Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/107

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HINDU PERIOD

Among other passages may be mentioned that which invokes Agni thus: "Do thou whose countenance is turned to all sides send off our adversaries as if in a ship to the opposite shore; do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare"; or that in which Agni is prayed to bestow a boat with oars.

The Rāmāyaṇa also contains several passages which indicate the intercourse between India and distant lands by way of the sea. In the Kishkindhyā Kāndam, Sugrīva, the Lord of the Monkeys, in giving directions to monkey leaders for the quest of Sītā, mentions all possible places where Rāvaṇa could have concealed her. In one passage he asks them to go to the cities and mountains in the islands of the sea[1]; in another the land of the Kosakaras[2]

  1. The passage in question is: समुद्रमवगाढ़ांश्च पर्व्वतान् पत्तनानि च। (Kishkindhyā Kāndam, 40. 25.)
  2. The passage in question is: भूमिञ्च कोषकाराणां भूमिञ्च रजताकराम्। (Kishkindhyā Kāndam, 40. 23.) The commentator explains कोषकाराणां भूमिम् as कोषेयतन्तूत्पादकजन्तूत्पत्तिस्थानभूतानां भूमिम् or the land where grows the worm which yields the threads of silken clothes. The silken cloth for which China has been famous from time immemorial has been termed in Sanskrit literature चीनांशुक and चीनचेल to point to the place of its origin. Thus in Kālidāsa's Sakuntalā we come across the following passage:—

    गच्छति पुरः शरीरं धावति पश्चादसंस्थितं चेतः।
    चीनांशुकमिव केतोः प्रतिवातं नीयमानस्य॥

    In the Yātrātattva of Raghunandana we find the following:—

    सर्व्वाङ्गमनुलिप्येच्च चन्दनेन्दुमृदुद्रवैः।
    सुगन्धि माल्याभरणैश्चीनचेलैः सुशोभनैः॥

    The following further evidence of a Western scholar may be adduced to

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