The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.325

Language: English

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That in the time of the Vedas, and for some time afterwards, the Hindus were familiar with ships adapted for sea voyages, is a fact which is now no longer doubted. The frequent mention, in ancient Sanskrit literature, of pearls, which could not have been procured without the aid of boats that could brave the ocean-wave, is of itself sufficient evidence on the subject. But others are not wanting. Allusions to the ocean and to ships are numerous even in the *Saṃhitā* of the *Ṛgveda*. "The greatness of the Agastyas", is said to be, "as profound as the depth of the ocean".¹⁶² "He, Varuṇa, who knows the path of the birds flying through the air, he, abiding in the ocean, knows also the course of ships".¹⁶³ "May Uṣas, dawn to-day, the excitress of chariots which are harnessed at her coming, as those who are desirous of wealth (send ships) to sea".¹⁶⁴ "Do thou (Agni), whose countenance is turned to all sides, send off our adversaries, as if in a ship to the opposite shore". (A remarkable prayer for transportation at so early an age). "Do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare".¹⁶⁵ Again, "Tugra, verily, Aśvins, sent (his son) Bhujyu to see, as a dying man parts with his riches; but you brought him back in vessels of your own, floating over the ocean, and keeping out the waters.

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Three nights and three days, Nāsatyas, have you conveyed Bhujyu in three rapid, revolving cars, having a hundred wheels, and drawn by six horses, along the dry bed of the ocean to the shore of the sea. This exploit you achieved, Aśvins, in the ocean, where there is nothing to give support, nothing to rest upon, nothing to cling to, that you brought Bhujyu, sailing in a hundred-oared ship, to his father's house".¹⁶⁶ This story of Bhujyu is repeated in a subsequent hymn where the "tossing ocean and swift ships" are again alluded to.¹⁶⁷ Again, "you constructed a pleasant, substantial, winged bark, borne on the ocean waters for the son of Tugra, by which, with mind devoted to the gods, you bore him up, and quickly descending (from the sky), you made a path for him across the great waters. Four ships, launched into the midst of the receptacle (of the waters, sent by the Aśvins) brought safe to shore the son of Tugra, who had been cast headlong into the waters (by his foes), and plunged in inextricable darkness".¹⁶⁸ Agni is [116] prayed in one place "to bestow a boat fitted with oars", The great sage Vaśiṣṭha declares, "When (I, Vaśiṣṭha) and Varuṇa ascend the ship together, when we send it forth into the midst of the ocean, when we proceed over the waters with swift (sailing vessels), then may we both undulate happily in the prosperous swing.

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So Varuṇa placed Vaśiṣṭha in the ship, and by his mighty protection made the Ṛṣi a doer of good works.¹⁶⁹ The Kapiñjala bird is said "to foretell what will come to pass, by giving due direction to its voice, as a helmsman guides a boat". In the *Introduction* to the third volume of his translation of the *Ṛgveda*, Professor Wilson says, "The same familiarity with the sea that has been previously commented on occasionally occurs, with sufficient explicitness to leave no doubt of the meaning of the text :thus in one place the rivers are said, 'to rush to the ocean eager to mix with it' (p. 59); and again, 'the rivers disappear in the ocean' (p. 221), where also it is said that 'those desirous of profit are engaged in traversing the ocean', clearly indicating, maritime traffic : the Maruts, or personified winds, are said 'to toss the clouds like ship', or as the Scholiast amplifies a rather elliptical phrase, as the ocean tosses ships; in another place (p. 425), although the particular expressions may be equivocal, yet it is undeniable that the passage is intended to convey the idea of the crossing of the ocean by certain individuals under the guidance of Indra."¹⁷⁰ Manu lays down rules for the guidance of maritime commerce, and the *Rāmāyaṇa* alludes to merchants, who traffic beyond the sea and bring presents to the king (III. 237). In the *Mahābhārata* mention is made of a large boat provided with machinery, which could defy the hurricane;

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but it was intended for moving only on a river. Kālidāsa, in the *Śakuntalā*, gives the story of the merchant Dhanavṛddhi, whose immense wealth devolved to the king on the former's perishing at sea, and leaving no heirs behind him; and in the *Hitopadeśa*, a ship is described as a necessary requisite for a man to traverse the ocean, and a story is given of a certain merchant, "who, after having been twelve years on his voyage, at last returned home with a cargo of precious stones". The details of Vijaya Simha's piratical expedition to Ceylon are familiar to the readers of the History of that island. Arrian alludes to the *Kolandiphontas*, (apparently a corruption of the Sanskrit *Kolāntarapota*, "ships for going to foreign shores",) or "large ships on the coast of Travancour, in which the natives traded to Bengal and Malacca", in contradistinction to the *Monoxyla* of Pliny, which was probably the same with the *Samgara*, and made of one piece of timber, for coasting and river trade.¹⁷¹ Other notices of the sea and ships may be multiplied *ad libitum*, to shew that the ancient Hindus were accustomed to venture out on the "black waters" in search of wealth. No proof of this, however, is to be had in sculpture. At Sāñcī only two boats have been seen,¹⁷² one "a rude canoe made up of rough planks rudely sewn together by hemp or string";

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and the other, "a stately barge with a long arching prow carved to represent the head and fore paws (winged) of a lion with the beak of a hawk, and the stern shaped like the tail of a fish curved upwards". Such fanciful prows, it would seem, were common enough in former times, for the *Yuktikalpataru* names the heads of lions, buffaloes, serpents, elephants, tigers, birds, frogs and men, as the most appropriate for figure-heads of boats.¹⁷⁸ "Boats not unlike the Sāñcī specimen in design", says Mr. Fergusson "may still be seen opposite the *ghāṭs* at Benares on festal occasions, or on the lakes at Oudypore, or whenever a Hindu palace has a lake attached to it".¹⁷⁴ Both the Sāñcī boats, however, appear amidst lotuses, which in this country never grow in the running water of rivers, and are obv अनुप्रयोग osly not intended for the ocean. At Amarāvatī too there are no ships, and at Bhuvaneśvara, no marine or boat scene has come to notice. Considering that the place is situated so near the sea, the total absence of such scenes argues that, at the time, the Hindus had all but entirely retired from the sea. At Puri, the Bhoga Maṇḍapa of the Great Temple represents a boat, but it is evidently intended for a river. (Woodcut No. 52).