Maritime Heritage of India.

The sub-continent of India has a rich maritime past and heritage. India or Bharat owes this rich heritage to the advantageous, central geographic location of the Indian peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the vast expanse of waters of the North Indian Ocean. Though other coastal regions of East Africa, Southwest Asia and Southeast. Asia shared this advantage, none had the privileges that India enjoyed in its maritime interactions over centuries. To what distant past these maritime traditions date back, it is difficult to state with certainty, but it is fairly certain that Indian maritime traditions date back at least 6000 years Before Present (B.P.). The river valley civilizations of Egypt, Euphrates and Tigris and Indus appear to have shared their culture and trade products across the North of the Indian Ocean through maritime interaction. This period also happens to be contemporary with the time of the earliest voyages in the South Pacific of the Peruvians and the equatorial passages of Central Pacific islanders.