INDIAN SHIPPING
story of the churning of the ocean, in the Mahābhārata, in the boldness of its conception is not without a significance. In the Droṇa Parva there is a passage alluding to shipwrecked sailors who "are safe if they get to an island."[1] In the same Parva there is another passage in which there is a reference to a "tempest-tossed and damaged vessel in a wide ocean."[2] In the Karṇa Parva we find the soldiers of the Kauravas bewildered like the merchants "whose ships have come to grief in the midst of the unfathomable deep."[3] There is another sloka in the same Parva which describes how the sons of Draupadī rescued their maternal uncles by supplying them with chariots, "as the shipwrecked merchants are rescued by means of boats." In the Śānti Parva the salvation attained by means of Karma and true knowledge is compared to the gain which a merchant derives from sea-borne trade.[4] But the most interesting passage in the Mahābhārata is that which refers to the escape of
- ↑ भिन्ननौका यथाराजन् द्वीपमासाद्य निर्वृताः।
भवन्ति पुरुषव्याघ्र नाविकाः कालपर्यये॥ - ↑ विष्वगिवाहता रुग्ना नौरिवासीन्महार्णवे।
- ↑ निमज्जतस्तानथ कर्णसागरे
विपन्ननावो वनिजो यथार्णवात्।
उद्दध्रिरे नौभिरिवार्णवाद्रथैः
सुकल्पितै र्द्रौपदीजाः स्वमातुलान्॥ - ↑ वनिक् यथा समुद्राद्वैयथार्थम् लभते धनम्।
तथा मर्त्त्यार्णवे जन्तोः कर्म्मविज्ञानतो गतिः॥
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