This book is a compilation of papers of various authors, presented during a meeting held at the University of Hyderabad during July 2011 with additional essays written later. Edited by Prof. Rila Mukherjee, who had earlier done a similar work titled ‘Ocean Connect’, under the Issues in History series, this collection also deals with marine subject this time with ports of the world. Divided into three parts, the book in all has 17 articles.
The first part deals with the conceptual framework, in which in the two articles, one by the editor herself and the other by the well known marine historian New Zealand-born Michael Pearson, who has produced pioneering works on Indian and Indian Ocean world history, set the pace of the book.
Ports have been the economic multipliers of any region; industries depended on the ports and cities grew around them. Almost all the economic activities took part around the ports and they become the nodal points for the seekers during the age of exploration. Ports are important for the support of economic activities in the hinterland since they act as a crucial interface between sea and land transport. The author declares that this volume is intended to be corrective as there are gaps in the understanding of the pre-industrial ports and port-cities that necessitate a fresh look.
Though Mukherjee in her article says Pearson questions the centrality of a port to country’s economy, and the fundamental role of the sea in lives of humans and nations, he actually reiterates the role of ports in economy of a country in his article by saying, “… Consequently the role of port-cities, both old and new became central in India’s economy.” In his article on Indian Ocean Port-cities: Themes and Problems, he says, in social context ports can be construed “as a transgressive extension of the land” as stated by John Mack. This knowledgeable article is useful to follow the trend of the whole collection.
In an article titled ‘Barbarikon in the Maritime Trade Network of Early India’ by Suchandra Ghosh, the early Indus delta’s role in maritime trade is elaborated. Paragraph 33 of the Periplus talks about this place. The author looks into three main aspects; political scenario, role of hinterland and seafaring from here to the Persian Gulf.
B caps Delta Ports of Bengal during the first global age is discussed fully by Rila Mukherjee in another article. Radhika Seshan deals with secondary ports, especially on the cyclic effect on ports as argued by S. Arasaratnam. Longing for Longcloth is an important article by Rashmi; it talks about the colonial regime in Madras through trade of textiles. That Indian Merchants played an important role in building up of an empire from mere trading by the English cannot be overlooked. Kasi Viranna was one of the earliest Chief Merchants and the famous quote from what Lawrence Sawyer said of him “Sir William governs from within the fort and Verona without” proves the point that Indian merchants played an important role in assisting the English in their administration of both trade and region. His importance is narrated by H. D. Love in his Vestiges of Old Madras. Similarly how the English themselves were worried about the power wielded by the merchants is told in this chapter. This is an important article to understand the political and commercial ambitions of the English traders in Madras, who eventually became the rulers.
Port-hinterland dynamics is discussed by Naga Sridhar in an article that talks about the importance of ports like Masulipatnam. Sridhar quotes from earlier Telugu literature like ‘Hamsavimsathi’ and ‘Sukasapthasathi’ that describes the role of rich Indian merchants during Colonial time.
One of the most interesting articles of the collection is by Marie-Francoise Boussac, ‘Revisiting the Periplus Maris Erythraei: some notes on recent studies’. Here the author delves deep into the source, the language and authorship and questions earlier assumptions. Since Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is the starting point of any meaningful research on sea trade, this article assumes importance.
There have been continuous studies in connection with the trade routes and ports and in 1999 to 2003, the University of Southampton conducted excavations at the site of Quseir al-Qadim, prompted by the idea that the site was not the minor port of Leucos Limen — as thought by previous excavators from the University of Chicago — but the important site of Myos Hormos mentioned in the Periplus.
B caps A potsherd found showed Tamil Brahmi script dated to 1st century B.C. The inscription reads paanai oRi , that is, pot (suspended) in a rope net, which brings us back to what Pearson said about language of the merchants. The question as to where the ships were built remains a mystery though in shipbuilding there have been transfers of technology, says the author. Though the island Diodorus is noted in the PME, in this article it is not mentioned. Diodorus was Socotra and G.W.B. Huntingford remarks that the name Socotra derives from the Sanskrit sukhadhara — island of bliss. In 2001 a group of Belgian speleologists of the Socotra Karst Project made a spectacular discovery deep inside a huge cave, of a large number of inscriptions, drawings and archaeological objects which were left by sailors who visited the island between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD. Surprisingly the majority of the texts were in Indian Brahmi, which again takes us to the point about language used by the merchants.
Another highly interesting and complementary article to this is by Jean-Francois Salles dealing with pre-Periplus time; this article will be most useful for scholars studying the subject of ancient marine trade and routes.
Kenneth R. Hall well known author of books on marine history, dealing with the period 1000-1500 discusses in his article the importance of the revisionist study of cross-cultural commercial competition on the Eastern Indian Ocean coastlines that shall prove to be of great help to students of the branch of marine history. Ports and Commercial Networks is another interesting article.
Another important article is about Nagasaki as Emporium which talks about how this port became a Christian bridgehead, when religion became a force to reckon with. For sustenance of marine trade it relied mainly on Macao the author notes. In the concluding article Ports revisited. Mukherjee sums up the papers.
The collection will be extremely useful to students of marine history and therefore should find place in the university libraries. Brief notes on the authors would have been helpful to the reader, the absence of which is a notable shortcoming of the book.
VANGUARDS OF GLOBALIZATION — Port Cities from the Classical to the Modern: Edited by Rila Mukherjee; Primus Books, Virat Bhawan, Mukherjee Nagar Commercial Complex, Delhi-110009. Rs. 1295.
