The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c10.13

c10.13

The next important factor is India's long coast line with its convenient anchorages. This has played no mean role in the interchange of cultures, as it has kept a window open to the great civilization of Western Asia and the Mediterranean region. The earliest evidence of such contact has been recently demonstrated by the excavations at Bahrein.² We already know the links between the Indus basin and Mesopotamia. In the excavations conducted by P. V. Glob, seals with designs bearing some similarity to those of the Indus valley were found at this great cemetery site, identified with Dilmun of the Mesopotamian records. With the evidence of Harappan and Late Harappan sites in Kathiawad and on the Gulf of Cambay, it may not be unreasonable to postulate a maritime contact. The nature and intensity of this contact remains vague and obscure and calls for an intensive investigation. For the succeeding periods till the discovery of monsoons by Hippalus, our knowledge is based on vague references in literature—Indian and foreign—and in the present state of our knowledge of Indian archaeology, we are not in a position to corroborate.¹ At the beginning of the Christian Era, however, we get extensive evidence of contact with the Mediterranean world in the form of antiquities found all over the country. The remarkable coincidence of the discovery of monsoons, and the blocking of the 'silk route' of China by the Roman and Parthian wars, seem to be an important landmark.² Can this be attributed to the increased navigation techniques opened by the monsoons, in contrast to the slow coastal trade?