A Chapter from the Background of Eastern Seapower

Author(s): F. B. Eldridge
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Australian Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 1942), pp. 80-90
Published by: Australian Institute of Policy and Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20631026 .
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 A Chapter from the Background of
Eastern Seapower
By F. B. ELDK1DGE*

Even the proverbial glance at themap will be sufficientto im

press upon the student of Indian affairs the central position, from
a maritime point of view, occupied by India. This glance will
further prepare him to observe the relation between India and
Ceylon, and he will feel convinced that in any intercourse between
the Far East and theWest by sea Ceylon is likely to play an im
portant part. This is indeed borne out by history, and we findthat
at a very early date Ceylon was an important meeting place between
East and West.
In his work, A History of Indicm Shipping, Kadhakumud
Mookerji has collected a great deal of evidence of maritime activity
on the part of the inhabitants of India, and he claims that for thirty
centuries India stood out as the heart of the Old World, maintaining
the position of one of the foremost maritime powers. Colonies were
established in Pegu, in Cambodia, in Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and
even, we are told, in far Japan, while Indian trading posts were also
to be found in all the chief cities of Arabia and Persia as well as
along the coast of Africa. This growth of Indian shipping dates
back to very early times, and the writer claims that "the genius
and energy of her merchants, the skill and daring of her seamen
. . . secured to India the command of the sea for ages," and that
she longmaintained the proud position of mistress of the Eastern
Seas. Certainly a prominent part in the maritime affairs of that
region is what one would expect from a consideration of the geo
graphical position of India, which is so largely cut off from land
ward communications by the great mountain masses to the north,
while at the same time she lay between active maritime peoples to
* Lecturer at the
Royal Australian Naval College.
80
 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY June,1942
East and toWest, peoples whose ships at a very early period met
at her ports.
The evidence of early Indian maritime activity is considerable,
Sanskrit and Pali literature abounding in references to ships and
sea voyages. ?
The ships employed were apparently of large size
one sent out by a king of Bengal was said to have accommodation
for 700 passengers! Other evidence is found in ancient sculpture
where what is probably the oldest representation of an Indian sea
voyage belongs to the second centuryA.D. It was in themagnificent
sculptures of the temple of Borobudur in Java that Indian Art
reached its highest expression. Here we have shown in relief, ships
in full sail, recalling the Hindu colonization of Java in the early
centuries of the Christian era. In such a vessel as that depicted
in these sculptures the famous Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien sailed in the
beginning of the fifthcentury, and from him we learn themethods
of navigation of the time.
Further evidence is obtained from coins which bear witness to
the sea-borne commerce of the Coromandel coast in the second
century of the Christian era.
Both Sanskrit and Pali literature containmuch direct evidence
in the form of allusions to sea-voyages. The oldest of such records
is found in the Rig-Veda, which contains several references to sea
voyages of a commercial nature. In one passage mention is made
of a naval expedition in which a certain King Tugra sent his son
Bhujiji against his enemies in distant islands. The prince was
wrecked in a storm, but was rescued by a hundred-oared galley. The
Ramayana also contains several passages which indicate intercourse
between India and distant lands.
History was not a strong feature of ancient Indian writers, and
what writings have come down to us are almost entirely of a re
ligious character, hence the impossibility of a connected history of
ancient India. From secular writers further evidence is deduced,
while the ancient chronicles of Ceylon also bear witness. The
Vijayan legends contain the story of Vijaya's Pandyan bride who
was brought across in a large ship which accommodated eighteen
officers of state, 75 menial servants and numbers of slaves, besides
the princess and 700 virgins who accompanied her!
In another work, the Digha Nikaya, is a passage which give*
an account of a practice which was evidentlyworldwide, forwe find
it among the Norsemen and likewise among the Chinese, while the
81
June, 1942 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY

first great navigator of Bible story, Noah, is recorded to have made

a similar use of the device, namely, the practice adopted by mariners
of taking to sea with them birds which might be liberated when
out of sight of land, the sailors being able to tell by their flight in
which direction lay the nearest land. If there was no land within
easy reach the birds returned to the ship, as did Noah's dove on
the occasion to which we have just alluded.
From the Buddhist literature known as the Jatakas it would
appear that voyages were undertaken from India to the Persian Gulf
as early as the fifth century B.C., and quite possibly voyages were
undertaken still earlier; in fact, Dr. Sayce, the famous Assyri
ologist considers that commerce was carried on between India and
Babylon as early as 3000 B.C., the opinion apparently being based
upon the discovery of what is considered to Be Indian teak in the
ruins of Ur of the Chaldees.
Thus, ancient Hindu literature, both sacred and secular,
ancient sculpture and coins, all bear witness to the fact that from
the very earliest times of which there is any record Indians have
freely used the sea as the great highway of international commerce.
About the time that Alexander the Great pushed his conquests
as far east as India ?
i.e., before 300 B.C.?a great state was
organised in the north of India. The boats provided for Alexander's
passage of the Indus were the work of native craftsmen, and the
voyage of Nearchus bears further witness of the maritime activity
of a people who could provide, according to Arrian, 800 vessels, or,
according to Ptolemy, 2000 vessels. Strabo, drawing his informa
tion from the earlier writer Megasthenes, tells us that in this
Maurya kingdom shipbuilding was a government monopoly. Vessels
built in the royal shipyards were let out on hire to those taking
voyages, and to merchants, a custom which reminds us of our Tudor
monarchs in the sixteenth century. From Pliny is to be learned
something of the size of these ships of ancient India, a ship of 3000
amphorae apparently being typical, and an amphora being equal to
about half a hundredweight.
The government of the Emperor Chandra Gupta, who reigned
from 321 B.C. to 297 B.C. over a great part of northern India, was
elaborately organized, we are told by Strabo, the first of the six
Boards intowhich theWar Officewas divided being the Board of
Admiralty. Further valuable information is contained in a Sanskrit
work of the period, the arthas' astro, of Kautilya, from which we

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 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY June,1942
learn that theNaval Department was well organized under a super
intendentof ships who had authority over all navigation, both in
land and oceanic. Still further indication of themaritime activity
of the period is,moreover, found in the variety of port taxes levied.
In the period between 200 B.C. and 250 A.D. therewas, accord
ing to R. Sewell, a well-known authority on the early history of
Southern India, considerable activity in trade both with Western
Asia, Greece and Rome on the one hand, and with China and the
East on the other. Large numbers of Roman gold coins poured into
the country in payment for the silks and other articles of luxury
exported (as is evidenced by the numerous discoveries of these
coins). Before the time ofAugustus the chief trade was with Egypt,
the principal ports being Bernike (or Berenica) and Myos Hormos,
from the latter of which, as already noted, Strabo mentions having
seen about 120 ships sailing to India. The interruption caused to
the overland route after the time of the Emperor Claudius resulted
in the bulk of themerchandise from Southern India being conveyed
by sea to themarkets ofArabia and Alexandria, Greeks at this time
being the chief carriers. It is to this period that the Periplus of
theErythnen Sea (A.D. 100) and Ptolemy's Geography (A.D. 140)
bear witness, the former recording the presence of largeHindu ships
offthe East African and Arabian ports.
As we might expect, this period ofmaritime and political inter
course with Rome and theWest was likewise one of active commer
cial relations with the East. In the firstand second centuriesA.D.
the Coromandel of Chola coast enjoyed the benefit of an active
commercewith both East and West, and Chola fleetsboldly crossed
the Bay of Bengal to the mouth of the Ganges, to Pegu and the
Malay Peninsula and to neighbouring islands.
On the east coast of India, stretching from the mouth of the
Ganges to theKrishna, was the ancient kingdom ofKalinga, founded
as far back as century B.C., and where, according
the eighth to the
inscription found, navigation and maritime commerce formed part
of the education of its princes. Chilka Lake, now a silted-up, un
frequented lagoon,was in those days an excellent harbour crowded
with ships from distant countries.
The number of Indian or Sanskrit words found by Marsden in
theMalayan language is evidence of the early intercourse between
India and Malacca, and to this day at Singapore are to be found
descendants of settlers from the ancient kingdom of Kalinga.
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June, 1942 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY
The most interesting and conspicuous fact in connection with
the Indian maritime intercoursewith the East is theHindu coloniza
tion of Java, and itwas fromKalinga that the first impulse in this
direction appears to have come. As far back as 75 A.D. a band of
Hindu navigators sailed fromKalinga, boldly venturing forth upon
the Indian Ocean and finally arriving at Java, where they estab
lished themselves, built cities and developed trade with themother
country. The journal of a Chinese pilgrim of the beginning of the
fifthcentury is evidence of the early Hindu occupation of Java, for
the writer found the land peopled by Hindus who sailed from the
Ganges via Ceylon to Java, and thence to China in ships manned by
crews who professed the Brahman religion. Other witnesses might
be quoted as proof of the part played in Java by Kalinga. And
apparently this activity lasted through a great many centuries, for
Tavernier, writing in 1666, remarked: "Masulipatam is the only
place in the Bay of Bengal fromwhich vessels sailed eastward for
Bengal, Arrakan, Pegu, Siam, Sumatra, Cochin China and the Man
illas, and west to Hormuz Makha and Madagascar."
There is, however, another legend preserved in the Chronicles
of Java which gives the credit of the Hindu colonization to Gujarat
on the West. This legend tells of a powerful prince who arrived
at the island in 75 A.D., but who was forced by pestilence and other
calamities to withdraw. Not until 603 is a more successful attempt
recorded,when a ruler of Gujarat sent out his son with some 5000
followers, among whom were cultivators, artisans, warriors, etc., in
six large and one hundred small vessels. This great expedition
reached Java where the town of Mendang Kumulan was built. More
men were sent out, and an extensive trade sprang up with Gujarat
and other countries. Then were laid the foundations of those temples
which are the grandest examples of Buddhist art in the whole of
Asia.
It seems impossible to arrive at any very definite view of the
actualprocess of colonization, but evidently the movement extended
over a considerable period, and the legends are connected
probably
with a period of more concentrated invasion which continued
throughat least a century from themiddle of the sixth to themiddle
of the seventh century, and the conclusion is arrived at that Java
was in the first instance by Hindus, from Kalinga,
colonized the later
waves of invasion coming also_ from the region of Gujarat on the
western side of India.

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But the people of Kalinga were not the only active seafarers.
The Bengali also played a prominent part in the sea-borne trade and

colonizing activity towards the East. During the first few centuries
of the Christian era the proselytizing zeal of theBengalis sent bands
of them to China, Korea and even Japan, carrying the Buddhistic
faith, and thework of the Bengali artists is found side by side with
that of those of Kalinga and Gujarat. Among other works of art
are huge bas-reliefswhich reveal the type of ship used in the voyages
to Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, China and
Japan.
Among the folklore of Bengal
tales are numerous references to,
and descriptions of, sea-voyages. The great centre of trade in
ancient Bengal was Tamralipta, and it was from this port that
Fa-hien, the famous Chinese pilgrimwho visited India between 399
and 414 A.D., sailed on his return to China. This intercourse with
Cathay began at least as early as the beginning of the Christian era,
whereas the Chinese do not appear to have arrived in the Malay
archipelago before the fifthcentury,and did not extend their voyages
to India, Persia and Arabia until a century later. According to
Professor Lacouperie, thewriter of The Western Origin of Chinese
Civilization, themaritime intercourse of India and China dates back
verymuch earlier, to 680 B.C., in fact, but the records of this early
period are naturally very vague. The Chinese annals give no evi
dence of embassies from India before the reign of Hoti (A.D. 89
150). Between Ceylon and China there was considerable intercourse
in the early centuries of the Christian era, an intercourse stimulated,
as the Chinese annals points out, by a common national worship,
and in the seventh century, founded as early as the end of
the fifth century, to the Mahawanso, Ceylon had a
according
fully developed marine for the defence of its coast. A Chinese his
tory called the Suyshoo gives an account of a fleet of 30 vessels sent
in 607 A.D. by a king of Ceylon tomeet a fleetwhich was bringing
an embassy from China.
During the fifth and sixth centuries Indian maritime activity
was also great on thewest coast, where the ports of Sindh and Gu
jarat were the chief centres of the naval enterprise of the time.
Hamza of Ispahan records that ships of India and China could be
seen constantly moored at Hira near Kuf a on the Euphrates.
The voyage of the traveller I-Tsing, who visited India in 673
A.D., is evidence of the traffic across the sea between India
and China in the seventh century. At this time thewhole coast of
85
June, 1942 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY
Farther India from Burma to China was studded with Indian
colonies and naval stations which formed convenient halting places
on the route to the East. More than one of these stations is re
ferred to by I-Tsing. There is evidence of Indian Buddhists in Japan
in the eighth century, and the story is told in the Nihon-ko-ki of an
Indian who was washed ashore in 799, and who had among his
effects some cotton seed. In the Ruijufo&kushi is a similar record
of a man cast ashore in 800.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries there occurred in Southern
India a remarkable outburst of naval activity under the strong rule
of the Chola kings. The first of these monarchs, Raja-Raja,
ascended the throne in 985, made himself overlord of India, and
built up a powerful navy by means of which Ceylon was added to
his empire. Intercourse was carried on with the Far East, and the
Chinese Work, Smgshih, gives the names of two Chola kings who
sent embassies to China in 1033 and 1077 respectively.
About this period theArabs began to establish themselves along
the coast of India, the immediate cause of these Arab conquests in
India being the result of expeditions to avenge the plunder of Arab
ships by pirates from the region of themouth of the Indus. Their
greatest activitywas during the period of the rule of the Caliphs of
Bagdad. Numerous mentions appear of India in Arab works of the
ninth century, and this was the time that the voyages were made
that form the foundation for the well-known stories of the Voyages
of Sinbad the Sailor. According to a work called the Tabahat-i
Akbari, the seventeenth voyage of the Sultan Mahmud was directed
against the Jats. In the fight which resulted, the Arab boats,
which numbered 1400,were each fittedwith three spikes, one on the
bow and one on each side, and by means of these the enemy boats
were broken and overturned, most of the Jats being drowned.1
An Arab writer, Al-Biruni, gives an account of Indian mercan
tile activity in the eleventh century,when "large ships, called in the
language of China 'junks'/' frequented theMalabar coast, bringing
various sorts of choicemerchandise from China. Another writer in
the fourteenth century (Wassaf) describes these junks as sailing
"like mountains with thewings of the winds on the surface of the

* cf. Julius Caesar's tactics in the conflict with

the Veniti and their British
allies at the mouth of the Loire. He fastened sharp blades to the ends of his
yard arms. These cut the enemy rigging, allowing the heavy square sail to
drop, with the result that the Romans overwhelmed their foes while thus helpless.
86
 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY June,1942
water." From Marco Polo2 we learn some details of Indian ship
ping. The ships were built of firand double planked, caulked with
oakum within and without and fastened with iron nails, while the
bottoms were smeared with a preparation of quicklime and hemp
pounded together and mixed with oil. As regards size, he saw ships
so large as to require a crew of 300; others were manned by crews
of from 200 to 150, and could carry between 5000 and 6000 baskets
(or mat bags). Such a ship had fourmasts with one sail to each,
but was not wholly dependent on its sails, for itmight be propelled
by sweeps, each ofwhich was operated by a crew of fourmen. The
larger ships usually had a single deck below which were as many
as sixty cabins providing accommodation for the merchants. To
guard against accidents the hold was subdivided by as many as
thirteen bulkheads, and when repairs to the sides or bottoms were
required an additional layer of planks was laid on until a ship might
have as many as six layers. Corroboration( of this description is
to be found in the account of another traveller, Nicolo Conti, who
was in India in the fifteenthcentury. He tells us that "the natives
of India build some ships larger than ours, capable of holding 200
butts, and with five sails and as many masts. The lower part is
so constructedwith triple planks in order to withstand the force of
the tempests to which they are much exposed. But some ships are
so built in compartments that, should one part be shattered, the
other, remaining entire, may accomplish the voyage." Of the Indian
merchants he writes: "They are very rich, so much so, that some
tarill carry on their business in forty of their own ships, each of
which is valued at 15,000 gold pieces."3 Writing in themiddle of
the fifteenth century, Abd-er-Rezzak describes Calicut as one of the
greatest shipping centres in the world, and the same writer pictures
Ormuz as thronged with merchants of the "seven climates," includ
ing the Kingdom of Tchin (northernChina) and the city of Khan
balik (Pekin), all ofwhom make theirway to this port,which "hath
not its equal on the surface of the globe."
In 1372 Firoz Shah led an expedition against Thatla in which
he is reported to have employed 5000 boats to transport an army of
90,000men and 480 elephants down the Indus, and we read of Timur
a few years later fightingseveral actions upon the waters of the
2Travels ofMarco Polo, Book 111,
Chap. I.
Scf. the power of the merchants of Calicut as recorded by Correa. See
Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hak. Soc).
1 i 87
June, 1942 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY

Ganges. During the following century and the early part of the
sixteenth century there was much maritime activity on the western
coast, and till the arrival of the Portuguese the Sultans of Ahmeda
bad maintained their position of lords of the sea, and Java appears
on the list of foreign "bandars" who pay tribute. In themiddle of
the fifteenthcentury theRaja of Vishalgad built up a greatmaritime
power with a fleet of three hundred vessels with which he harassed
the commerce of the Mussulmans. He was, however, overcome by
the treachery ofMahmud, King of Gujarat, who maintained a large
fleet for the suppression of the pirates which infested the coast.
When Vasco da Gama appeared in Eastern waters in 1498 he
found sailors from Cambay on the coast of Africa, and Albuquerque
found a strong Hindu element in Java and Malacca, while in
Sumatra there ruled a prince of Hindu origin. The Portuguese had
more than one encounter with ships of Indian princes. In 1508 a com
bination occurred between an Egyptian and a Gujarat fleet for the
destruction of the Portuguese; in 1521 theKing of Gujarat defeated
a Portuguese force off Chaul, sinking one vessel; seven years later a
decisive action was fought offBandru inwhich the Portuguese took
seventy-three out of the eighty ships which composed the Cambay
fleet. These are merely some of the incidentswhich might be quoted
in illustration of the condition of maritime affairs in Indian waters
at this time.

During this period the ship-building in India seems to have been

of quite a high standard, and at any rate at places equal to that of
the Portuguese. In 1540 an expedition was undertaken from Bas
sein against Agashi with the object of getting possession of a great
ship which had just been built there and was ready for launching.
The ship *was taken, and afterwards performed several voyages to

Portugal. Further evidence in this direction is to be had from the

voyage of Sir Henry Middleton who, in 1612, stopped, on a voyage
to the Red Sea, a Surat ship which was 153 feet long, 42 feet in
beam and 31 feet deep, and said to be of 1500 tons burden.4A similar
ship was met by Captain Saris in the Red Sea, the tonnage in this
instance being estimated at 1200 tons! As regards thematerial for
4
Quoted in Bombay Gazeteer, Vol I, Part II, pp. 34-36. See also the Voyage
of Sir Henry Middleton (Hakluyt Society). In the Journal of the.Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I, is an interesting paper by John
Edye, one time master shipwright of H.M. Naval Yard at Trincomali, on native
vessels of India and Ceylon. The various types, which are here illustrated by
diagrams, appear to have remained the same for many centuries.

88
 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY June, 1942

ship-building, we have the evidence of the Venetian traveller,

Cesare di Fedrici, who, in 1565,wrote that such was the abundance
of building material in the kingdom of Arrakan that the Sultan of
Constantinople found it cheaper to have his vessels built here than
at Alexandria. This, of course, was at a time When Turkish sea
power was such that the Turks practically controlled the Mediter
ranean, for the battle of Prevesa had been fought in 1538, and it
was not until 1571 that the combined Christian fleets under Don
John of ^Austria procured the downfall of the Turkish fleet at
Lepanto.
During the Mogul period in India political unity was for the
first time almost attained, and there arose what might almost be
termed an Imperial Navy, particularly in Bengal. For information
about this period the chief authority is a work known as Ayeen-i
Akbari, which is a veritable storehouse for events connected with
the life of Akbar the Great. Elaborate regulations were drawn up
for the organization of the Naval Department, whose duty it was
to see to the supply of ships and boats for navigation, and to super
vise their building. The chief building centres were Bengal, Cash
mere and Tata. Ships of a size suitable for sea-voyages were also
constructed at Allahabad and Lahore. Further, the Naval Depart
ment was responsible for the personnel ? a sufficient number of
mariners had to be provided. The Naval Department fur
efficient
ther controlled the inland waterways, ferries, &c, and an official
was appointed who corresponded to Chandragupta's Superintendent
of Shipping. Customs duties, which were restricted to 2?%, were
also controlled by this department. The headquarters of the fleet
was at Decca, whence it guarded the coasts from the pirates of Arra
kan, who were extremely powerful, and who at times proved a terror
to the Bengal Navy. In Eastern Bengal about the end of the six
teenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century there
was considerable maritime activity on the part of some independent
Hindu landlords. Kedar Roy, the lord of Sripur, for instance,
seems to have been something of a naval genius, who built up a
considerable power. In 1602 his seizure of the island of Sandwipa
from theMoguls led to a naval conflictwith Arrakan inwhich this
chief and his allies were victorious, capturing nearly 150 of the
enemy's vessels. Kedar Roy's career came to an end, however, when
he was finally captured by the viceroy of Bengal. With the death of
Akbar the navy of Bengal declined and piracy increased, though
89
 June, 1942 THE AUSTRALIAN QUARTERLY
something to suppress it iwas done again by the viceroy of Bengal
in 1664.
Writing in the second half of the seventeenth century,Thomas
Bowrey5 describesMetchlepatam (Masulipatam) as the great trading
and shipping centre on the Coromandel coast, and states that its
merchants were great adventurers and transported vast quantities
of goods, both in their own ships and also in those of the English.
In the time of Aurungzeb, who died in 1707, the chief shipping
centres were on the west coast, where pirates became a terrible
scourge. The Mahratta chief, S'ivaji, patronized ship-building, and
the growth of theMahratta power was accompanied by the forma
tion of a formidable fleetwhose principal rendezvous was Kolaba.
At the end of the seventeenth century theMahratta fleetwas master
of thewhole coast fromBombay to Vingorla. The ships composing
this fleet carried between thirtyand forty guns each, and became a
menace to European trade on the west coast. In 1707 the Bombay
frigate was attacked and blo*wnup, three years later the Godolphin
fought an action for two days with Mahratta ships. In themiddle
of the centuryMahratta craft swept the coast from Cutch to Cochin.
Finally, Clive and Watson led an expedition against Gherria, and
the capture of this place meant the destruction of Mahratta naval
power, which had been the terror of the coast for half a century.
The maritime activities of British India belong to "another
place, sufficeit to say here that an Indian Navy was created by the
East India Company and took an active part in the Burmese War
and in the China War of 1840. After this time it declined, and was
finally abolished in 1863. More recently a Royal Indian Navy has
come into existence, and it seems evident that we are going to see a
great extension of this force in the fuure.

?Hak. Soc, Series II, Vol. XII,

Geographical Account of the Countries
round the Bay of Bengal, 1669-1675. Bowrey's evidence corresponds with that
of Tavernier. "This place, which is on the seashore, is only renowned on account
of its anchorage, which is the best in the Bay of Bengal, and it is the only
place from which vessels sail for Pegu, Siam, Arakan, Bengal, Cochinchina,
Mecca and Hormuz, as also for the islands of Madagascar, Sumatra or the
Manillas." Vol. I, p. 175.
"In the latter part of the last century this town was one of the most
flourishing in all India." Hamilton, Vol. I, p. 373.

90