Indian Shipping

A landmark work of Indian historical scholarship, Indian Shipping was the first systematic attempt to trace the full history of Indian maritime enterprise from the Vedic age to the decline of the Mughal Empire. Radhakumud Mookerji, then a young Premchand Roychand Scholar at Calcutta University, assembled an extraordinary range of evidence — from the shipbuilding treatise Yuktikalpataru and the economic regulations of Kautilya’s Arthashastra, to the sculptures of Borobudur, the accounts of Greek and Roman geographers, and the records of the East India Company.

The book is divided into two main parts. The first traces the Hindu period, beginning with the evidence for Indian maritime activity preserved in Sanskrit and Pali literature, sculpture, and coins, then following the historical narrative from the pre-Mauryan era through the great age of Hindu imperialism — the Gupta dynasty, the colonisation of Java, the maritime enterprises of Bengal, and the naval power of the Chola Empire. The second part covers the Mahomedan period, from the Arab conquests of Sindh through the reign of Akbar and the age of Aurangzeb, to the final decline of Indian shipping under European competition.

With an introductory note by Brajendranath Seal, this work remains an indispensable reference for the history of Indian Ocean trade and the role of India as a maritime civilisation.