INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 209 



it seems probable that it is even older than that with the Persian Gulf. In A.D. 70 it 

 was still flourishing at Muza, though it would seem from the Periplus that most of the 

 ships used were Arab-owned and manned. It is of importance here to note that while 

 this author speaks of Arab shipmasters and common sailors thronging the port of 

 Muza, his references to Indians are as merchants only: — ■" In bygone times when the 

 merchants of India did not proceed to Egypt" and " the population of Sokotra con- 

 sisted chiefly of foreigners, Arabs, Indians and even Greeks who resorted thither for 

 the purpose of commerce." 



But whereas the Periplus does not give any support to the theory that Indian 

 ships traded between India and the Red Sea, he records definitely that Broach carried 

 on a regular trade with Apologos at the head of the Persian Gulf, and with Omana, 

 apparently a port on the coast of Persia, freighting large vessels with logs of sasamina 

 and ebony, wood for rafters (teak?), sandalwood, copper and other commodities. 

 He adds that Omana is a shipbuilding centre, exporting completed vessels called 

 madarata,^ to Arabia, meaning Hadramaut and Yemen. A similar trade exists now — 

 Arab vessels carrying away timber from the Malabar coast to supply the needs of the 

 many shipyards on the Arabian coasts. 



The Gujarat coast at this period appears to have been the chief centre of Indian 

 shipping activity, for besides describing the great trade of Broach, and the systema- 

 tic pilotage arrangements whereby incoming ships were met at sea by Government 

 pilot boats large and well-manned, called trappaga and kotimba,'^ and led safely through 

 the shoals which obstructed the fairway to the port, in a subsequent passage the Peri- 

 plus refers to Muziris (Cranganore), the pepper emporium of the Malabar coast, as 

 frequented by ships from Ariake, whereby is meant Indian ships from Gujarat. 

 Indian pirate ships are also mentioned as infesting the West Coast at this time, 

 rendering the voyage to Muziris dangerous. 



The West Coast from Sind to Mangalore has been the haunt of piracy from the 

 earliest days of Indian shipping. Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Italians, from the first 

 century B.C. to the coming of the Portuguese, all give their evidence that the inhabi- 

 tants of that coast made a living by their depredations upon passing merchant craft. 

 A particularly flagrant act of piracy committed by some Sind freebooters upon a ship'^ 

 sent by the King of Ceylon to the Kalif Muwaiya (A.D. 661-679), was the direct cause 

 of the invasion and conquest of Sind by the Arabs. Pirates presuppose trading ships 

 and any people building and operating pirate vessels must be credited with at least 

 sufficient skill to operate trading ships on the same coast ; hence we may fairly infer, 

 apart from other evidence leading to an identical conclusion, that from the time when 

 Greek trading fleets appeared in Eastern waters until the present day, a great part of 

 the coastwise traffic of India has been carried on in Indian bottoms — almost exclusively 



1 Schoff, W. H. (The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (translation), London, 1912, p. 154) quotes Glazer to the effect 

 that this is the Arabic muddarra'at, meaning " fattened with palm fibre." 



2 Possibly we have in the latter word a form of the term kotia, now applied to ocean-going vessels showing Portu- 

 guese influence in their design, but owned largely in Kathiawar and Kutch. 



3 Eight ships according to the Chach-nama as quoted by Sir H. M. Elliot in his " History of India," 1867. 



