Etalu dhan láve.
Who go to Java stay for aye.
If they return they feast and play
Such stores of wealth their risks repay.
[13] Compare Crawford (a.d. 1820) in As. Res. XIII. 157 and Lassen Ind. Alt. II. 1046. [↑]
[14] The following details summarise the available evidence of Gujarát Hindu enterprise by sea. According to the Greek writers, though it is difficult to accept their statements as free from exaggeration, when, in b.c. 325, Alexander passed down the Indus the river showed no trace of any trade by sea. If at that time sea trade at the mouth of the Indus was so scanty as to escape notice it seems fair to suppose that Alexander’s ship-building and fleet gave a start to deep-sea sailing which the constant succession of strong and vigorous northern tribes which entered and ruled Western India during the centuries before and after the Christian era continued to develope.[15] According to Vincent (Periplus, I. 25, 35, 254) in the time of Agatharcides (b.c. 200) the ports of Arabia and Ceylon were entirely in the hands of the people of Gujarát. During the second century after Christ, when, under the great Rudradáman (a.d. 143–158), the Sinh or Kshatrapa dynasty of Káthiáváḍa was at the height of its power, Indians of Tientço, that is Sindhu, brought presents by sea to China (Journal Royal Asiatic Society for January 1896 page 9). In a.d. 166 (perhaps the same as the preceding) the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius sent by sea to China ambassadors with ivory rhinoceros’ horn and other articles apparently the produce of Western India (DeGuignes’ Huns, I. [Part I.] 32). In the third century a.d. 247 the Periplus (McCrindle, 17, 52, 64, 96, 109) notices large Hindu ships in the east African Arab and Persian ports and Hindu settlements on the north coast of Sokotra. About a century later occurs the doubtful reference (Wilford in Asiatic Researches, IX. 224) to the Diveni or pirates of Diu who had to send hostages to Constantine the Great (a.d. 320–340) one of whom was Theophilus afterwards a Christian bishop. Though it seems probable that the Kshatrapas (a.d. 70–400) ruled by sea as well as by land fresh seafaring energy seems to have marked the arrival on the Sindh and Káthiáváḍ coasts of the Juan-Juan or Avars (a.d. 390–450) and of the White Húṇas (a.d. 450–550). During the fifth and sixth centuries the ports of Sindh and Gujarát appear among the chief centres of naval enterprise in the east. How the sea ruled the religion of the newcomers is shown by the fame which gathered round the new or revised gods Śiva the Poseidon of Somnáth and Kṛishṇa the Apollo or St. Nicholas of Dwárka. (Compare Tod’s Annals of Rájasthán, I. 525.) In the fifth century (Yule’s Cathay, I. lxxviii.) according to Hamza of Ispahán, at Hira near Kufa on the Euphrates the ships of India and China were constantly moored. In the early sixth century (a.d. 518–519) a Persian ambassador went by sea to China (Ditto, I. lxxiv.) About the same time (a.d. 526) Cosmas (Ditto, I. clxxviii.) describes Sindhu or Debal and Orhota that is Soratha or Verával as leading places of trade with Ceylon. In the sixth century, apparently driven out by the White Húṇas and the Mihiras, the Jats from the Indus and Kachh occupied the islands in the Bahrein gulf, and perhaps manned the fleet with which about a.d. 570 Naushiraván the great Sassanian (a.d. 531–574) is said to have invaded the lower Indus and perhaps Ceylon.[16] About the same time (Fergusson Architecture, III. 612) Amrávati at the Kṛishṇa mouth was superseded as the port for the Golden Chersonese by the direct voyage from Gujarát and the west coast of India. In a.d. 630 Hiuen Tsiang (Beal’s Buddhist Records, II. 269) describes the people of Suráshṭra as deriving their livelihood from the sea, engaging in commerce, and exchanging commodities. He further notices that in the chief cities of Persia Hindus were settled enjoying the full practice of their religion (Reinaud’s Abulfeda, ccclxxxv.) That the Jat not the Arab was the moving spirit in the early (a.d. 637–770) Muhammadan sea raids against the Gujarát and Konkan coasts is made probable by the fact that these seafaring ventures began not in Arabia but in the Jat-settled shores of the Persian Gulf, that for more than fifty years the Arab heads of the state forbad them, and that in the Mediterranean where they had no Jat element the Arab was powerless at sea. (Compare Elliot, I. 416, 417.) That during the seventh and eighth centuries when the chief migrations by sea from Gujarát to Java and Cambodia seem to have taken place, Chinese fleets visited Diu (Yule’s Cathay, lxxix.), and that in a.d. 759 Arabs and Persians besieged Canton and pillaged the storehouses going and returning by sea (DeGuignes’ Huns, I. [Pt. II.] 503) suggest that the Jats were pilots as well as pirates.[17] On the Sindh Kachh and Gujarát coasts besides the Jats several of the new-come northern tribes showed notable energy at sea. It is to be remembered that as detailed in the Statistical Account of Thána (Bombay Gazetteer, XIII. Part II. 433) this remarkable outburst of sea enterprise may have been due not only to the vigour of the new-come northerners but to the fact that some of them, perhaps the famous iron-working Turks (a.d. 580–680), brought with them the knowledge of the magnet, and that the local Bráhman, with religious skill and secrecy, shaped the bar into a divine fish-machine or machiyantra, which, floating in a basin of oil, he consulted in some private quarter of the ship and when the stars were hid guided the pilot in what direction to steer. Among new seafaring classes were, on the Makrán and Sindh coasts the Bodhas Kerks and Meds and along the shores of Kachh and Káthiáváḍa the closely connected Meds and Gurjjaras. In the seventh and eighth centuries the Gurjjaras, chiefly of the Chápa or Chávaḍá clan, both in Dwárka and Somnáth and also inland, rose to power, a change which, as already noticed, may explain the efforts of the Jats to settle along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. About a.d. 740 the Chápas or Chávaḍás, who had for a century and a half been in command in Dwárka and Somnáth, established themselves at Aṇahilaváḍa Pattan. According to their tradition king Vanarája (a.d. 720–780) and his successor Yogarája (a.d. 806–841) made great efforts to put down piracy. Yogarája’s sons plundered some Bengal or Bot ships which stress of weather forced into Verával. The king said ‘My sons with labour we were raising ourselves to be Chávaḍás of princely rank; your greed throws us back on our old nickname of Choras or thieves.’ Yogarája refused to be comforted and mounted the funeral pyre. Dr. Bhagvánlál’s History, 154. This tale seems to be a parable. Yogarája’s efforts to put down piracy seem to have driven large bodies of Jats from the Gujarát coasts. In a.d. 834–35, according to Ibn Alathyr (a.d. 834), a fleet manned by Djaths or Jats made a descent on the Tigris. The whole strength of the Khiláfat had to be set in motion to stop them. Those who fell into the hands of the Moslems were sent to Anararbe on the borders of the Greek empire (Renaud’s Fragments, 201–2). As in the legend, the Chávaḍá king’s sons, that is the Chauras Mers and Gurjjaras, proved not less dangerous pirates than the Jats whom they had driven out.[18] About fifty years later, in a.d. 892, Al-Biláduri describes as pirates who scoured the seas the Meds and the people of Sauráshṭra that is Devpatan or Somnáth who were Choras or Gurjjaras.[19] Biláduri (Reinaud Sur L’Inde, 169) further notices that the Jats and other Indians had formed the same type of settlement in Persia which the Persians and Arabs had formed in India. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Gujarát kingdom which had been established in Java was at the height of its power. (Ditto, Abulfeda, ccclxxxviii.) Early in the tenth century (a.d. 915–930) Masudi (Yule’s Marco Polo, II. 344; Elliot, I. 65) describes Sokotra as a noted haunt of the Indian corsairs called Bawárij which chase Arab ships bound for India and China. The merchant fleets of the early tenth century were not Arab alone. The Chauras of Aṇahilaváḍa sent fleets to Bhot and Chin (Rás Mála, I. 11). Nor were Mers and Chauras the only pirates. Towards the end of the tenth century (a.d. 980) Grahári the Chúḍásamá, known in story as Graharipu the Ahir of Sorath and Girnár, so passed and repassed the ocean that no one was safe (Ditto, I. 11). In the eleventh century (a.d. 1021) Alberuni (Sachau, II. 104) notes that the Bawárij, who take their name from their boats called behra or bira, were Meds a seafaring people of Kachh and of Somnáth a great place of call for merchants trading between Sofala in east Africa and China. About the same time (a.d. 1025) when they despaired of withstanding Máhmud of Ghazni the defenders of Somnáth prepared to escape by sea,[20] and after his victory Máhmud is said to have planned an expedition by sea to conquer Ceylon (Tod’s Rajasthán, I. 108). In the twelfth century Idrísi (a.d. 1135) notices that Tatariya dirhams, that is the Gupta (a.d. 319–500) and White Húṇa (a.d. 500–580) coinage of Sindh and Gujarát, were in use both in Madagascar and in the Malaya islands (Reinaud’s Mémoires, 236), and that the merchants of Java could understand the people of Madagascar (Ditto, Abulfeda, cdxxii).[21] With the decline of the power of Aṇahilaváḍa (a.d. 1250–1300) its fleet ceased to keep order at sea. In a.d. 1290 Marco Polo (Yule’s Ed. II. 325, 328, 341) found the people of Gujarát the most desperate pirates in existence. More than a hundred corsair vessels went forth every year taking their wives and children with them and staying out the whole summer. They joined in fleets of twenty to thirty and made a sea cordon five or six miles apart. Sokotra was infested by multitudes of Hindu pirates who encamped there and put up their plunder to sale. Ibn Batuta (in Elliot, I. 344–345) fifty years later makes the same complaint. Musalmán ascendancy had driven Rájput chiefs to the coast and turned them into pirates. The most notable addition was the Gohils who under Mokheráji Gohil, from his castle on Piram island, ruled the sea till his power was broken by Muhammad Tughlak in a.d. 1345 (Rás Mála, I. 318). Before their overthrow by the Muhammadans what large vessels the Rájput sailors of Gujarát managed is shown by Friar Oderic, who about a.d. 1321 (Stevenson in Kerr’s Voyages, XVIII. 324) crossed the Indian ocean in a ship that carried 700 people. How far the Rájputs went is shown by the mention in a.d. 1270 (Yule’s Cathay, 57 in Howorth’s Mongols, I. 247) of ships sailing between Sumena or Somnáth and China. Till the arrival of the Portuguese (a.d. 1500–1508) the Ahmedábád Sultáns maintained their position as lords of the sea.[22] In the fifteenth century Java appears in the state list of foreign bandars which paid tribute (Bird’s Gujarát, 131), the tribute probably being a cess or ship tax paid by Gujarát traders with Java in return for the protection of the royal navy.[23] In east Africa, in a.d. 1498 (J. As. Soc. of Bengal, V. 784) Vasco da Gama found sailors from Cambay and other parts of India who guided themselves by the help of the stars in the north and south and had nautical instruments of their own. In a.d. 1510 Albuquerque found a strong Hindu element in Java and Malacca. Sumatra was ruled by Parameshwara a Hindu whose son by a Chinese mother was called Rájput (Commentaries, II. 63; III. 73–79). After the rule of the sea had passed to the European, Gujarát Hindus continued to show marked courage and skill as merchants seamen and pirates. In the seventeenth century the French traveller Mandelslo (a.d. 1638, Travels 101, 108) found Achin in north Sumatra a great centre of trade with Gujarát. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Sanganians or Sangar Rájputs of Mándvi in Kachh and of Navánagar in north Káthiáváḍa were much dreaded. In a.d. 1750 Grose describes the small cruisers of the Sanganians troubling boats going to the Persian Gulf, though they seldom attacked large ships. Between a.d. 1803 and 1808 (Low’s Indian Navy, I. 274) pirates from Bet established themselves in the ruined temple at Somnáth. In 1820, when the English took Bet and Dwárka from the Wághels, among the pirates besides Wághels were Badhels a branch of Ráhtors, Bhattis, Khárwás, Lohánás, Makwánás, Ráhtors, and Wagharis. A trace of the Chauras remained in the neighbouring chief of Aramra.[24] Nor had the old love of seafaring deserted the Káthiáváḍa chiefs. In the beginning of the present century (a.d. 1825) Tod (Western India, 452; compare Rás Mála, I. 245) tells how with Biji Singh of Bhávnagar his port was his grand hobby and shipbuilding his chief interest and pleasure; also how Ráo Ghor of Kachh (a.d. 1760–1778) built equipped and manned a ship at Mándvi which without European or other outside assistance safely made the voyage to England and back to the Malabár Coast where arriving during the south-west monsoon the vessel seems to have been wrecked.[25] [↑]
[15] Alexander built his own boats on the Indus. (McCrindle’s Alexander, 77.) He carried (pages 93 and 131) these boats to the Hydaspes: on the Jhelum (134 note 1) where he found some country boats he built a flotilla of gallies with thirty oars: he made dockyards (pages 156–157): his crews were Phoenikians, Cyprians, Karians, and Egyptians. [↑]
[16] Reinaud’s Mémoire Sur L’Inde, 125. The statement that Naushiraván received Karáchi from the king of Seringdip (Elliot’s History, I. 407: Tabari, II. 221) throws doubt on this expedition to Ceylon. At the close of the sixth century Karáchi or Diul Sindhi cannot have been in the gift of the king of Ceylon. It was in the possession of the Sáharái kings of Aror in Upper Sindh perhaps of Sháhi Tegin Devaja shortened to Shahindev. (Compare Cunningham Oriental Congress, I. 242.) According to Garrez (J. As. Ser. VI. Tom. XIII. 182 note 2) this Serendip is Surandeb that is Syria and Antioch places which Naushiraván is known to have taken. Several other references that seem to imply a close connection between Gujarát and Ceylon are equally doubtful. In the Mahábhárata (a.d. 100–300?) the Sinhalas bring vaidúryas (rubies?) elephants’ housings and heaps of pearls. The meaning of Sainhalaka in Samudragupta’s inscription (a.d. 395) Early Gujarát History page 64 and note 5 is uncertain. Neither Mihirakula’s (a.d. 530) nor Lalitáditya’s (a.d. 700) conquest of Ceylon can be historical. In a.d. 1005 when Abul Fatha the Carmatian ruler of Multán was attacked by Máhmud of Ghazni he retired to Ceylon. (Reinaud’s Mémoire, 225). When Somnáth was taken (a.d. 1025) the people embarked for Ceylon (Ditto, 270). [↑]
[17] Compare at a later period (a.d. 1342) Ibn Batuta’s great ship sailing from Kandahár (Gandhár north of Broach) to China with its guard of Abyssinians as a defence against pirates. Reinaud’s Abulfeda, cdxxv. [↑]