Abstract
The article argues that UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention provides a global platform for projecting not only India’s maritime cultural heritage but also building bridges and collaborative networks with other Indian Ocean littoral countries for the promotion of shared cultural practices and traditional knowledge systems of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, this collaborative research aspect of the World Heritage Convention has yet to be tapped for nominating and inscribing transnational heritage or cultural routes across the Ocean. This is despite the fact that India was the founder member of the intergovernmental organisation, Indian Ocean Rim Association, one of whose thrust areas relates to promoting cultural heritage on the UNESCO platform. Given India’s rich maritime past, there is an urgent need to implement measures to establish academic networks with littoral countries for not only creating awareness of the maritime cultural heritage of the Indian Ocean but also harnessing linkages between maritime communities for building a culturally diverse but harmonious future.
Introduction
Maritime cultural heritage is often defined as the signifier of worldwide relations over long periods across current national political boundaries. But is it seen as ‘international’ in practice or as a building block for international relations? Meskell has suggested that the ‘ideal of internationalism or world government found its fullest expression in the formation of the United Nations’ (Meskell, 2019, p. 33). UNESCO was established in 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War with the prime objective of countering conflict through intellectual dialogue. The organisation’s maxim remains: ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed’. Clearly, there continues an urgent need to use heritage to promote dialogue and mutual respect among nation-states. The setting up of the Council of Europe in 1949 is a good example of the promotion of European identity based on shared values cutting across different cultures, with heritage providing a robust foundation to the exercise. ‘The European Union was conceived as a peace project after World War Two—a vision that was renewed after the removal of the Iron Curtain’ (Wodak, 2009, p. 64).
A similar sentiment has been expressed by H. E. Dato’ Misran Karmain, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community:
ASEAN is moving towards establishing an ASEAN Community in 2015. Pursuant to that, ASEAN is gearing up to forge a regional identity for ASEAN through various cultural and information projects that cover the arts—visual, performing, literary, musical and other art forms whether traditional, contemporary, or modern—cultural heritage, information and the mass media, as well as in collaboration with our Dialogue Partners.
1
The concept of ASEAN unity is further elaborated in ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint, 2009–2015, which emphasises that the strategic objective is ‘to create a sense of belonging, consolidate unity in diversity and enhance deeper mutual understanding among ASEAN member countries about their culture, history, religion and civilisation (strategic objectives)’. Clearly, ASEAN has accepted the challenge to promote heritage as a cultural bridge for developing unity and harmony among the member states and one that can overcome the harsh realities of sovereignty and national interests.
The thrust of this article is to locate maritime cultural heritage, especially UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention to which India is a signatory within the ambit of global culture and diplomacy. The issues being addressed in this article relate to (a) the extent to which cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, is a viable tool for building transnational unity among Indian Ocean littoral countries and (b) the State’s Policy towards cultural diplomacy: one at the global level of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee and second with reference to certain groupings, such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). IORA is an intergovernmental organisation established on 7 March 1997. It has 22 member states and 10 dialogue partners. As a founder member, India is the largest contributor to the IORA Special Fund with a recent contribution of USD 1 million to the fund. India has also taken steps to support strengthening the IORA secretariat by sharing expertise (Business Line, 2019). One of the priority areas of IORA is promoting cultural heritage and harnessing the economic potential of this heritage, including World Heritage properties and sites. 2 However despite the emphasis on heritage, the organisation has largely focused on tourism.
Clearly, culture and soft power are high on the agenda, but how is this to be translated on the ground and implemented. How successful has the implementation been? A response to this question would require close scrutiny of certain institutions entrusted with the task of execution and completion of the policies of the government. I start the article with a general discussion on cultural diplomacy and global heritage and then move to an analysis of the work done by some of the institutions such as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the universities established by the Ministry of External Affairs and so on. In the final section, I shift the focus to transnational maritime cultural heritage and the possibilities of exploring it as a means of establishing sustainable partnerships through cultural diplomacy.
‘Heritage’ is defined as what society chooses to protect by law and administration and decisions regarding heritage could have implications internationally if they affect other governments or communities. At the same time, heritage sites can also themselves become contested space, for example, the Dome of the Rock, a shrine located on Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem. Despite this history of conflict and violence over differently conceptualised religious space, one should not despair of an equitable solution to the difficult problems which the opposing claims to Jerusalem’s sacred esplanade pose (Graber & Kedar, 2010). In contrast to examples of contested heritage, there are several cases where nation-states have overcome differences to come together to promote cultural heritage. For example, in 2016, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) led 11 countries to inscribe falconry onto the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List. 3 Clearly the full potential of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention is yet to be realised for establishing transnational linkages and to promote the concept of shared heritage.
Heritage and Cultural Diplomacy
The General Conference of UNESCO in 1972 adopted a Convention concerning Protection of World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage. The Convention sought to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. India ratified this Convention in November 1977, and the first Indian sites to be inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1983 were the Taj Mahal; Agra Fort in Uttar Pradesh; the second century
Securing a seat on the World Heritage Committee, one of the influential institutions for implementing the Convention, is seen by many countries as one way to effectively raise their profile and India has served thrice on the Committee: from 1985 to 1991, from 2001 to 2007 and, more recently, from 2011 to 2015. ‘Apart from its domestic agendas, India, like most States Parties, has advanced its international ambitions through its membership of the World Heritage Committee. During its last mandate (2011–2015) India worked in close partnership with other nations of the BRICS group’, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to challenge European domination of the World Heritage List and expertise in conservation practices and instead stressed local knowledge and cultural understandings, with an emphasis on vernacular and living heritage (Meskell, 2019, pp. 33–60). ‘India argued that governments, as sovereign entities, should not be put on the line, nor should information from NGO’s and other groups necessarily be accepted’ (Meskell, 2019, p. 38).
Realising the role of support for heritage as a potent tool of diplomacy, the US Ambassador’s Fund has supported over 750 projects in 132 countries at a cost of some USD 40 million. Initially aimed at supporting the preservation, rehabilitation and promotion of places of historical significance for local constituencies, the aims of the grants have shifted through time to support initiatives that might combat negative perceptions of the USA worldwide following the invasion of Iraq (Luke & Kersel, 2013).
One of the projects supported under this fund in India is the World Heritage Site of sixteenth-century Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi inscribed in 1993 and the Qutb Shahi Tombs in Hyderabad, which has received funds to the tune of USD 100,000. This amount is channelled through public–private partnership involving the ASI and Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in India and includes work on the Urban Renewal project in the Nizamuddin Conservation area in New Delhi. The project includes the conservation of over 50 monuments, environmental development of over 300 acres in the heart of New Delhi and an extensive socio-economic development programme leading to an improvement in the quality of life for more than 15,000 residents of Nizamuddin Basti. In addition, AKTC is also working at the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park in Hyderabad, which includes the conservation of over 80 monuments belonging to the sixteenth-century Qutb Shahi dynasty as well as 108 acres of landscape development.
Another site of relevance to this article that is supported under the US Ambassador’s Fund is that of the Dutch fort of Galle in Sri Lanka. The USA has supported the long-term preservation of Sri Lanka’s World Heritage Site of Galle with a view to improving the economic growth potential of the fort as a tourism destination. 4 In addition to Galle in Sri Lanka, the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation project has also funded the World Heritage Site of Makli necropolis at Thatta in Sindh in Pakistan to the tune of USD 260,000. The fund was to be used for the restoration of the 400-year-old tombs of Sultan Ibrahim and Amir Sultan Muhammad. Makli functioned as the capital of three successive dynasties and was later ruled by the Mughal emperors of Delhi. The remains of the city and its necropolis provide a unique view of civilisation in Sind from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.
The US consulate-general in Karachi is working with the Sindh government for the rehabilitation of Varun Dev Temple on Manora Island with a cost of USD 250,000. 5 According to a legend, it was around sixteenth century when a wealthy sailor by the name of Bhojomal Nancy Bhattia bought Manora Island from the Khan of Kalat, who owned most of the land along the coastline at that time and then his family commissioned a temple. In Afghanistan, the USA has undertaken the Victory Towers of Ghazni Documentation Project. The 75-ft-high flanged towers dated to the twelfth century are built of fired mud brick faced with inscriptions like the Victory sura from the Qur’an and the titles of their builders, Sultans Masud III and Bahram Shah.
In July of 2011, architects from the US National Park Service’s Historic American Building Survey (HABS) embarked on a ground-breaking project to fully document the towers. Using high definition surveying, also known as laser scanning, Dana Lockett and Paul Davidson captured the elaborate terracotta details of each façade as well as the brickwork of their exposed foundations to a level of accuracy never previously achieved…. Security and safety concerns meant the survey had to be completed in two days allowing only enough time to scan the towers at medium resolution. The entire process was captured by Agnieszka Dolatowska, an archaeologist and member of the Polish military, who joined Dana and Paul at the site and photo-documented the towers as well as the scanning process at the request of the US Department of State. 6
Clearly, the USA has appreciated the value of heritage for promoting cultural diplomacy and though it is not the only country to do so, it is perhaps able to use it for promoting its agendas. Several nations have realised that World Heritage inscription of heritage sites is a sure means to acquire global visibility in the domain of culture. More importantly, these joint projects provide critical research material and documentation that help in the production of both publicity materials, as also academic scholarship that invariably impacts the thinking of policymakers. This issue of generation of valuable primary data and production of knowledge is critical for the successful adoption of culture as soft power. It remains one of the neglected thrust areas in cultural diplomacy in India, as is evident with reference to the ASI’s engagement with countries outside India.
The Archaeological Survey of India and Preservation of Heritage
The ASI maintains nearly 3,700 monuments and archaeological sites in India. It has also extended its efforts to countries outside India. Important among these are explorations and excavations conducted by ASI in Egypt, Nepal and Bahrain; chemical preservation of paintings in Bhutan; establishment of a museum in Angola; structural conservation of Ta Prohm Temple in Cambodia and Vat Phou Temple in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, structural conservation and chemical preservation at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia, Ananda Temple in Myanmar and Thiruketeeswaram Temple in Sri Lanka. Recent additions to the list include monuments such as My Son Group of Temples in Vietnam and Aapravasi Ghat in Mauritius. These initiatives have however been limited to conservation projects and it is not clear to what extent these have contributed either to proposing new paradigms for a study of the past or in building partnerships with local scholars and researchers.
For the privilege of getting a cultural site inscribed, the investment in money and human resources are high and the efforts are often long drawn out. Putting together a dossier for the nomination of a cultural site involves not only the careful selection and presentation of hard data on the site, a skill in which government agencies are woefully underequipped but also a genuine appreciation of the history and context of the cultural site proposed. The latter part requires knowledge gained through deep and time-consuming research, which often gets sidelined in the documentation process. Available materials in secondary historical sources are indiscriminately relied on with inadequate formal validation of authenticity.
India has 38 World Heritage Sites, that include 30 cultural properties, 7 natural properties and 1 mixed site. The city of Jaipur was the latest to be inscribed in July 2019. 7 The first transnational site in India was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2016 and titled Architectural Work of Le Corbusier (1887–1965), an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement. It comprises of seventeen sites spread over the seven countries of Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Japan and Switzerland. It is not clear if this inscription had any geopolitical implications.
At this stage, the example of Nalanda Mahavihara, 95 km from Patna in Bihar, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2016 may be quoted. Archaeological research at the site and its history is irrelevant here, as the World Heritage Site is inextricably linked to the project of reviving the ancient Buddhist university and the establishment of the international university close to the site. Although the project of reviving ancient Nalanda was conceptualised in the 1990s, it received widespread attention in 2006 when the then Indian president, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam mooted the idea while speaking in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The project received support both from the state government and the centre and in 2007 the Nalanda Mentor Group was constituted to guide the university chaired by the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and included among others Singapore’s ex-foreign minister, George Yeo, who was also the former Chancellor of the university.
In January 2007, the Government of India shared the proposal with the 16 member states at the East Asia Summit in the Philippines and again at the fourth Summit held in October 2009, at Hua Hin, Thailand. To reinforce the university’s international character, an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding came into force at the 8th East Asia Summit in October 2013. Till date, 18 countries have signed the Memorandum of Understanding, including China, South Korea, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand and Portugal—countries which had little interaction with ancient Nalanda.
In response to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs stated on 23 April 2015:
Nalanda University is a non-profit public–private partnership with significant contribution from the Government of India. Foreign governments and entities have made voluntary contributions. It is not obligatory for foreign students to pay the University in foreign exchange. The foreign exchange likely to be earned in future will depend on such contributions. An amount of ₹2,727.10 crore has been approved by the Government for the establishment of Nalanda University, of which ₹47.28 crore has been released till date.
8
Can the ‘authenticity’ attributed to Nalanda World Heritage Site as ‘the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent’ be sustained? How does the archaeology of the site compare with its contemporary revival as an international university? ‘Clearly, the gap between historical and future Nalanda is vast and comparisons between the two must be made carefully in order to avoid stretching historical fact in the service of present-day aspirations’ (Pinkney, 2015, p. 122). Pinkney goes on to argue that in its revitalisation, the Nalanda International University negotiates between two frames: one, as a common cultural property of Asia and the second, as a symbol of India’s soft power to be used in furthering India’s national interests. It thus marks a shift in India’s foreign policy from ‘nationalist’ to pan-Asian and from competitive diplomacy to mutual cooperation (Pinkney, 2015, p. 125).
Nalanda was the first of two international institutes of higher education, along with South Asian University (SAU), which was started by the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as instruments of foreign policy. They are both, therefore, ‘coordinated’ by the Ministry of External Affairs rather than the human resources development ministry, which holds the portfolio of higher education (Mitra, 2016). Compared with some other universities founded around the same time, Nalanda’s progress so far has been less than satisfactory on most parameters (Mishra & Kaushal, 2015). There are other factors that have hampered the smooth functioning of the university as detailed in a report in Business Standard dated 4 March 2015 (Puri, 2015). The investments in money made by India do not seem to be justified if both Nalanda University and SAU are to replicate courses taught at other educational institutions in the country, though the current vice chancellor of Nalanda University counts comparative religion which is not taught at any other university in the country (Seneviratne, 2019). The vision statement of Nalanda University by the former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam had emphasised the notion of education for developing enlightened citizens based on: ‘(a) value-based education; (b) religion transforming into spirituality; (c) economic development for societal equality’ (Pinkney, 2015, p. 130).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 30 scholarships for students from the seven-member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) that links India with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. It has also been announced that a special programme for ‘Bay of Bengal Studies’ will be established (Seneviratne, 2019). However, Nalanda University has yet to provide evidence for collaborative partnerships and research with universities in South East Asia. It needs to be underlined that education and research are two areas in which long-term collaboration is possible. In the final section of this article, I discuss the research agenda that could underwrite India’s proposal for maritime heritage routes across the Indian Ocean (Ray, 2019, pp. 98–108), though in this article the focus will be on the Western Indian Ocean.
Transnational Nominations: The Way Forward
Political boundaries demarcated on geopolitical considerations often split a continuous cultural region, separating places of faith from their followers and traditional cultural landmarks from the communities that used them. The passage of time hardens these man-made partitions, and the memory associated with these once familiar sites is often lost with successive generations. Thus, trans-boundary shared cultural heritage sites and zones need to be nurtured and promoted. Between 1988 and 1994, the concept of ‘routes’ emerged and evolved as an idea of movement and dialogue in UNESCO, when initiatives on the Silk Road expeditions and the Slave Road were launched as the ‘Roads of Dialogue’. The focus on the ‘Silk Road’, launched in 1988, was primarily intended to rediscover the links between East and West, while the ‘Slave Road’ was launched in 1994 as a historical connection between Africa and the Americas. In 1993, Spain added ‘Pilgrim’s Route to Santiago de Compostela’ to the World Heritage List. Of the 1,121 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List to date, thirty-nine are transboundary nominations. 9
In addition to the shift to routes, UNESCO has over the years underscored the involvement of the community in heritage protection and preservation, rather than merely focusing on the conservation of static monuments and archaeological sites. In 2003, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage, which shifted the spotlight to knowledge-based traditional practices. As defined in Article 2, the Convention draws attention to the vibrant and dynamic nature of intangible cultural heritage that is transmitted over generations and one that also provides a sense of cultural identity:
This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.
10
Thirteen intangible cultural heritage elements from India have been inscribed to date, including Vedic and Buddhist chanting, ritual theatre and dance, Kumbh Mela and traditional performance of Ramlila and so on, but a transnational nomination is yet to be conceptualised. The launch of Project ‘Mausam’ by India in 2014 and future partnerships with other neighbouring member countries on this project could further enable this initiative by recording and celebrating this important phase of World History from the African, Asian and Arab world perspective. There is a much-needed change required in the current approaches of UNESCO which can be steered by India through this project.
In this final section of the article, I would like to examine the historical foundations of heritage routes across the Western Indian Ocean through which knowledge transfers took place and which provide appropriate examples of linkages across the seas that prospered in the past. These linkages continue to play a significant role in nourishing the shared intangible cultural heritage of the Western Indian Ocean despite radical shifts and technological transformations in ship-building technology since the nineteenth century.
Bronze Age Cultural Routes from Gujarat and Kachchh to the Persian Gulf (2600–1900 bce )
In the third–second millennium
The period from c. 2500 to c. 2000
There is consensus among archaeologists that the corridor extending from the Persian Gulf to the West coast of India was an important element in the cultural circuit of the third millennium
Expansion of Heritage Routes Around the Common Era
Erythraean Sea is the name by which Graeco-Roman writers referred to the more northerly reaches of the Indian Ocean including the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Gulfs of Aden and Arabia. According to the first-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Casson, 1989, Section 13.1.1–4), a text that is unique not only in the corpus of Greek writings but also within the domain of historical literature on the Indian Ocean, the Egyptian ports of Myos Hormos and Berenike were the starting points, as well as final destinations of cultural routes across the Western Indian Ocean. From here, one route went from Muza, located at the mouth of the Red Sea to the coast of Somalia and Horn of Africa and further south along the coast of Azania. Rhapta was the last port of call on the Azanian coast and beyond it was the Western Sea. The Periplus provides an interesting account of sewn boats and methods of fishing at Menuthias, identified with Zanzibar (Casson, 1989, Section 7.1). A second route proceeded along the South Arabian Coast to reach centres at the mouth of the Indus and Gujarat and further down on the Malabar Coast.
New sectors were added to the networks over time, as evident from accounts of sailing and travel in Arabic, for example, the ninth-century Book of Routes of Ibn Khurradadbeh, which describes several stages in the voyage to China. Adventures of sailors across the Indian Ocean have been immortalised in stories in different languages, many of which survive in later Arabic versions, such as in the Ajaib al-Hind or Marvels of India and narratives of Sindbad the Sailor. One of the popular tales is that of Ishaq the Jew who left Oman with 200 dinars but returned after 30 years from China with a “couple of million dollars” worth of merchandise (Sheriff, 2010, p. 173). In the fourteenth-century, Hormuz emerged as an important and magnificent city that controlled the horse trade across the Western Indian Ocean, but more significantly with Gujarat and Karnataka (Digby, 1982, pp. 125–159). These broad generalisations are important to understand heritage routes and patterns in maritime networks in the Western Indian Ocean. While these ancient routes have generally not formed a part of discussions of connectivity and mobility across the seas, several island sites have been inscribed on the World Heritage List for their biodiversity and unique marine environment. The irony is that while biodiversity has been underscored, cultural diversity has been ignored as evident from the examples below.
Natural World Heritage Sites and the Cultural Connect
In 2000, Oman inscribed the frankincense trees of Wadi Dawkah and the remains of the caravan oasis of Shisr/Wubar and the affiliated ports of Khor Rori and Al-Baleed as components of the World Heritage Site titled ‘Land of Frankincense’. This inscription denotes the multiple dimensions of the archaeology of incense and its transformations in the historical period. It appears that there was a specific group of South Arabians who acted as long-distance traders and who came from the kingdom of Ma’in. The coffin of a Minaean frankincense merchant named Zayd’il for example dating to the third century
The Socotra Archipelago, in the Northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden, was inscribed as a Natural World Heritage Site in 2008. It is 250 km long and comprises four islands and two rocky islets. The site is of universal importance because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna. What has been missed out in this account is the enormous importance of the Socotra archipelago for the early history of sailing in the Indian Ocean. The archaeological data also suggest similarities with the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. In the first centuries
Another World Heritage Site inscribed in 2012 comprises of the mountain chain of the Western Ghats that run almost parallel to the coast approximately 30–50 km inland in Western India. As a result, the high montane forest ecosystems have influenced the Indian monsoon weather pattern and also represent the best example of the monsoon system. What is missed out in this categorisation is the unparalleled cultural component of the large number of Buddhist cave sites located at fording point and passes in the Western Ghats (Ray, 1986). More than a thousand Buddhist caves were excavated in the hills of the Western Ghats and its offshoots at about 50 centres in the Western Deccan. Broadly these sites are located at passes along overland routes or overlooking the creeks and coastal settlements. Of these 19 centres are significant in providing inscriptional data and have yielded more than 200 inscriptions. This epigraphic record is critical for understanding the organisation of cultural networks across the Indian Ocean in the early centuries of the Common Era, as will be discussed in the next section.
Also significant are culinary changes and the various ways in which food items have been used to cement social and cultural ties. Analysis of archaeo-botanical remains from archaeological sites dating to the early centuries of the Common Era indicates a culinary change and introduction of new food items from India into Arabia (Reddy, 2016). Abdul Sheriff refers to the fruit of the date-palm, which was not merely a sweet fruit but had deeper cultural and religious meaning for Muslims across the region. Dates are crucial for breaking the Ramadhan fast (Sheriff, 2010, p. 1). This emphasis on the cultural meaning of food also raises the issue of linkages of many of the sites discussed above and their understanding within an interconnected Indian Ocean world. Clearly, there is a need to rethink the current categories of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention in view of the larger networks of sailing in the Indian Ocean and the linkages established by them.
Heritage Routes and Knowledge Transfers
Traditionally maritime history has been studied in terms of trade contacts and exchange of commodities. Recent research, however, has seen a gradual shift in this perspective to intercultural exchanges and a focus on the role of small islands. The West coast of India is characterised by the presence of several off-shore islands, which have often yielded archaeological remains signifying maritime activity in the past. This part of the Indian coast also underwent major transformations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the colonial Government of India launched land reclamation projects to merge the seven islands off the North Konkan Coast to form the present port city of Bombay or Mumbai. Other important islands off the coast include Elephanta, Hog (Nhave) and Karanja islands, with river Amba flowing past Karanja island. Many of the islands, such as Elephanta, are known for their architectural treasures, rock-cut caves, structural temples and forts which survive to the present. In addition to the presence of islands that often functioned as halting sites and sacred centres for crews of sailing ships in antiquity, there has been little discussion on the sharing of navigational techniques and nautical knowledge in secondary writings.
Nautical Knowledge
How did navigators sail their ships across unknown waters before the development of modern devices and nautical charts? The first century
The use of compass card and stellar navigation in the Indian Ocean is well-documented in secondary literature (Schwartzberg, 1992, pp. 494–503), though it has almost disappeared in contemporary coastal communities. ‘Investigation of star knowledge in present-day Oman provides a useful key to past practice and society both in Oman and the wider region, exemplifying how communities interact with nature and manage their resources’ (Nash et al., 2017). There is, however, no unanimity among scholars regarding the use of maritime charts in the Western Indian Ocean, before the entry of the Europeans (Schwartzberg, 1992, pp. 494–503). Tibbetts has suggested that Arabs used the positions of the stars relative to the horizon to get their bearings on the sea (Tibbetts, 1992, p. 258). This is a theme that needs further collaborative research. Eric Staples has emphasised the collaborative and interactive nature of navigational techniques that developed in the Western Indian Ocean that were best suited to the environmental factors and marine landscape. ‘A wide variety of influences are evident in the development of navigation in the Western Indian Ocean, as multiple actors from many cultures contributed their own cultural concepts and practices to help humans cross the sea’ (Staples, 2017, pp. 223–252).
The Muallim nī pothīs now preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi provide fascinating insights into the sailing world of the Indian Ocean and changes over time. A part of this material was studied by B. Arunachalam, especially one of the manuals or pothīs, which contains five maps of parts of the coastline of peninsular India and Sri Lanka accompanied by sailing directions. This pothī bears the date Vikram Samvat 1710, or 1664
Despite the paucity of surviving nautical charts, archaeologists such as Neville Chittick have stated that until about 1500, the Indian Ocean was ‘arguably the largest cultural continuum in the world’ and that in its Western region ‘the coasts had a greater community of culture with each other and with the islands than they had with the land masses of which they formed the littorals’ (Chittick, 1980, pp. 13–22).
Sea-stories
How did people of the Indian Ocean conceptualise the waters? The modern Western Indian Ocean bore several names in antiquity: ‘Erythraean Sea’ (Greek: Erythra thalatta; Latin: Mare Rubrum) or Indian Sea (Greek: Indikon Pelagos; Latin: Mare Indicum) are the most common. The modern Red Sea was generally called either ‘Arabian Gulf’ or ‘Erythraean Sea’. The Arabo-Persian Gulf was called ‘Persian Gulf’ as well as ‘Erythraean Sea’. Inscriptions from India starting from the third century
In a Presidential Address, Robert Buswell explored Indian ascetic traditions of itinerant wanderers and suggested that travel impulse formed an integral part of Buddhism’s self-identity. He proposed that the motivation to travel was by no means restricted to the terrestrial world but was deeply ingrained in Buddhist cosmology, as evident from massive anthologies of spiritual journeys (Buswell, 2009, pp. 1055–1075). Maritime voyages in the early centuries of the Common Era were regarded as profitable ventures and Buddhist literature describes a variety of social groups who were involved (Cowell, 1957), Book I, No. 4 (Cullaka Setthi Jataka), No. 41 (Losaka Jataka); Book II, No. 196 (Valahassa Jataka). In addition to merchants, there are references to princes who travelled across the seas to make money (Cowell, 1957), Book XXII, No. 539 (Mahajanaka Jataka).
Cosmas Indicopleustes (India-voyager) a Greek sailor from Alexandria who travelled to Ethiopia, India and Sri Lanka in the early sixth century provides a good example of the interconnectedness of the Indian Ocean. In later life, he became a monk, probably of Nestorian tendencies. Cosmas tells us that he was a native of Egypt, probably of Alexandria, never received a complete education (II, 1). He was a merchant (II, 54 and 56) in early life, perhaps importing spices and made many voyages. His book, the Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, is dated to 550
The Jain monk Haribhadra Suri lived in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and wrote in both Sanskrit and Prakrit. He produced both verse and prose largely in illustration of Jain doctrines. Haribhadra’s reputation as one of the great Jain poets rests on his composition of the dharmakathā, the Samaraicca Kahā, where the narrative is interspersed with religious instruction. The underlying leitmotif of the work is the idea of retribution and the consequences of transgressing the Jain moral code. Besides its didactic character, the stories provide fascinating glimpses of journeys and sea voyages.
Toponym transfer or the duplication of names of sacred places and cities on the Gangetic plains occurs across widely separated ecologies spread across South and Southeast Asia. Indrani Chatterjee has argued that ‘such toponym transfers were intentional expressions of ontological connections and continuities between similar cultural formations’ (Chatterjee, 2018, pp. 69–86). In Cambodia, the Kbal Spean became associated with the river Ganga of North India, which is said to flow from Vishnu’s toe, and 1,000 Siva lingas were carved into the riverbed.
In conclusion, it is necessary to reiterate that though heritage, culture and soft power are on the State’s agenda, what is urgently required is a global vision for collaborative research and a well-defined policy that reinforces the interests of the country and is closely tied into economic benefits, national identity and prestige. The Indian delegation to the World Heritage Committee is led by a career diplomat, thus further corroborating the growing importance of World Heritage within the nation’s agenda. Changes within World Heritage Conventions should be used to the country’s advantage to cement partnerships and build stable bridges. Several countries have already jumped on to the bandwagon of transnational nominations, especially important being the Silk Routes launched in 1988. Under this initiative, in 2014, a 5,000-km stretch of the Silk Road, extending from Central China to present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, was inscribed on the World Heritage List and was called ‘Silk Roads: The Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor’. The corridor is said to have taken shape in the period from second century
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.