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UNDER

TWO ENSIGNS

THE INDIAN NAVY 1945-

Rear Admiral SATYINDRA SINGH AVSM (Retd.)

OXFORD & IBH PUBLISHING CO.

NEW DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA

Foreword

INDIA HAS a rich maritime heritage. The Indian Navy and our sister Service, the Merchant Marine, have much to be proud of in our sea-faring traditions. The earliest reference to maritime activities in India is contained in the Rig Veda. "Do thou whose countenance is turned to all sides send off our adversaries, as if m a ship to the opposite shores: do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare" (Rig Veda 1,97, 7 and 8). Hindu mythology is replete with episodes pertaining to the ocean, the sea and the rivers. Lord Vishnu, the preserver in the Hindu Trinity, is said to be reclining on Adi Sesha, the serpent, in the midst of the primordial ocean. In the perennial fight between the forces of good and evil, symbolised by the Devas and the Asuras respectively, the two sides Used Adi Sesha and the sacred mountain Meru to churn the primordial ocean. Our rivers have always been taken to represent goddesses. There is also plenty of evidence derived from Indian literature and art, including sculpture and painting, besides the evidence of archaeology to suggest the antiquity of the Indian maritime tradition. Archaeological evidence in the form of a seal with the representation of a boat and the dockyard at Lothal, dates back our maritime tradition to circa 2500-1700 B.C. The, { early growth of Indian shipping and shipbuilding along with the commercial acumen of our merchant class, the courage and fortitude of our sailors, helped India to sail the oceans for many centuries. From about the 15th century onwards there was a decline in India's maritime activity till the emergence of Khanoji Angre at the beginning of 18th century. He was a Maratha ^Admiral whose name is now legend in our naval history. The origins of the Indian Navy lay in a group of ships belonging to the East India Company arriving in Surat on Sept. 5, 1612. However, they only acquired combatant status on May 1, 1830 when by warrant from the Lord High Admiral, they came under the British Crown and the Service was named the Indian Navy. The name Indian Navy changed to Bombay Marine, Indian

Marine, Royal Indian Marine and Royal Indian Navy form 1863 onwards till it became the Indian Navy once again on January 26, 1950.Barring a few publications by eminent historians on the subject of our maritime past there is inadequate awareness of our nautical history, althoi tt deal of recorded material does exist in our country. This needs by scholars. However, it was felt that the happenings in the' mediate past, particularly the period between 1945 and 1950 should be researched and made a subject of a book immediately. An oflScial history of the activities of the Royal Indian Navy during World War II already exists and so the present volume picks up the threads from this period onwards. However, as an Introduction to this history, the author has also given an insight to India's rich maritime past. A great deal of material has been systematically collated to record the important historical happenings during these formative years of Independent India's Navy. We were fortunate to have found Rear Admiral Satyindra Singh, AVSM (Retired) to undertake this task under the guidance of an Editorial Board comprising Vice Admiral K.K. Nayyar, Rear Admiral O.P. Sharma and myself. Rear Admiral Satyindra Singh has dug out a great deal of material and interviewed various personalities of the contemporary period seeking their views on the then prevailing conditions and the emergence of the Indian Navy. In subsequent volumes we intend to cover the later developments in the Service. In the centuries ahead the oceans around us will undoubtedly have a larger significance both from the point of view of India's security concerns as well as economic development. It is appropriate, therefore, that we inculcate amongst our countrymen an awareness of the oceans. This volume will hopefully contribute its bit in this direction. This project was started in early 1982 under the direction of one of my predecessors, Admiral R.L. Pereira. My immediate predecessor Admiral O.S. Dawson lent it the support it deserved. It just happens to be my good fortune to be in the driving seat of our Navy to write this foreword. I would like to place on record our deep appreciation of the work done by Rear Admiral Satyindra Singh and the assistance of my colleagues on the Editorial Board.

Navy House New Delhi December 4, 1985 R.H. TAHILIANI

Preface

IN THE PROCESS of getting an official history of the 1971 Indo-Pak War prepared, I was invited to compile the Post-World War II history of the Indian Navy commencing with the period 1945-

1950. This period has been chosen because some publications recording events of some of the earlier periods, already exist and are available. Regrettably, however, there are far too many, gaps and grey areas even if it were possible to locate all that has been written about our Service since the beginning of this century. There is even less material available on the earlier period—of the evolution of our Service from the Indian Marine, Bombay Marine, Bombay Marine Corps, Indian Navy, Bombay Marine-Bengal Marine, (non-combatant), His Majesty's Indian Marine (a combatant force with two Divisions at Bombay and Calcutta), Royal Indian Marine (combatant, reversion to a non-combatant role and again combatant), and Royal Indian Navy. Very little is known about our various regional maritime forces which fought amongst themselves, kept invaders at bay, and projected our maritime and commercial interests and culture to distant lands. This paucity of material only refers to publications in the English language. There are many publications __ in various Indian and foreign languages and undoubtedly, several documents must exist in these languages which could throw more light on our little-known ancient maritime past. We do, however, have an oflScial publication covering the organisation and operational role of the RIN during the 1939-45 War. Though my charter was limited to a specific period, I have included a chapter on India's maritime history. This, in a preliminary way, brings out our rich maritime past including shipbuilding in India, and our exploitation and subjugation by the Western Powers—the Portuguese, French, Dutch and the British. During the period we were ruled by foreigners, our maritime projection was obviously what our rulers wished and directed. Undoubtedly, therefore, our role in the First and Second World Wars was totally linked to Jhe British Empire's role

and interests in the region. The span of this study is less than six years—fromVJ. Day on August 15, 1945 to the end of the decade, December 31,1950. It has, however, not been possible to strictly adhere to these specific dates and in many of the chapters, earlier and later events have had to be necessarily recorded to provide some' baric links.This period is indeed very significant and far- reaching events took place during this short span. It saw the end of the 1939-45 War, followed by the contraction of the Royal Indian Navy with the attendant rushed demobilisation. Close on its heels, the Royal Indian Navy had the traumatic experience of the Mutiny in February 1946. A little over a year later, with Independ ence came the division of the Royal Indian Navy into the Royal Indian Navy and Royal Pakistan Navy. We continued to rely on the Royal Navy for its assistance for quite a few years in the form of loan service of officers to man appointments at various levels including Chiefs of the Naval Staff. We were the last of the three Defence Services to have an Indian as Chief of Staff— eleven years after our Independence. A little-known fact today is that until January 26, 1950, the Royal Indian Navy was the seniormost of the three Defence Services in India; the last visible evidence of this was the ribbon of the 1939-45 Star, commonly known as the "Chowringhee Star", where the priority order of display is dark blue (Navy), red (Army) and light blue (Air Force). The last naval officer who wore this ribbon on his chest retired in November 1984. In collecting material for this book I had the good fortune of meeting many shipmates, Service colleagues and friends—both Indian and British— who, like me, spent many happy decades in the Royal Indian Navy/Indian Navy; they were kind enough to render testimony to many subjects, which proved invaluable. Through their help and kindness, I was also able to collect some valuable material including photographs covering very significant events add some of them find a place in this volume. I was fortunate to interview some eminent personalities who played a significant role in the national scene at that time and later. I would have liked to meet some former colleagues who served in the undivided Ro yal Indian Navy and who went to the newly created Royal Pakistan Navy in August 1947. The first (then) Indian to be admitted to the Executive cadre of the Royal Indian Marine in 1931 was Cadet H.M.S. Choudri who later rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and retired as the Chief of the Naval Staff of the Pakistan Navy. It would have been useful and interesting to obtain the testimony of some of these colleagues, particularly as they were part and parcel of the same Service until 1947 and fought shoulder-to-shoulder in the past for a common foreign regime!

SATYINDRA SHING

REAL ADMIRAL(Ratd.)

Acknowledgements

To Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, PVSM, AVSM, goes my expression of deep gratitude. It was he, who selected me for the privileged task of writing this volume. Without his generous assistance and encouragement throughout, it would not have been possible to undertake this task. I am most grateful to Vice Admiral K.K. Nayyar, PVSM, AVSM, for his guidance and help and valuable suggestions based on deep study. I also wish to express my gratitude to Rear Admiral O.P. Sharma, AVSM, VSM, for his unstinted assistance throughout the period I was engaged on this project. In the Historical Cell, I received valuable assistance from Captain G.S. Sen. Lieutenant Commander R.S. Narang, at present in-charge of Historical Cell, has been of considerable help in several ways. The indefatigable Petty Officer P.V. Kumar, who was in the Historical Cell for most of the period, was of invaluable secretarial assistance. I also wish to thank Mr. R.K. Malhotrafor patiently undertaking the laborious task of typing. To Commander D.J. Hastings, OBE, RINVR(Retd.), Honorary Secretary and Archivist of the Royal Indian Navy (1612-1947) Association, with whom I spent some days in England in October 1984, is due a special word of thanks. I acknowledge with gratitude the great pains he took to provide me with valuable material which I could not have obtained elsewhere.

SATYINDRA SINGH Rear Admiral (Retd.)

Contents

FOREWORD PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DIVISION OF THE ROYAL INDIAN NAVAL FLEET ON AUGUST 15, EVOLUTION ABBREVIATIONS

**1. INDIA'S MARITIME HISTORY

2. PLANS FOR THE DEVELO PMENT OF THE NAVY
3. THE ANDAMANS , NICOBARS AND LACCADIVES—THE** SENTINELS OF OUR WATBRS
4. TUB ROYAL INDIAN NAVY MUTINY, FEBRUARY 1946
5. EVENTS AT SEA
6. PERSONNEL ,
7. TRAINING
8. **NAVAL AVIATION
9. THE NAVY'S FEATHERED AIR WING**
10. HYDROGRAPHY
11. THE MEDICOS AT SEA
12. BUDGET
13. LOGISTICS
14. **DEVELOPMENT OF FACILITIES FOR NAVAL SCBBNTIFIC RESEARCH
15. W h e n t h e N A V Y B E C A M E N U M B E R T W O**

Division of the Royal Indian Naval

INDIA

SURVEY VESSEL

HMIS nvestigator

TRAWLERS

HMISNasik

HMIS Calcutta ^

HMIS Cochin

HMIS Amritsar

MOTOR MINESWEEPERS MMS 13

MMS 132

MMS 151

MMS 154

MOTOR LAUNCH

ML 420

HARBOUR DEFENCE MOTOR LAUNCHES HDML 1110 HDML 1112 HDML 1117

HDML 1118

SLOOPS

HMIS Sutle HMIS Jumna HMIS Kistna HMIS Cauvery FRIGATES

HMIS Tir

HMIS Kukri CORVETTES HMIS Assam MINESWEEPERS HMIS Orissa HMIS Deccan HMIS Bihar HMIS Kumaon HMIS Rohilkhan HMIS Khyber HMIS Camatic HMIS Rajputana HMIS Konkan HMIS Bombay / HMIS Bengal HMIS Madras

Fleet on August 15, 1947

Pakistan

SLOOPS HMPS Narbada HMPS Godavari FRIGATES HMPS Shamsher HMPS Dhanush MINESWEEPERS HMPS Kathiawar HMPS Baluchistan HMPS Oudh HMPS Mahva TRAWLERS HMPS Rampur HMPS Baroda MOTOR MINESWEEPERS MMS 129 MMS 131

HARBOUR DEFENCE MOTOR LAUNCHES

HDML 1261 HDML 126 HDML 1263 HDML

Evolution

Date Title

D e c e m b e r 3 1 , 1 6 0 0 East India Company founded by Royal Charter of Q u e e n E l i z a b e t h September 5, 1612 I n d i a n M a r i n e f o r m e d w h e n a s q u a d r o n o f s h i p s arrived in Swally, the roadstead off Surat. (Also k n o w n a s t h e ' H o n o u r a b l e E a s t I n d i a C o m p a n y ' s Marine') 1686 The Bombay Marine

M a y I , 1 8 3 0 T h e I n d i a n N a v y ( b y W a r r a n t f r o m t h e L o r d H i g h Admiral, Prince William) 1858 H e r M a j e s t y ' s I n d i a n N a v y

April 30, 1863 T h e B o m b a y M a r i n e ( N b n -c o m b a t a n t — on expiry of the H o n o u r a b l e E a s t I n d i a C o m p a n y a n d t r a n s fer to the. Crown) 1877 Her Majesty's Indian Marine 1892 he Royal Indian Marine 1928 T h e R o y a l I n d i a n M a r i n e ( C o m b a t a n t ) October 2, 1934 T h e R o y a l I n d i a n N a v y January 26, 1950 T h e I n d i a n N a v y

Abbreviations

A B C D A t o m i c B a c t e r i o l o g i c a l a n d C h e m i c a l D a m a g e

A D C o r p s A r m y D e n t a l C o r p s

A F M S A r m e d F o r c e s M e d i c a l S e r v i c e

A M C A r m y M e d i c a l C o r p s

B E M British Empire Medal B O R British Other Rank B T E B o y ' s T r a i n i n g E s t a b l i s h m e n t C B C o m p a n i o n o f t h e O r d e r o f t h e B a t h CBE C o m m a n d e r o f t h e O r d e r o f t h e B r i t i s h E m p i r e C I E C o m p a n i o n o f t h e O r d e r o f t h e I n d i a n E m p i r e C I L Q C o m p e n s a t i o n i n L i e u o f Q u a r t e r s C-i n- C C o m m a n d e r-i n- C h i e f C N S Chief of the Naval Staff C O C o m m a n d i n g O f f i c e r D S C Distinguished Service Cross D S M Disti nguished Service Medal D S O Distinguished Service Order E T I E d u c a t i o n a l T e s t O n e F O B F l a g O f f i c e r B o m b a y

F O C R I N F l a g O f f i c e r C o m m a n d i n g R o y a l I n d i a n N a v y

F R U F l e e t R e q u i r e m e n t U n i t

' G ' G u n n e r

G H Q G e n e r a l H e a d q u a r t e r s

G O C - i n- C • G e n e r a l O f f i c e r C o m m a n d i n g-i n- C h i e f

H D M L H a r b o u r D e f e n c e M o t o r L a u n c h

H E T H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n a l T e s t

H M H i s / H e r M a j e s t y

H M I S H i s / H e r M a j e s t y ' s I n d i a n S h i p

H M S H i s / H e r M a j e s t y ' s S h i p

H O Hostilities Only I A F I n d i a n A i r F o r c e I A M C I n d i a n A r m y M e d i c a l C o r p s IDSS Indian Defence Sc ience Service I D S M I n d i a n D i s t i n g u i s h e d S e r v i c e M e d a l

33MD-BC I n d i a n M e d i c a l D e p a r t m e n t — British Cadre

IMS Indian Medical Service

IN Indian Navy INA Indian National Army INS Indian Naval Ship IOR Indian Other Rank IOM Indian Order of Merit ISDPS Inter-Service Demobilisation Planning Staff JSW Joint Services Wing Kt Knight

KCB Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath KCBE Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire KCSI Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India KDF Kathiawar Defence Force LCT Landing Craft Tank LCW Landing Craft Wing LND Local Naval Defence LST Landing Ships Tank MA. Medical Assistant MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire ML Motor Launch MLR Money in Lieu of Rations MTB Motor Torpedo Boat MURAF Maintenance Unit of the Royal Air Force NAAFI Navy Army Air Force Institute NHQ Naval Headquarters NOPIN Naval Operation Indian Navy OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire OBI Officer of the Order of British India OR's Other Ranks RACINS Rear Admiral Commanding Indian Naval Squadron RAF Royal Air Force RIAF Royal Indian Air Force RIM Royal Indian Marine RIN Royal Indian Navy RINR Royal Indian Naval Reserve RINVR Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve RN Royal Navy RNAS Royal Naval Air Station RNR Royal Naval Reserve RNVR Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

SBA Sick Berth Attendant SDML Seaward Defence Motor Launch SNLR Service No Longer Required TAS Torpedo Anti-Submarine WRINS Women Royal Indian Naval Service

1. India's Maritime History

THE INDIAN OCEAN, is named after peninsular India which juts into its centre and occupies a unique position. These vast waters wash the shores of the entire East Coast of Africa, the South .Coast of Arabia, the Southern shores of Iran and Baluchistan, the Malaysian Peninsula and Indonesia's Sumatra. The ingress and egress of the ocean are through the eastern and western waterways at the Straits of Malacca and Bab-el-Mandeb. The former lead to the Indonesian Archipelago, the South China Sea, the Far East and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean while the latter control the entrance to the Red Sea. Commanding the gateway to the landlocked Persian Gulf in the northwest is Hormuz formerly known as Ormuz. For ages, Aden, at the Southern tip of Arabia, was the home and main base of the Arab corsairs. Two off-shoots of this Ocean are the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal which wash the 5600-kilometre-long shores of the Indian peninsula, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and the island of Sri Lanka which is separated from India by the Palk Strait. Because of its unique features, the Indian Ocean has always been regarded as an area of great geopolitical significance and India has been regarded as its centre of gravity. Sardar K.M. Panikkar, has said: In spite of the vastness of its surface and the oceanic character of its current and winds, the Indian Ocean has some of the features of a land- locked sea. The Arctic and the Antarctic, circling the Poles have but little connection with inhabit ed land. The Pacific and the Atlantic lie from the north to the south like gigantic highways. They have no land roof, no vast land area jutting out into their expanse. The Indian Ocean is walled off on three sides by land, with the southern side of Asia forming a roof over it. The continent of Africa constitutes the western wall and Burma, Malaya and the insular continuations protect the eastern side. But the vital feature which differentiates the Indian Ocean from the Pacific or the Atlantic is not the two sides but the subcontinent of India which juts out far into the sea for a thousand miles to its tapering end at Kanya Kumari. It is the geographical position of India that changes the character of the Indian Ocean.^1 The islands in the Indian Ocean area are neither as numerous nor as «venly spread out as

those in the Pacific. The major islands^2 in the region Mxe Sri Lanka and Malagasy while the minor ones are Socotra near the Arab Coast. Zanzibar and Seychelles off the African Coast, Mauritius and Reunionon the Tropic of Capricorn, Lakshadweep and the Maldives near the West Coast of India, the Bahrain group near the Persian Gulf, the Andamans and the Nicobars in the Bay of Bengal and the Diego Garcia group in the Chagos Archipelago. Considerable geopolitical significance is also attached to the bays, gulfs and bights of the Ocean. The Persian Gulf which is virtually a land-locked sea with its choke point at Hormuz, the Arabian Sea which separates the Indian and Arabian peninsulas, the Gulf of Aden entry to which is controlled by the island of Socotra, the Red Sea whose gate-post is at Bab-el-Mandeb, the Bay of Bengal separating the Indian and Malaysian peninsulas and the Gulf of Malacca with Singapore commanding entry into it, have all played a significant role in the maritime history of the region. Because of the unique feature of the monsoons and the development of the nucleus of civilisation around this Ocean, oceanic activity and traditions developed in this region before any other place. Centuries before the development of seafaring activities in the Aegean Sea, the littoral states of peninsular India had already built up their oceanic traditions. The strategic, naval and geopolitical importance of land-locked countries establishing links with the seas by acquiring sovereignty over waterways or even land corridors has been appreciated by politico- military thinkers for centuries. For instance, the potential of their presence in the Indian Ocean or even in its seas, bays and straits prompted some super powers of today to make attempts to gain access to this ocean over land even in the last century. The British appreciation of the balance of power in and around Asia after World War II and its future plans made during the forties also catered to these contingencies. What is most striking and little known is the fact that Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the great ruler of the Punjab, had also realised the importance of establishing a link with the sea after his victory over the Pathans and Afghans during the third decade of the last century. To quote a historian, "If the Punjabi empire^3 was to expand any further, it could only be across the Sindh desert to the sea or across the Sutlej to India." (The portion of India then held by the British.) The British were clever enough to persuade the Maharaja to sign a commercial treaty in December 1832 and abandon his plans to extend his empire to the sea. These facts and today's rivalry between the super powers over their presence in the Indian Ocean confirm the wisdom of

the observation made by Khaireddin Barbarosa,^4 the Egyptian Admiral centuries ago, "He who rules on the sea will shortly rule on the land also."

Another fact that emerges from a careful analysis of the sequence of events in India's maritime past is that during the last five millennia, those who came over land from other parts of the world, mainly using the mountain passes in the northwest, did rule some parts of the Indian subcontinent for a while but were eventually absorbed in the mainstream of Indian culture and traditions and, over the centuries, became an integral part of the Indian milieu. Some of these were the Aryans, Pathans, Moghuls, Afghans, Sakas and even the Huns. But those who came by sea during the last two millennia, the Portuguese, Dutch, French, British, Germans, Danes, Flemish, Armenians and the Jews, did not lose their identity and came to stay for hundreds of years, some of them holding sway over larger areas and for longer periods. India's maritime history can be broadly divided into five distinct periods— the Hindu period extending from the hoary past to the middle of the 15th century A.D., the Portuguese period from the closing years of the 15th century to the end of the 16th century; two British periods— from 1612 to 1830 and from 1830 to 1947; and the Indian period which commenced on August 15, 1947. The British period is divided into two parts because in 1830, the East India Company's Navy in India underwent two major changes; it was constituted as a combatant service and given the name Indian Navy and the first ship of the Service to sail under steam, the 411-ton Hugh Lindsay, covered the distance from Bombay to Suez in 21 days thus ushering in the conversion from sail to steam. The Vedas, Buddhist Jatakas, Sanskrit, Pali and Persian literature, Indian folklore and mythology and even the Old Testament bear testimony to the fact that as far back as the days of Mohen-jo-Daro, Lothal and Harappa (3,000 to 2,000 B.C.), i.e., the Indus Valley Civilisation, there was considerable maritime activity between India and the countries in Africa, Southern Europe, Western Asia and the Far East. Seals and potsherd portraying anchors and tools and kitchen implements made of coral and mussel-shell have been found at these places and Java, Sumatra, Indo-China, Sri Lanka and Egypt. A recently unearthed huge drydock at Lothal in Gujarat further confirms the existence of India's seaborne trade with these countries, especially Sumer, Egypt, Crete and countries in Central Asia and Persia at that time. Late Professor Buhler, the well-known German orientalist, expressed the view that "there are passages in ancient Indian works which prove the early existence of navigation of the Indian Ocean and the somewhat

later occur rences of trading voyages undertaken by Hindu merchants to the shores of the Persian Gulf and its rivers." This fact is further borne out by available works in the languages of the littoral states of the region; such as Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya and Bengali; the writings of foreign travellers and historians—Chinese, Arabic and Persian—which contain observations on Indian subjects; the evidence available from archaeo- logy—epigraphic, monumental and numismatic; and Indian and foreign art and foreign literature—English, Greek, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Malay, Thai, Burmese and Sinhalese.

Some of the little-known facts about the extent of commercial and cultural influence of India and sea-borne trade using ships built in India during the Hindu period (pre-Christian era to the middle of the 15th Century A.D.) are: :¦ — The Matsya Yantra^5 (the fish machine), an iron fish floating on oil Q i t i g to the north serving as a primitive compass used by Indian sea- farers for several millennia (as per Hindu mythology, Matsya was the first incarnation of Lord Vishnu). —The names of some of the places in Southern and southeast Asia such as Socotra which is a derivative of Sukhadhara (container or island of happiness); Sri Lanka which originally was Swarna Alankar (gold ornament), Nicobar which was derived from Nak-Dweep (the island of the naked) and Calicut which originally was Kallikote (in Kannada a stone-fort); —Reference to Indians as Klings in Thailand and Telangs in some parts of Burma because of the conquests of these countries by the Kalingas and Andhras several millennia ago; —The similarity between the Thai and Oriya scripts due to the long Kalinga rule over Thailand; —The scriptures in a Buddhist temple in Japan which are recited by the monks every morning even today being in the 6th Century A.D. Bengali script; and —*The transfer by sea of the weary, tired and demoralised army of Alexander the Great from the mouth of the Indus to the shores of the Persian Gulf in 323 B.C. in about 800

Indian-built sailing vessels. During this period, while the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean were used mainly for purposes of maritime trade, the Bay of Bengal provided a highway for the countries on the Eastern seaboard to embark on proselytising, cultural and colonising missions to Sri Lanka and countries as far as the East Indies and Japan. ¦

During the Hindu period, considerable maritime activity took place in the waters around India. As described by Megasthenes,^6 the royal shipyards of the Mauryas built seagoing ships of various classes. The War Office of Emperor Chandragupta had, as one of its six boards, a Nav Parishad (Board of Admiralty) which controlled national shipping. During the days of Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C., his sister, Princess Sanghamitra^7 sailed from Tamralipta in Bengal to Sri Lanka on her historic mission of spreading Buddhism there. Ashoka also had a strong seagoing fleet and regular commercial intercourse with Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia and Epirus/Between 200 B.C. and A.D. 250, the Andhras carried out maritime trade with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, China and some other Eastern countries and had even set up embassies in some of these countries. Roman coins discovered in India, especially in the South, establish the existence of trade between these countries even before the Christian era. Persecution at the hands of the Romans forced some Jews to flee Rome and take refuge in Malabar in A.D. 68. Larger sailing vessels built by theCholas, Pandyas and the Keralas of South India and the Kalingas of Orissa were used for trade, passenger traffic and nava l warfare. These ships were con- «• sidered excellent for navigation across the oceans as their lower parts were reinforced with triple planks in order to enable them to withstand the force of tempests. Some of the leading communities in organising sea-bferne commerce were the Manigramrftan Chetties, Namdasis, Valangais and Elangais of South India. It is a fact of history that during the first decade of the seventh century, a ruler of Gujarat who was faced with defeat at the hands of his enemy, sent his son with thousands of followers comprising cultiva tors, artisans, warriors, physicians and writers in over 100 vessels to Java where they laid the foundation of a new civilisation whose contribution to the world is the temple and sculptures of Borobudur.^8 The Cholas (A.D. 985-1054) maintained a strong naval fleet on the Coro-mandel Coast. The Chola emperors^9 Rajaraja I and Rajendra I had strong armadas which were used to capture Sri Lanka and in A.D. 1007 the Cholas launched an expedition against the Sri Vijayas, who at that time ruled the Malayan Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and some neighbouring islands and the sea

areas continguous to them, and defeated them to establish Chola power in the Malayan Peninsula. Evidence from various sources confirms the existence of trade in various commodities between India and Europe for at least three millennia. India maintained trade relations with the Phoenicians, Jews, Assyrians, Greeks, Egyptians and Romans during the earlier centuries and with the Turks, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch and English during the later part of the period. While India imported few items such as tin, lead, glass, amber, steel for arms, coral and medicinal drugs from Europe and West Asia, Arabia supplied frankincense to India for use in her temples. The items exported to Europe, North Africa and West Asia included wool from the fleeces of sheep bred on the northwestern mountain ranges, armour, onyx, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, jasper, resinous gum, furs, asafoetida, musk, balm, myrrh, embroidered woollen fabrics, coloured carpets, silk (considered most valuable and exchanged by weight with gold), various types of cotton cloth ranging from coarse canvas and calicoes to muslins of the finest texture, peacocks, apes, oils, brassware, ivory, ebony, pearls, sugar cane extracts, salt, indigo, drugs, dyes, rice, sandalwood, timber for building ships, aromatics, pepper, cinna mon and edible spices which were, during the later years, mainly traded for precious metals, especially gold. Interrelation is further confirmed by the fact that the word for peacock is "tuki" in Hebrew and "tokei" in Tamil and by the adoption of Tamil words by the Greeks and vice-versa. There was considerable sea-borne commercial intercourse between Greece and South India during the Hindu period affirmed by the fact that the words for rice, ginger, cinnamon and foreign merchants in Greek and Tamil respectively are^ryza and arisi, zingibar and inchivar, karpion and karava and Iaones and Yavana. In April A.D. 800, as described in the 199th Chapter of the Japanese document Ruijukokushi,^10 an Inglian was cast up on the shores of Japan and some seeds of the cotton- plant, so far unknown to that country, were found on his ship and sown in the provinces of Kii, Awaji, Sanuki, Jyo, Tosa and Kyushu. Thus cotton w»s introduced into Japan.

t There is evidence^ of Herodotus (450^ B.C.)^ who wrote about the (cotton)^ worn by the Indian contingent of Xerxes Army which had been woven from "the wool which certain mild trees in India bear instead of fruit that in beauty and quality excels that of sheep." Thus, it was India that introduced the use of cotton to Europe, West Asia and the Far East. One of the most sensational discoveries that helped maintain trade between India and the

West was that of the regularity of the seasonal winds of the southwest monsoon by a Greek named Hippalus^11 in A.D. 45. His discovery helped him in finding a direct route to Malabar which was far shorter than the older coast-hugging route. Toward the end of the summer months, "ships used to depart from the mouth of the Arabian Gulf or Kane on the coast of Arabia Felix and sail straight in 40 days to Muziris (modern Kodungallur) on the West Coast qf India. They began their homeward voyage in December by sailing with the North-East Wind, enter the Arabian Gulf, meet with a South or South-West Wind and thus complete the voyage by using the trade winds throughout the period." The discovery of the directions and regularity of the monsoon air current was a major contribut ing factor towards the continuance of maritime trade between India and the Western countries over the centuries. That oceanic navigation was well advanced during the earlier centuries of the Christian era is further borne out by the writings of the celebrated Chinese monk, Fa Hien^12 who came to India overland to study Buddhism at Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Varanasi in A.D. 413. On his way back to his home land he sailed from Tamralipta in Bengal and 14 days later reached Sri Lanka where he embarked for Java and called at the Nicobars before passing through the Straits of Malacca to reach thdfacific. Hindu supremacy over the Eastern waters reached its zenith during the period of 5th to 12th centuries when the Sri Vijaya^13 Empire ruled the entire sea area between India's eastern seaboard and the. Far East. The Sri Vijayas' cultural and colonising expedition took them to such far- flung areas as Sumatra, Burma, the Malayan Peninsula, Java, Thailand and Indo-China. Besides spreading Hindu culture, they maintained regular political and commercial intercourse with the Cholas, Pandyas and Keralas. As a result of jealousy between the Cholas, the Tamil Kings, and the Sri Vijayas, however, a series of sea battles were fought between their navies toward the end of the 10th century A.D. resulting in the weakening of these empires and opening the way for Arab supremacy in the region. About the same time, the rulers of Gujarat and Calicut also maintained large fleets of sailing vessels for commercial purposes which sailed with cargoes of silk carpets, precious stones, pearls, ivory, spices and other valuable goods to Europe and West Asia. With the weakening of the Indian rulers, their sea-borne trade routes passed into the hands of the Arabs who became great intermediaries of maritime commercial intercourse between the two regions.

During this period the Arabs acted as a link between the East and Europe and used to pass the

Indian merchandise to the Venetians who supplied the Indian goods to the European markets where they were in great demand. The Venetians soon became immensely prosperous which aroused the jea- lousy and cupidity of the seafarers of the Iberian nations, i.e., Spain, Portugal and other Mediterranean countries, and the quest for a direct passage to India'began. For several millennia ships had been traversing the Indian Ocean carrying valuable merchandise and cultural emissaries between India and the West. Cities that directly engaged in the maritime trade or stood on the ancient trade routes continued to grow in importance and prosperity. Some of these centres of commerce were ancient Chaldea, Babylon, Nineveh, Ophir, Tad-more and the ports in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Phoenicians had for some years arrogated to themselves a major share in the Mediterranean trade but were later driven out of it by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans but the Arabs continued to hold away over the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Egypt, during the days of the Ptolemies,^14 developed Alexandria into the most important port in the world. One of the Ptolemies, Ptolemy Philadel-phus was planning to construct a canal between the Red Sea and the Nile, a hundred cubits wide and thirty cubits in depth, in order to transport Indian goods to Alexandria wholly by water but, for reasons not known, this project was never undertaken and hence a new port called Berenike was deve loped on the Western shore of the Red Sea. Ships from India carried merchandise, sailing from Tatta at the head of the lower delta of the Indus or other ports on the West Coast to the coast of Persia and after following the Arabian shore to Berenike. From Berenike, the goods were carried overland to the city of Koptos, which was very close to the Nile, where they were loaded into ships which navigated along a canal to Alexandria. Carthe-gian merchants carried Indian goods to all Mediterranean ports. During the period of Egyptian supremacy, the northern countries of Europe received Indian goods which were carried overland from India to Oxus from where they went to the regions bordering the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. After its conquest of Carthage, Egypt and Syria, the Roman Empire monopolised trade with India for many years and Alexandria continued to be the principal port for Indian merchandise. The conquest of Persia and Egypt by the Mohammedans later, however, deprived the European countries of the use of Alexandria for trade and access to Indian merchandise. Basra was founded at the head of the Persian Gulf and became as important a trading centre as Alexandria,

controlling the movement of merchandise in both the easterly and westerly directions. The Arabs later gained control of the trade routes and stopped supplying Indian goods to the sea ports of the Mediterranean but the overland route to Constantinople provided the alternative for carrying Indian products to the European trade centres. In fact, Constantinople became the focal point for the movement of merchandise between Europe and India. The rise and fall of the Venetians, Genoans and Pisans, the bitter struggle between Venice and Genoa over the eastern trade and the Venetian supremacy over this trade for some time form but a small chapter in terms of time in our maritime history. With the annexation of Constantinople and trading routes to India by the Turks towards the end of the 15th century and with the continued piracy on the Alexandrian trade route by the Egyp tians, a new pattern of rivalry involving South European, North African and West Asian countries over trade with the East emerged. Since mastery over these trade routes had a direct bearing on the power and prosperity of these nations, an alternative route to India was sought to be established by some of these countries which already had centuries of seafaring experience and expertise. The quest for an alternative route hugging the coasts of Africa and Asia led to the sailing down the West CoasJ of Africa by the Portuguese Navigator, Bartholemy Diaz in 1487 and the discovery of the Cape of Tempests,^15 later to be renamed the Cape of Good Hope. Vasco da Gama was deputed by King Manoel of Portugal in July 1497, five years after the discovery of the West Indies by Columbus, to complete the work done by Diaz. The King's astrologer, Abraham Ben Zakut,^16 having studied his horoscope and having found it favourable for the discovery of the sea route to India, there were high hopes of success in the venture. Four ships, the Sao Gabriel (120 tons) commanded by Vasco da Gama, the Sao Raphael (100 tons) commanded by his brother Paulo da Gama, the Berrio (50 tons) under the command of Nicolas Coelho and a 200- ton store ship set sail from Belem on March 25, 1497. A violent storm was encountered while rounding the Cape and the crew, which wanted to go back, plotted a mutiny but Vasco da Gama succeeded in suppressing the mutiny by arresting the ring-leaders and threatening to throw them overboard. In March 1498, Sao Gabriel and Sao Raphael reached Mozambique, the store ship having returned to Portugal after transferring her stores and the Berrio having been found not seaworthy and broken up to repair the other ships. Vasco da Gama now needed a pilot to take him across the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to India and found one in the Moorish Broker, Davane, from Gujarat who was an experienced pilot and knew the seas contiguous to Africa,

West Asia and India very well. His expert pilotage not only provided security from the jealous Arabs but also helped Vasco da Gama to proceed to Melinde from where the ships sailed on August 26, 1498. Had Davane not assisted Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese would not have reached India for some more decades which probably would have changed the course of India's maritime history. While the discovery of the sea route^17 to India by da Gama was of no great significance, especially when compared to the feats of Columbus and Magellan, the importance of his achievement lies in the fact that while the seas were regarded by the Arabs as a pathway for carrying out maritime trade, the Portuguese were the first to lay claim to sovereignty over these waters and using them as an instrument for the projection of their national policy. This claim was further sanctified by the Bull of Pope Calixtus III which considered the seas they sailed to be their possession. The Portuguese thus began considering themselves to be lords of the seas and thought they

Lieutenant H.R. Bowers of the Royal Indian Marine, who accompanied the Antarctic explorer Captain Scott in his expedition to the South Pole in 1910 and perished, along