210 J. HORNELL ON 



prior to about the 7th century ; since then more or less shared by Arab-built or 

 owned vessels. 



That these pirate ships of the Konkan^ South Kanara and Kathiawar were wea- 

 therly craft we may infer from Marco Polo's description of the way in which the Kon- 

 kan and Gujarat pirates scoured these seas with more than one hundred small vessels, 

 seizing and plundering all the merchant ships that passed that way. He adds that 

 their wives and children of all ages accompanied them aboard the ships, so we may 

 infer that they afforded considerable accommodation. At the present day the crews 

 of the larger fishing boats, descendants of these old pirates, continue the tradition by 

 staying at sea, often for a week or a fortnight without coming ashore. 



Neither was the maritime activity of Broach always peaceful ; the Periplus re- 

 cords that the authorities endeavoured to break the trade of rival ports on the Bom- 

 bay coast by means of blockade, and by towing away foreign ships making for those 

 ports. 



So much for the sea trade of the Western Coast of India — knowledge meagre and 

 scanty and amounting to little more than an assurance that Indian ships, manned by 

 Indians, did share with Arab ships in the trade between India and the Persian Gulf, 

 and with Aden and the East Coast of Africa, from very early days, and that a well- 

 developed coasting trade, in spite of harassment by local pirates, was carried on by 

 Indian ships between West Coast ports. This trade was exactly upon the lines of 

 present-day sea-commerce as carried on by Indian merchants in vessels built and 

 manned in India — proof of the conservatism of commerce as well as of its antiquity. 



Sea-trade upon the Hast Coast never became well known to the Alexandrian 

 Greeks or to the Romans ; on the other hand much more information upon this aspect 

 of ancient Indian enterprise is contained in Indian inscriptions and documents, and 

 proved in indirect ways, than in the case of the West Coast trade. Thus the records 

 of Indian and Sinhalese dynasties frequently record naval expeditions against overseas 

 nations. Vijaya and his followers, the founders of the ruling section of the Sinhalese 

 nation, are reputed to have reached Ceylon about 550 B.C. from some port at the 

 head of the Bay of Bengal, and for centuries thereafter Sinhalese chronicles and South 

 Indian inscriptions testify to the frequent invasions of Ceylon by Chola and Pandyan 

 armies, and even to occasional counter -invasions of South India by Sinhalese. Boats 

 of considerable size must have been employed, as mounted troops are mentioned ; 

 horses, elephants, and chariots also passed as marriage dowries between the Royal 

 Houses of South India and Ceylon.' So far as we know, the Indian ports of depar- 

 ture were chiefly on the Tanjore and Ramnad coast of Palk Strait. Kaveripattanam 

 on the Coromandel coast was then at the height of its fame. Both Greek and Tamil 

 writers mention it, and have much to say of its sea-borne commerce. The Periplus 

 is the most definite ; here towards the end of the narrative after speaking of Kolkoi 

 (the Pandyan city of Korkai) and of the pearl fishery coast on the Gulf of Mannar, 

 we are told : — 



I Mahawamsa, 1889 Edition, p. 34. 



