Himanshu Prabha Ray

The winds of change : Buddhism and the maritime links of early south Asia

Two major trends have so far dominated the maritime history of ancient India: in the western Indian Ocean, the emphasis has been on the enterprise and nautical skills of the foreigners - the Romans and Arabs who relegated Indian seafarers to coastal trade; while in the Bay of Bengal, brahmins as well as Indian merchants are credited with the expansion of Indian culture into Southeast Asia. On the basis of literary, archaeological and ethnographic sources, this text argues that a complex, indigenous maritime network existed in South Asia in the period, 400 BC to AD 400, which involved the Arabs, Indians and Oriental Greeks as well as Southeast Asian communities. Additionally, it exposes the need for a close examination of diverse techniques of boat-construction before the superiority of Mediterranean vessels is postulated, as has been the case in historical studies so far.

Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas.

This book focuses on the western Deccan under the Satavahana dynasty and analyses the reasons for the phenomenal expansion of trade in this region in the early years of the Christian era.

Asian Merchants and Businessmen in the Indian Ocean and the China Sea

This book brings together specialist knowledge on the many important trading and entrepreneurial groups that have dominated the Asian scene over the past centuries. In a series of crisp, relatively short chapters, it traces the long-term history of these groups from the medieval past to the present.

Kanheri: The archaeology of an early Buddhist pilgrimage centre in western India

Abstract The Buddhist site of Kanheri on the west coast of India continued to receive patronage from the first to the tenth centuries AD. This was in the form of money and land donations in the early centuries of the Christian era, whereas, in the early medieval period, the pilgrims built votive stupas of brick. Enshrined within these stupas were relic caskets and copper plates or stone tablets bearing the Buddhist creed. Many of these stone tablets have been found at early centres in Southeast Asia, together with sealings of unbaked clay and small votive stupas, and no doubt provide archaeological evidence of the pilgrim traffic by sea between South and Southeast Asia.

Seafaring in the Bay of Bengal in the Early Centuries AD

One of the lesser known facets of these early contacts is the nature of the carriers used in sea-voyages both by Indian and Southeast Asian communities. Allied to this is the number of seamen required to man these crafts and their involvement in trade networks. It is questions such as these that we wish to address ourselves to in this paper. The answers, however, are neither straightforward nor comprehensive. On account of the meagre data available for the centuries around the Christian era, a study of the nature of seacraft would have to be based on a variety of sources including present seafaring traditions. An oft-quoted statement refers to the inhospitable nature of the Indian coastline, on account of the lack of natural protection, shallowness of the waters and the violence of the swells. There are only a few sites which provide deep water and shelter for modern ships as well as for eighteenth century sailing vessels.’ But what is seldom realised is that in the early historical period, boats and ships drawing very little water were used in coastal and transoceanic voyages. As much of the sailing was

Early historical trade: An overview

The beginnings of early historical trade may be traced to the sixth century Bc with the epicentre in the middle Ganga valley. A recent study has shown that an elaborate hierarchy of settlements crowned with urban centres had already emerged during this period.’ Even a minor centre such as Jakhera which represents the third rung of the hierarchical order produced evidence of craft activities. These craft activities indicate trading and redistributive functions of smaller sites though participation in longdistance trade was restricted to the towns and cities of north India, such as Kausambi, Rajghat, Campa, etc. Religious centres, especially Buddhist monasteries also flourished in the vicinity of these large settlements. The introduction of coinage sometime after the sixth century Bc represented a new level of trading activity both in volume and in organisation.1 These trends continued to intensify and by 350-100 Bc even minor sites such as Chirand in Bihar and Jajmau in Kanpur district were involved in long-distance trade. In addition towns such as Atranjikhera appeared capable of supporting religious establishments which were previously associated only with the largest cities. The period was also important for the

Archaeology and empire

In this article, which is based largely on archaeological data, I argue that colonial intervention between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries in South and Southeast Asia not only altered the nature of linkages that had existed across Asia from at least the middle of the first millennium BC, but also, and more significantly, redefined our understanding of monuments, especially religious structures, from abodes of spiritual power to objects of artistic and aesthetic appre-ciation. This had far-reaching implications for the study and understanding of the nature of Indic religions, and here, I focus on Buddhism. The article highlights the changes intro-duced as a result of colonial intervention in three major monuments of South and Southeast Asia, viz., Bodh Gaya in eastern India, Borobudur in central Java, and the Angkor complex in Cambodia.

Early historical urbanization: The case of the Western Deccan

Abstract In the early centuries of the Christian era, there was an enormous expansion of inland trade networks in the subcontinent, coupled with increased maritime activity between the west coast and the Red Sea ports of the Roman Empire. This led to the rise of urban centres at vantage points along the trade‐routes and in the peripheral and hitherto unoccupied areas. An apt example of this is the region of the western Deccan — an area of isolation which rose to prominence under the Satavahana dynasty primarily on account of its ports and its strategic control of the trade‐routes. Another consistent feature is the location of Buddhist monasteries near urban centres, raising the question of the role of ideology in historical change.

The western Indian Ocean and the early maritime links of the Indian subcontinent

evolve out of the earlier Greek historiographical tradition which incorporated notices on India from around the fifth century B.C. onwards? If the Periplus Maris Erythraei grew out of an earlier literary tradition, it would be quite legitimate to argue that it reflects expanding Graeco-Roman interests in the western Indian Ocean. On the contrary, if it stands out as an isolated example of Greek writing, it should be possible to conclude that it represents attempts at the codification of local seafaring traditions and knowledge in the western Indian Ocean. Any study of early maritime links with the Mediterranean would then necessarily have to contend with the indigenous Indian and Arab sailing traditions now available to us largely from ethnographic studies and accounts. It is significant that the Eruthras thalassa which roughly corresponds to the present Indian Ocean appears in Greek writing only in the first century A.D.’ Pliny was the first classical author to use the term Eruthras thalassa

Trade in the Western Deccan under the Satavahanas

Satavahana chronology has been much discussed and debated, and the corpus of writings on this subject has continued to increase. It is needless discussing the arguments between the proponents of the longer and the shorter chronology here; we accept the more convincing latter view which places the ascendancy of the Sdtavahanas in the first century B.c. Though there were several fluctuations in the fortunes of these rulers, the western Deccan remained a core area under them. The term western Deccan here