....
Sir Charles Eliot (1862-1931), British diplomat and colonial administrator,
in his book, Hinduism and Buddhism vol. I, p.12.
says:
In Eastern Asia the influence of India
has been notable in extent, strength and duration. "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. Such a picture takes no account of the intellectual
conquests of the Hindus. Even their political conquests were not contemptible
and were remarkable for the distance if not for the extent of the territory
occupied. For there were Hindu kingdoms in Java and Camboja and settlements in
Sumatra and even in Borneo, an island about as far from India as is Persia from
Rome."
Gordon
Childe says: "The most startling feature of pre-historic Indian trade
is that manufactured goods made in India were exported to Mesopotamia. At
Eshunna, near Baghdad, typically Indian shell inlays and even pottery probably
of the Indus manufacture have been found along with seals. After c. 1700 B. C.
C. E. the traders of India lost commercial contact with the traders of
Mesopotamia."
S.
R. Rao says that the Indian traders first settled in Bahrein and used
the circular seal. Later on the different sections of the Indian merchants
colonized the different cities of Mesopotamia after the name of their race. The
Chola colonized the land where the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates,
approach most nearly and the banks touch the so called Median wall. They called
their colony Cholades which later came to be known as Chaldea (i.e. the land of
the Cholas) as a result of corrupt pronunciation. Similarly the Asuras of Vedic
India colonized the city Asura after their name and later they established the
Assyrian empire.
Archaeological evidence
of the use of indigo in the cloths of the Egyptians mummies, Indian cedar in the
palace of Nebuchandnzzar and Indian teak in the temple of the moon god at Ur
shows the continuity of Indian commercial relations with the West.
Rassam found a beam of Indian cedar in the
palace of Nebuchadnezzar (604-562 B.C) at Birs Nimrud. In the second storey of
the Temple of the Moon-God at ur rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus (555-
538 B.C.) Taylor found "two rough logs of wood apparently teak".
The ancient Egyptian traders sailed
there boats not only on the Nile but also ventured into the Mediterranean and
the Red Sea and even into the Indian Ocean, for they are said to have reached
"God's land" or the land of Punt (India).
Similarly the Indian traders sailed their ships not only on the Indian Ocean and
the Persian Gulf, they also ventured into the Red Sea and even into the
Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. From the very beginning Indian traders had a very
fair knowledge of all the ancient oceans and seas of the populated world. the
Egyptians called India as "God's land" because India was in those days
culturally very much developed. The priest of ancient Egypt required vast
quantities of aromatic plants for burning as incense; frankincense, myrrh and
lavender were also used for embalmment purpose. Herodotus has left us a
sickening description of the great number of spices and scented ointments of
which India was the center. Beauty products from India also attracted the women
of Egypt. The cosmetic trade was entirely dependent on imports chiefly from
India. The Pharaohs of the fifth and sixth dynasties made great efforts to
develop trade relations with the land of Punt. Knemphotep made voyages to Punt
eleven times under the captainship of Koui. This expedition was organized and
financed by the celebrated Queen Halshepsut.
(source: Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India - By Prakash
Charan Prasad p. 36-43. For more information refer to chapter on
India and
Egypt)
Before trade with the Roman Empire,
India carried on her trade chiefly with Egypt; whose king, Ptolemy Philadelphus
(285-247 B.C.) with whom Ashoka the Great had intercourse, founded the city of
Alexandria, that afterwards became the principal emporium of trade between the
East and West.
M. A.
Murray, the Egyptlogist says in his book, " The splendor that was
Egypt" that the type of men of Punt as depicted by Halshepsut's artists suggests
an Asiatic rather than an African race and the sweet smelling woods point to
India as the land of their origin.
(source: Art
Culture of India and Egypt - By S. M. El Mansouri
p. 14). Refer to Marco Polo’s epic journey to China was a big con – Team Folks
This expedition really appears to have
been a great commercial success. The queen proudly recorded on the walls of the
temple of Deir-el-Bahri: "Our ships were filled with all marvelous things from
Punt (India); the scented wood of God's land,
piles of resin, myrrh, green balsan trees, ebony, ivory, gold, cinnamon,
incense, eye-coloring, monkeys, grey dogs and panther-skins." These objects
indicate Indian goods exported to Egypt.
Alexander's passage of the Indus was effected by means
of boats supplied by Indian craftsmen. A flotilla of boast was used in bridging
the difficult river of Hydaspses. For purpose of the voyage of Nearchus down the
rivers and to the Persian Gulf, all available country boats were impressed for
the service, and a stupendous fleet was formed, numbering around 800 vessels,
according to Arrian, and to the more reliable estimate of Ptolemy nearly 2,000
vessels which accommodated 8,000 troops, several thousand horses, and vast
quantities of supplies. It was indeed an extraordinary huge fleet, built entirely of Indian wood and by the hands of Indian
craftsmen. All this indicates that in the age of the Mauryas shipbuilding in
India was a regular and flourishing industry of which the output was quite
large.
A book, called the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written by a
Graceo-Egyptian sailor in the first century A.D., gives a very detailed and
interesting account of Indian trade from the author's personal knowledge. He
came to India and found the Indian coast studded with ports and harbors,
carrying on brisk trade with foreign countries. The chief articles of export
from India were spices, perfumes, medicinal herbs, pigments, pearls, precious
stones like diamond, sapphire, turquoise and lapis lazuli, animal skins, cotton
cloth, silk yarn, muslin, indigo, ivory, porcelain and tortoise shell; the chief
imports were cloth, linen, perfume, medicinal herbs, glass vessels, silver,
gold, copper, tin, lead, pigment, precious stones and coral.
Indian figurine buried in the Mount
Vesuvius in Italy - eruption of 79 A.D. Ivory.
(image source: Indian Art - By Vidya Dehejia).
(image source: Indian Art - By Vidya Dehejia).
***
The value of Indian trade may be
estimated from the well-known passage of Pliny, in which he recorded that India
drained the Roman empire of fifty million sesterces every year. The wealth of
early India is confirmed by the lament of Pliny the Elder in Historica Naturalis
(Natural History), completed in 77 AD that all of Rome's coffers were being
emptied into India to satisfy Roman demand for transulent Indian muslins.
Pliny's statement is corroborated by the discovery, in India, of innumerable
gold coins of the Roman emperors, which must have come here in course of trade.
Most of the coins have been found. Most of these coins have been found in South
India, and their evidence is corroborated by many passages in classic Tamil
literature. We read of 'Yavanas of harsh
speech' with many wares; of foreign merchants thronging sea-port
towns like Mamallapuram, Puhar, and Korkai; or busy customs officials, and those
engaged in loading and unloading vessels in the harbor. The wealth of the Roman
Empire reached India through the ports of Kalyan, Chaul, Broach, and Cambay in
Western India. Tamralipti was an important port in Bengal. It carried on trade
with China, Lanka, Java and Sumatra. In the Andhra region, the ports were Kadura
and Ghantasala, Kaveripattanam (Puhar) and Tondail were the ports of the Pandya
region. The ports of Kottayam and Muziris were on the Malabar coast. There was a
great maritime trade between India and Southeast Asia and China. The rulers of India facilitated trade by building and maintaining
lighthouses at the necessary points and by keeping sea routes free and safe from
pirates.
According to Surjit Mansingh: "India's trade with Europe, both by land and sea, was a constant
fact of history from ancient times"
(source: India: A Country Study 1985).
(source: India: A Country Study 1985).
The close connection between the early
civilization of Ninevah and Babylon and the West Coast of India is borne out by
indisputable evidence and this was possible only through the navigation of the
Arabian sea. There is ample evidence of a flourishing trade between the Levant
and the West Coast of India, as may be inferred from allusion in the Old
Testament.
As stated by Prof. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri in Indian Antiquary, 1938
p. 27: "the evidence of South Indian connections with the West drawn from
references in his (Solomna's) reign to Ophir and Thar Shih to ivory, apes and
peacocks is seen to be only a link in a more or less continuous chain of data
suggesting such connections for long ages before and after. The earliest Indian
literature, the Vedas speak of sea voyage. One well-known mantra (Rig Veda 1,
97, 8) prays: "Do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare."
Besides this, there are numerous allusions in the Rig Veda to sea voyages and to
ships with a hundred oars.
(source: India and the Indian Ocean - K. M. Panikkar The
MacMillan Company, 1945 p.23-24).
Indian seafarers
did not absent themselves from the Middle East or the European mainland. From
the Sanskrit name of Socotra (Island abode of bliss) and from certain Hindu-like
divisions and customs among the people of East Arabia. C.
Lassen suggested that the first sailors and colonizers on the Indian
Ocean came from India. According to Jeannie
Auboyer "merchant shipping was very active in India and had, even
since Roman times, linked the Mediterranean world to China with great vessels
(nava) of which the Indian king owned a fleet, though most of them belonged to
wealthy individuals."
(source: Daily Life in Ancient India - By Jeannie Auboyer
ISBN 8121506328 p. 75).
The achievements of Indian seafarers in
the Far East and Southeast Asia have been acknowledged by a host of
scholars. The late Professor Buhler says:
"References to voyages are also found in two of the most ancient Dharma Sutras."
There was also an active trade between
India and Greece. The mention of ivory by Homer and of several other Indian
articles assign the trade a very ancient date. In addition to ivory, India also
supplied indigo to Greece, whence the inhabitants derived their knowledge of its
use. Homer knew tin by its Sanskrit name. Professor Max
Duncker says that the Greeks used to wear silken garments which were
imported from India, and which were called "Sindones, or "Tyrian robes." "Trade
existed between the Indians and Sabaens on the coast of South Arabia before the
10th century B.C. the time when, according to the Europeans, Manu
lived.
Of the producer of loom, silk was more
largely imported from India into ancient Rome than either in Egypt or in Greece.
"It so allured the Roman ladies, " says a writer, that it sold its weight in
gold."
(source: Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. XI p. 459). For more information refer to chapter on India and Egypt).
(source: Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. XI p. 459). For more information refer to chapter on India and Egypt).
Testimony to the flourishing condition
of the ship-building industry in India is available in the description of the
return journey of Alexander from India via the sea route. According to estimates
of Ptolemy nearly 2000 vessels which between them accommodated 8000 troops,
several thousand horses, and vast quantities of supplies. This vivid description
speaks not only of the ready resources and expertise of the Indian craftsmen but
also of the tonnage of the seaworthy ships estimated at about 75 tons (or 3000
amphorea) by Pliny.
The most valuable of the exports of
India was silk, which was under the Persian Empire is said to have exchanged by
weight of gold.
(source: Indian Shipping - By R. K. Mookerji p.
83).
It is evident that "there was a very
large consumption of Indian manufactures in Rome. This is confirmed by the elder
Pliny, who complained that there was "no year in which India did not drain the
Roman Empire of a hundred million sesterces (1,000,000 pounds)....so dearly do
we pay for our luxury and our women." The annual drainage of gold from Rome and
its provinces to India was estimated by him at 500 steria, equal to about Rs.
4,000,000. We are assured on undisputed authority that the Romans remitted
annually to India a sum equivalent to 4,000,000 pounds to pay for their
investments, and that in the reign of Ptolmeies, 125 sails of Indian shipping
were at one time lying in the ports whence Egypt, Syria, and Rome itself were
supplied with the products of India."
(Life in Western India (Guthrie), from
Colonel James Tod - Western India p. 221. Hindu Raj in the World - By K. L. Jain p.
37).
Roman coins in large quantities are
found in places in Southern India, whence beryl, pepper, pearls and minerals
were exported to Rome. Some of these are described by Mr. Sewell. "These
hoards," he says, "are the product of 55 separate discoveries, mostly in the
Coimbatore and Madura districts."
(source: Journal
of Royal Asiatic Society for 1904, Roman Coins).
There is extant, a Prakrit text on
ship-building named Angavijja written in the Kushana period and edited in the
Gupta period. This text enlists about a dozen names of different types of ships,
such as Nava, Pota, Kotimba, Salika, Sarghad, Plava, Tappaka, Pindika, Kanda,
Katha, Velu, Tumba, Kumba and Dati. Some of these varieties of ships such as
Tappaka (Trappaga), Kotimba and Sarghad have also been mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. They are considered to
be very large ships capable of sailing along the coast as well as in deep
sea.
Mr. Momensen in his Provinces of the Roman Empire (Volume II p. 301), says:
"Somewhat further to the south at Kananor numerous Roman gold coins of the Julio
Claudian epochs have been found, formerly exchanged against the spices destined
for the Roman kitchens."
Arabia being the nearest of the
countries situated to the west of India, was the first to which the Indian
commercial enterprises by sea were directed. The long-continued trade with
Arabia dates from a very remote antiquity. "The labors of Von Bohlen (Das Alte
Indian, Volume I, p. 42), confirming those of Heeran and in their
turn confirmed by those of Lassen (Ind Alt. Vol II. p. 580), have established
the existence of a maritime commerce between India and Arabia from the very
earliest period of humanity. Lassen also says that the Egyptians wrapped their
mummies in Indian Muslin.
Agarthchides of Cnidus, Ptolemaic Dynasty, President
of the Alexandrain Library, who is mentioned with respect by Strabo, Pliny and
Diodorus, and who lived upwards of 300 years before the time of Periplus,
noticed the active commercial intercourse kept up between Yemen and Pattala - a
seaport in Western India. Pattala in Sanskrit means a "commercial town" which
circumstance if it is true, says Prof. Heeran, "would prove the extreme
antiquity of the navigation carried on by the Indus. Agatharchides saw large
ships coming from the Indus and Pattala.
The importance of trade was highly
appreciated by the people of Kalinga - a
kingdom on the Eastern seaboard of India. Inscriptions "speak of navigation and ship commerce as forming part of the
education of the princes of Kalinga."
J. Takakusu
writes: "That there was a communication or
trade between India and China from 400 A.D. down to 800 A.D. is a proven fact.
Not to speak of any doubtful records we read in the Chinese and Japanese books,
Buddhist or otherwise, of Indian merchant ships appearing in the China Sea; we
know definitely that Fahien (399-415 A.D) returned to China via Java by an
Indian boat...at further in the Tang dynasty an eyewitness tells us that there
were in 750 A.D. many Brahmin ships in the Canton River."
(source: Journal
of Royal Asiatic Society, Great Britain and Ireland. October 1905 p.
872).
Historian Vincent
Smith in his book Early History of India, writes" "Ancient Tamil
literature and the Greek and Roman authors prove that in the first two centuries
of the Christian era the ports on the Coromandel or Cholamandal coast enjoyed
the benefits of active commerce with both East and West. The Chola
fleets.....uncrossed the Indian ocean to the islands of the Malaya
Archipelago."
(source: Early History of India - By Vincent Smith p.
415).
"The Hindus themselves were in the habit
of constructing the vessels in which they navigated the coast of Coromandel, and
also made voyages to the Ganges and the peninsula beyond it. These vessels bore
different names according to the size." writes Prof. Heeran. There were commercial towns and ports on the
Coromandel coast. Masulipatam, with its cloth manufactures, as well as the
mercantile towns situated on the mouth of the Ganges, have already been noticed
as existing in the time of Periplus. Even as
late as the 17th century, French traveler Tavernier in 1666 A.D. said: "Masulipatam is the
only place in the Bay of Bengal from which vessels sailed eastwards for Bengal,
Arrakan, Pegu Siam, Sumatra, Cochin China and the Manilla and West to Hormuz,
Makha and Madagascar."
(source: Hindu Raj in the World - By K. L. Jain p.
42).
***
Southeast Asia
has always been an integral part of the Indian consciousness is borne out by the
fact that the countries of Southeast Asia so comprehensively embraced Hinduism
and Buddhism in all its aspects. This spiritual and cultural affinity
became an inseparable part of their ethos and way of life. Successive Indian
kings and kingdoms from the first century AD and even before to the beginning of
the 15th century, had regarded Southeast Asia and the lands lying beyond as
vital for their own strength, security and sustained development. This intricate
and abiding web of relationships in turn contributed significantly to India’s
sense of security in an extended neighborhood in which India is neither seen as
an alien power nor as a country with a colonial past.
Panel no. 4. Siva temple
bas-relief. Prambanan, Indonesia.
Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.
Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.
***
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