# Indian Shipping/Introduction/Epochs

III.—Epochs.
The epochs of Indian history round which these various evidences regarding the shipping and maritime activity of India will be grouped, may be roughly indicated as follows:—
1. The Pre-Mauryan Epoch, extending from the earliest times to about the year B.C. 321.—For this period we shall discuss the evidences that can be gleaned from some of the oldest literary records of humanity like the Ṛig-Veda, the Bible, and some of the old Pali and Tamil works, as also from the finds of Egyptian and Assyrian archaeologists, regarding the early maritime intercourse of India with the West. Evidences for this period are also to be derived from the writings of the Greek authors Herodotus and Ctesias, in the 5th century B.C., containing references to India.
2. The Mauryan Epoch (B.C. 321-184).—For this period the available evidences are those preserved in the works of many Greek and Roman authors who essayed to tell the story of Alexander's Indian campaign and recorded the observations made on India by the Greek ambassadors to the courts of the Maurya emperors. These Greek and Roman notices of India have been mostly made accessible to Indian students by the translations of Mr. McCrindle. More important and interesting than these foreign evidences is the evidence ​furnished by a recently published Sanskrit work, the Arthaśāstra of Kautilya, which is a mine of information regarding the manifold aspects of a highly developed material civilization witnessed by Maurya India. Bearing on this period also is the evidence of tradition preserved in that monumental work of the Kashmirian poet Kshemendra called Bodhisattvāvadāna Kalpalatā, which is now being published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in the Bibliotheca Indica series. The seventy-third pallava or chapter of this work relates a story which throws some light on the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of India during the days of the Emperor Asoka.
3. The Kushan Period in the north and the Andhra Period in the south, extending roughly from the 2nd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D.—This was the period when Roman influence on India was at its height; in fact, the whole of the southern peninsula under the Andhra dynasty was in direct communication with Rome, while the conquests in Northern India tended still further to open up trade with the Roman Empire, so that Roman gold poured into all parts of India in payment for her silks, spices, gems, and dye-stuffs. The evidences proving this are the remarkable finds of Roman coins, more numerous in the south than in the north, together with the references in the ancient Sanskrit and Pali works to "Romaka," or the city of Rome, and in ancient Tamil works to the ​"Yavanas" or Greeks and Romans, and to the important South Indian ports like Muchiris and Pukar, of which full descriptions are given in old Tamil poems. Besides evidences from ancient Indian literature bearing on Indian commerce with Rome, there are also definite evidences from important foreign works. The chief of these are Pliny's Natural History, the Peripius of the Erythraean Sea, and Ptolemy's Geography, besides the incidental allusions to Indian commerce and shipping thrown out by writers like Agatharcides and Strabo.
4. The Period of Hindu Imperialism in Northern India under the Guptas and Harshavardhana, extending from the 4th century to the 7th century A.D.—This was the period of the expansion of India and of much colonizing activity towards the farther East from Bengal, the Kalinga coast, and Coromandel. Parts of Burma and Malacca were colonized, chiefly from Kalinga and Bengal, as shown in Sir A. P. Phayre's History of Burma, and testified to by Burmese sacred scriptures and coins. The main evidences for the remarkable maritime activity of this period are supplied by the accounts of the numerous Chinese pilgrims to India, of whom Fa-Hien was the first and Hiuen Tsang the most famous. These accounts are now all accessible through translations. Among foreign works supplying valuable materials for the history of the period may be mentioned the Christian Topography ​of Cosmas. Some very valuable evidences regarding the early commerce between India and China are furnished by Chinese annals like the Kwai-Yuen Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka. Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither also has recorded many facts relating to the Indian intercourse with China. For the reign of Harsha the most important source of information is the Travels of Hiuen Tsang, that "treasure-house of accurate information, indispensable to every student of Indian antiquity, which has done more than any archaeological discovery to render possible the remarkable resuscitation of lost Indian history which has recently been effected."
5. The Period of Hindu Imperialism in Southern India and the rise of the Cholas, extending from the middle of the 7th century up to the Mahomedan conquests in Northern India.—During this period Indian maritime intercourse was equally active with both the West and the East. The colonization of Java was completed, and the great temple of Borobudur remained a standing monument of the hold which Buddhism had on that island. The field of Indian maritime enterprise was extended as far as Japan, which is testified to by Japanese tradition and official annals made accessible through the efforts of Japanese scholars like Dr. Taka-kusu. The record of I-Tsing, the famous Chinese traveller, contains many interesting details ​regarding Indian maritime activity in the Eastern waters and intercourse with China in the latter half of the 7th century. Chinese annals also furnish evidences regarding the maritime intercourse of the Cholas with China, e.g. the Sung-shih.
6. The Musalman (pre-Mogul) Period, extending from the 11th century to the 15th.—The sources of evidence for this, and indeed the whole of the Musalman period, are mostly imbedded in Persian works which have been made accessible to scholars by the monumental History of India by Sir H. Elliot, in eight volumes. For information regarding maritime enterprise and activity in Sindh our authorities are Al-Bilāduri and Chach-nāma, translated in Elliot, vol. i. The early Musalman travellers throw much light upon Indian affairs of this period. Al-Biruni is our authority for the 11th century and Al-Idrisi for the 12th. In the 13th century a very valuable source of information regarding Indian shipping and commerce is furnished by a foreign traveller, the Venetian Marco Polo. Wassaf is our guide in the next century, as well as Tārikh-i-Firozshāhi. In the 15th century we have, in the Chinese account of Mahuan, the most important foreign notice of India after Marco Polo, which relates the exchange of presents between the kings of Bengal and the emperors of China. To the same century also belong the foreign travellers Abd-er-Razzak, Nicolo Conti, and ​Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, who are also valuable sources of information regarding the shipping and trade of the period. In the earlier part of the 16th century, when the Portuguese first appear as a factor in Indian politics, details regarding Indian maritime activity are derivable from Portuguese annals like De Coutto, utilized in some of the standard works on the history of the Portuguese power in India. About the same time the foreign traveller Varthema has left a very interesting account of shipbuilding in Calicut.
7. The Period of Mogul Monarchy, from the 16th century to the 18th, i.e. from the reign of Akbar to that of Aurangzeb.—The evidence for the reign of Akbar is derived, firstly, from that mine of information, Abul-Fazl's Ayeen-i-Akbari, which gives a very valuable account of Akbar's Admiralty; and, secondly, from the abstract of Ausil Toomar Jumma given in Grant's Analysis of the Finances of Bengal in the Fifth Report, in which are contained many interesting details regarding the organization and progress of the Imperial Nowwara or shipping stationed at Dacca, the sources of revenue for its maintenance, the materials for ship-building, and the like. The Chach-nāma in Elliot, vol. i., and Abul-Fazl's Ayeen-i-Akbari give some details about the shipping and ports of Sindh. Some details regarding Hindu maritime activity, commerce, and shipping in Bengal are also derived ​from Takmilla-i-Akbarnāma in Elliot, vol. vi., from the Sanskrit work Ghataka-kārikā, from the Portuguese accounts of De Barros and Souza, from the records of other foreign travellers like Varthema and Ralph Fitch, and lastly from some old Bengali poems and songs preserving local tradition. In the reign of Aurangzeb the principal sources of our information regarding the maritime activities of the Ferenghies and of the imperial fleet are the Fathiyyah-i-ibriyyah, translated by Blochmann, and the contemporary Persian Account of Shihab-ud-dīn Talish in MS. Bodleian 589, Sachau and Ethé's Catalogue, which is translated by Professor Jadunath Sarkar, M.A. Among foreign travellers who supply us with information for this period we may mention Thomas Bowrey, in whose account of the countries round the Bay of Bengal we have many interesting details regarding shipping and commerce. Dr. Fryer is also another similar source of our information. The same period also witnessed the development of Maratha shipping and maritime activity under Sivaji and the Peshwas, details regarding which may be derived from some of the standard works on Maratha history.