christian population was so substantial that, as Savaira reveals,"in a letter which is dated Almeirim, 18 February 1519, King Manuel I promoted legislation henceforth prohibiting the naming of New Christians to the position of judge, town councillor or municipal registrar in Goa, stipulating, however, that those already appointed were not to be dismissed. This shows that even during the first nine years of Portuguese rule, Goa had a considerable influx of recently baptized Spanish and Portuguese Jews." However, after the start of the Goa Inquisition, Viceroy Dom Antao de Noronha, in December 1565, issued an order that banned Jews from entering the Portuguese territories in India with violators liable to the penalties of arrest, seizure of their property and confinement in a prison. The Portuguese built city fortification walls between 1564 and 1568. It ran adjacent to the Jew street, but placed it outside of the fort. The Inquisition originally targeted New Christians, that is Jews who had been force-converted to Christianity and who migrated from Portugal to India between 1505 and 1560. Later it added in Moors, a term that meant Muslims who had previously invaded the Iberian peninsula from Morocco. In Goa, the Inquisition included Jews, Muslims and later predominantly Hindus. A documented case of the persecution of the Jews (New Christians) that began few years before the inauguration of the Goa Inquisition was that of a Goan woman named Caldeira. Her trial contributed to formal launch of Goa Inquisition office. Caldeira, and 19 other New Christians, were arrested by the Portuguese and brought before the tribunal in 1557. They were charged with Judaizing, visiting synagogues and eating unleavened bread. She was also accused of celebrating Purim festival coincident with the Hindu festival of Holi, wherein she was alleged to have burnt dolls symbolic of "filho de hamam" (son of Haman). Ultimately, all of them were sent from