Who says Indians were not good mariners?
India’s maritime heritage can be traced back to Vedic times, there is a lack of chronological record of events related to our country’s history during this period. Long before recorded history, the Indian texts reflect the knowledge of Indian mariners in the art of seafaring, navigation and commerce. It is well known that India is cradle of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Known for its recourses, India has withstood the rest of time despite several upheavals in history. Its maritime traditions of over four millennia can be seen from the geography of its coast, ancient excavations and scriptures. This is perhaps the reason why the ocean, the concept of seafaring and the life-cycle of water are deeply embedded in the thought and literature of India. The anthropomorphic transformation of natural elements in the form of icons is yet another manifestation of the maritime thought process. In India, it is customary to acknowledge the gift of nature by offering felicitation to its presiding deity. And hence the Vedic prayer:
‘Shanno Varuna’- meaning
May the lord of the oceans be auspicious unto us.
Varuna had been the one who knew all the sea routes and the seasons of sail.
"Do Thou, Whose countenance is turned to all sides, send off our adversaries as if in a ship, to the opposite shore: do Thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare."
- Rig Veda. 1., 97, 7 and 8.
It is associated with the emergence of the life as the creation of Brahma who himself is born of the lotus which rises from Vishnu’s navel as he relax in the cosmic ocean. Gods and demons churn the ocean for nectar and Laxmi, the godess of wealth, is the first of the fourteen jewels churned out of the sea. The Panis, in the Vedas and in later classical literature, were the merchant class who were the pioneers and who dared to set their course from unknown lands who succeeded in throwing bridges between many and diverse nations. The Phoenicians were no other than the Panis of the Rig Veda. They were called Phoeni in Latin which is very similar to the Sanskrit Pani.It has been beautifully put in the below link which suggests if Dwarka is 30,000 years old, the phonecians also asserted on the similar years of their existence. This means that the Krasna-dor of Russia or greek Heracles/Hercules/Hariculas could be same. It also means that Krishna would had been a great trader of his time. It is now of less doubt that Hercules/Hari Kula was the symbol of phonecian enterprise. “Hercules, the symbol of Phoenician enterprise, departs on his expedition for opening navigation to the westward, with a cup. This cup he gets from Apollo, and it was destined of course to aid him on his way; here is the cup of water in which the needle was floated.” (Ibid.)
http://phoenicia.org/rigveda.html
http://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/hercules-and-the-phoenicians/
The Sisupalavadha of the poet Magha contains an interesting passage which mentions how Sri Krishna, while going from Dvaraka to Hastinapura, beholds merchants coming from foreign countries in ships laden with merchandise and again exporting abroad Indian goods. The terracotta model of an Egyptian mummy wrapped up leaving only the head bare suggest the Lothal’s contacts with Egyptian ports during the Nile valley civilization. According to the scholars like A L Basham, every merchant family had their own seals, which were found in large numbers in Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. They are believed to have been used to mark the ownership of property. Buddhist and Jain scriptures of the dark period contain many references to shipbuilding, westerly and easterly overseas trade of India and Maritime activity. The Mahavamsa Pali chronicle of Shri Lankan and south Indian kings of that era also suggest the same. One of the famous buddhist stories talk about Purna, A merchant Supparaka who made seven voyages and during the last was initiated to Buddha's teachings by buddhists co traveller.
Manu Smriti
In Sanskrit books we constantly read of merchants, traders and men engrossed in commercial pursuits. Manu Smriti, the oldest law book in the world, lays down laws to govern commercial disputes having references to sea borne traffic as well as inland and overland commerce. Manu (iii. 158) declares a Brahmin who has gone to sea to be unworthy of entertainment at a Shraddha. In chapter viii again of Manu's Code there is an interesting sloka laying down the law that the rate of interest on the money lent on bottomry (The lender of money for marine insurance) is to be fixed by men well acquainted with sea voyages or journeys by land. In the same chapter there is another passage which lays down the rule of fixing boat-hire in the case of a river journey and a sea voyage. But perhaps the most interesting passages in that important chapter are those which are found to lay down the rules regarding what may be called marine insurance. One of them holds the sailors collectively responsible for the damage caused by their faults to the goods of passengers, and other absolves them from all responsibility if the damage is caused by an accident beyond human control. It was thus Nagara Brahmans (sailors and navigators) of Gujarat were abandoned to get married to the Brahmans of the rest of the country until early nineteenth century and the Manu code was practiced arduously.
Sir William Jones( though I donot believe much in Jonesian history, but still I found this one appealing) is of opinion that the Hindus "must have been navigators in the age of Manu, because bottomry (The lender of money for marine insurance) is mentioned in it. In the Ramayana, the practice of bottomry is distinctly noticed.
Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone has written: "The Hindus navigated the ocean as early as the sage of Manu's Code, because we read in it of men well acquainted with sea voyages."
Ramayana:
Post vedic epics and sutras continue to have references to maritime activities. Sugriva, the lord of vanaras, directed his followers to search Sita in the cities and mountains of the island of the sea. In another the land of the Koshakarsa( KARSHA word was used by greeks and babylonians for money), is mentioned as the likely place of Sita's concealment, which is generally interpreted to be no other country than China (or the land where grows the worm which yields the threads of silken clothes); a third passage refers to the Yavana Dvipa and Suvarna Dvipa, which are usually identified with the islands of Java and Sumatra of the Malaya Archipelago; while the fourth passage alludes to the Lohita Sagara or the red sea. In Ayodhya Kandam there is even a passage which hints at preparation for a naval fight, thus indirectly indicating thorough knowledge and universal use of waterway. The Ramayana also mentions merchants who trafficked beyond the sea and were in the habit of bringing presents to the king. The Amu Darya is the largest river in Central Asia, with a catchment area of 309 000 km2 and length 2540 km. Why the Greeks knew it as Oxus( Vakshasa~)? Does it show that the Phoenicians were spreading the epics too with their navigational skills?, of course. The depiction of Amun- Ra, wife Mut and son in Egypt where Amun-Ra had the main characteristic of a solar god, creator god and fertility god also resemble Ram of Ramayan. He also adopted the aspects of the Ram from the Nubian solar god, besides numerous other titles and aspects. Surely, Ram belonged atleast central Asia or did Central Asia maximus land belonged to Ram or just his popularity reached to western shores with the help of Phoenicians/Panis and as Ayodhya kandam gives names of Yavana and Suvarna islands, it must be stating about Ionia---Is it possible that Sita was taken to Ionia or nearby? Kaikeyi’s Kakeya Pradesh/Caucasus is more nearer to Central Asia.
Mahabharata
The other major sanskrit epic too has passage referring to naval expeditions, sea navigation and foreign contacts during the period. The most relevant passage in the Mahabharata refers to the escape of the pandava brothers from destruction planned against them in a ship that was secretly and specially constructed for that purpose by orders of Vidura. The ship is described as being large, equipped with machinery and weapons of war, capable of withstanding storms and waves….shock proof?
There is a passage in its Sabha Parva which states how Sahadeva, the youngest brother of the five Pandavas, went to the several islands in the sea and conquered the Mlechchha inhabitants thereof. the well known story of the churning of the ocean, in the Mahabharata, in the boldness of its conception is not without significance. In the Drona Parva there is a passage alluding to shipwrecked sailors who "are safe if they get to an island." In the same Parva there is another passage in which there is a reference to a "tempest-tossed and damaged vessel in a wide ocean." In the Karna Parva we find the soldiers of the Kauravas bewildered like the merchants "whose ships have come to grief in the midst of the unfathomable deep." There is another sholka in the same Parva which describes how the sons of Draupadi rescued their maternal uncles by supplying them with chariots, "as the shipwrecked merchants are rescued by means of boats." In the Santi Parva the salvation attained by means of Karna and true knowledge is compared to the gain which a merchant derives from sea-borne trade.
Journal to the discovery of the Source of Nile
Reveals how an Indian pundit of Varanasi through Bhavishya purana solves the mystery of the source of River Nile, this also shows the exchange of dialogues between east and west via either phoenician traders and navigators or via traders on the silk route and if it could be known to a Britisher through an Indian pundit in 18th century surely it is evident that Egyptians knew about the epics and the gods/demigods of India/central asia.
Kutch, Gujarat
Besides the Indian texts, ancient Greek and Romans books mention ports of Gujarat which shows they must have been famous even in the western hemisphere. Greek author Galazy has written in his book, “Batiya” about the shipping at Kutch. The Periplus of Erythraean sea, a greek work believed to have been written around the first cent, describes navigation and trading opportunities from roman Egyptian ports, north east Africa and India. As per evidence, Saurashtra was an Island in 2nd cent BC. It is found from the literature that Thirpur nagar, the present Tharad of Banaskantha district, was a prominent Hindu and Jain centre during Rajput reign. A picture in one of the manuscripts written by Kalyansevak Dhanyakumar shows Tharad, currently landlocked, as a port. ( Patan- means port in Sanskrit). Similarly, Tamralipti on the east and Vallabhi, Goundi-Koliak, Hathab, Kathivadar, Sonraj,Rander, Vatrej, Khakhrechi, Vavania, Kuntasi, Desal-Guntaligad, Benap,Padan, Tharad, Navsari, Bhadreshwar, Rayan, Khari rohar, Nagara, Modhera, Zinzuwada, Kodadha, Amrapur,Kamboi on the western coast of Gujarat. Kutch was an island upto even the 18th cent AD with ships running through Rann of Kutch, then an arm of the Arabian Sea. It is recorded that the massive earthquake on June 16th 1819 caused the river Indus to change its course and create a surface depression that became a seasonally inundated salt desert.
Early history of maritime trade
The growth of maritime and river trade during the Mauryan period is ratified by the importance given to strategies for controlling such trade by kautilya in his treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy called ‘Arthashastra’. It is also known that the presence of foreigners on the western coast was what prompted ashoka maurya to dispatch preachers to Gujarat and Deccan, to preach the Dharma of Lord Buddha. The implications of natural activity can be judged by archeological finds at Arikamedu on the south eastern coast, Ter in Maharashtra and even in Buddhist cave temples of Pitalkhora, Karle, and Kanheri. Maritime trade on the western coast had prompted the local kings to appoint pilot ships to navigate the incoming vessels through the estuary of the Gulf of Khambhat. At the Buddhist shrine, a deity, dashamahabhaya lokeshwara, was worshiped to ensure a safe sea voyage. It was in the wake of this nautical activity that the first Indian migration to south east asia is considered to have taken place in about 6th cent. A group of merchants from Kutch were the earliest settlers at Java. With the traders , Hindu and Buddhist philosophers also travelled and the resultant cultural efflorescence is noticeableall over the region. The monument of Angkor vat, Angkor-thom, the stupa at Barabudur or the Mon-dvaravati relics from Thailand ratify this movement from India to Cambodia and Thailand. This is reciprocated by the establishment of viharas by the Shailendra kings of Java at such famous Buddhist monasteries as Nalanda and Nagapattinam. During the 7th century, Somnath was also the centre of trade with with Sri Lanka, China, and Africa.
The continuous cultural exchange and encounter with various countries presupposes the sound navigational technique of an Indian mariner. Current researches into the sources of indigenous techniques in the form of log-books of Kutchi Mariners at the Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai, belies the presumption of some scholars that the Indian Mariner depended a great deal on Arab techniques. The ‘Malam–ni-pothi', a handbook of the sailor is almost the precursor of the modern day ‘Pilot’. It also contains knowledge of rhomb lines and stellar bearing given in both verbal instructions and compass cards. The stellar bearing of the ports from other connecting ports, different locations fix ports ith the help of pole star altitude in angul( Sanskrit angula), formulae of calculations to find correct bering, distance between the ports, big and small, are enlisted with their latitude and longitude. Land falls and instructions for sailing through difficult passages form an inevitable part of the books. The log books were called ‘ghos ni pothi’ or ghos darmayan ni pothi. The technique of navigational cartography was also highly developed. High standards of stylization and codifications in the charts of these pothis, earliest of which is dated 1663 cent AD, as well as the local terminology techniques, prove the in-depth knowledge of the mariners of India. The kutchi merchant showed considerable skill and courage in undertaking the long sea voyages. The craftsmanship of Kutchi pilots impressed even the nautical minded British during the colonial rule , but before hand it is said that Vasco d agama used Kutchi expertise for his navigation to India. Kutchi pilots had considerable expertise in determining latitude and longitude by reckoning. The architecture of Mandvi dominates Dutch stone carving which has an ancient ship building yard probably shifted from Tharad/Patan site when the course of Indus changed and the land emerged over creek. Mandvi became the most idealistic site for ship building in 17thth cent. Clock making, foundry and glass blowing were learnt during their voyages.
"Scant justice is done to India's position in the world by those European histories which recount the exploits of her invaders and leave the impression that her own people were a feeble dreamy folk, surrendered from the rest of mankind by their seas and mountain frontiers.”….Sir Charles Eliot
source: Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India - By Prakash Charan Prasad etc...
http://archive.org/stream/indianshippinghi00mookrich/indianshippinghi00mookrich_djvu.txt
