The historiography of navigation and maritime technology in India during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Abstract

This article assesses the historiography of navigation and shipbuilding technology in India. Though the paucity of Indian primary sources has deterred historians from compiling large-scale works on these themes, they have been elucidated in a number of valuable publications. Moreover, the voluminous data recorded by the British in particular, and Europeans in general, during seventeenth and eighteenth centuries provides further relevant information on these themes.