Indian Seacrafts: Design and Form - An Overview

Earlier chapters are discussions on plank boats in general, the timber technology, planking materials and different forms of their joinery. When plank built forms appeared on the Indian seas for the first time is not clearly known and is still being debated. But, it is fairly certain that plank built forms were already in existence in Indian waters by the middle of the first millennium of the pre-Christian era. Along the length of the coastlines of the Indian sub-continent, including Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as its island realms, and even the adjoining Sri Lanka, a large variety of boat forms had been locally and regionally assembled with the available local materials, easily and readily accessible. These boat forms have a range of variations in their designs and techniques of build. They also carry regionally known nomenclature and vary considerably in size from a mere 10 tons to almost 1500 tons. In fact, when the colonial traders came to India by sea at the beginning of the sixteenth century, they were greatly surprised by the much larger size of Indian trading vessels, plying both in coastal cargo traffic and overseas voyages. A second aspect that attracted the western trading nations was the superior quality and finish as well as durability of Indian boat forms. Though there has been a debate as to why the sewn boats of the North Indian Ocean did not venture into the Atlantic, there is little doubt about the resilence of the sewn boats.