HINDU PERIOD
CHAPTER III.
Indirect Evidences: References and Allusions to Indian Maritime Activity in Sanskrit and Pali Literature.
I have already said that though ancient Indian literature furnishes rather meagre evidences directly bearing on Indian shipping and shipbuilding, it abounds with innumerable references to sea voyages and sea-borne trade and the constant use of the ocean as the great highway of international intercourse and commerce; which therefore serve as indirect evidence pointing to the existence and development of a national shipping, feeding and supporting a national commerce. We shall therefore now adduce those passages in ancient Indian works which, in Bühler's[1] opinion, "prove the early existence of a complete navigation of the Indian Ocean, and of the trading voyages of Indians." The oldest evidence on record is supplied by the Ṛig-Veda, which contains several references to sea voyages undertaken for commercial and other purposes. One passage (I. 25. 7) represents Varuṇa having a full knowledge of the ocean routes along which vessels sail. Another (II. 48. 3) speaks of merchants, under the influence of greed, sending out ships to foreign countries. A third passage (I. 56. 2)
- ↑ Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet, p. 84.
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