it particularly rankles when this contorted ahistorical view is parroted even here in goa this art historical crime is particularly egregious because of what is easily apparent in plain sight from the 17th century on goa experienced extraordinary cultural ferment easily equivalent to what happened in bengal under the british and the results are far too copious to ignore the goans were the first nonwesterners anywhere to adopt and adapt europeanstyle political institutions scientific practices and cultural expressions francisco luis gomess os brahmanes is arguably the first indian novel just as ax trindade paved the path for the first indian modernist painters it is a lasting tragedy that goa has an outsized artistic legacy that outshines that of many countrieslet alone the other states of indiabut almost none of it is on display in the state where most people have never heard of their own greatest artists and the administration has only recently begun to come around to the idea that its peerless legacy should be recognized at all but happily that is not the case with trindade thanks to the artists familys generosity and the best efforts of the hardworking little fundacao oriente premises in fontainhas panaji goa has its only firstrate museum space and it is dedicated to ax trindade every schoolchild and citizen of the state should not miss the opportunity to experience the genius of this first great goan master painter