The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.325.4

v1.c10.325.4

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";