TheMaritime history of Bengal (Bengali:বাংলার সামুদ্রিক ইতিহাস;Bānglāra Sāmudrika Itihāsa), represents the era of recorded human interaction with the sea in the southern region of Bengal, including shipping and shipbuilding, shipwrecks, naval warfare, and military installations and lighthouses, which were built to protect or assist navigation and development in Bengal. TheBay of Bengal is located to the south of the Bengal and there are navigable rivers that have greatly facilitated the influence of maritime transport and trade.[1][2]
The maritime trade of Bengal was centered on the Bay of Bengal. For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, the major ports of Bengal,Satgaon and Chittagong, and later Hooghly, maintained significant commercial links with Burma, Malacca andAceh. The second trade route connected Bengal withSri Lanka, the Maldives and theMalabar Coast, and the third, subsidiary route connected Bengal with Gujarat andWest Asia. Bengal's coastal trade with the Karamandal was equally important, which depended on Bengal's annual grain imports. The main exports of Bengal's coastal and overseas transport were various types of manufactured goods and agricultural products—clothes, rice, wheat, gram, sugar, opium, clarified butter, and salt. In return, Bengal imported spices, camphor, porcelain, silk, sandalwood, ivory, metals, conch shells, andcowrie. With the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, Bengal entered the Euro-Asian exchange network, becoming the center of the region's economy.
Excavations at thePandu Rajar Dhibi in West Bengal have shown that aChalcolithic culture began around 1600 BC, followed by an Iron Age culture around 750 BC. The tools found at this site indicate maritime trade. Some of the artifacts recovered from here are similar to those found on the islands ofCrete andMacedonia, indicating contact withGreece andEurope at a very early period.
ThePeriplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions a period when maritime trade was active between Bengal and the Western world. During this period, theGange is mentioned as a port and market-town , which is more similar toChandraketugarh.
There is a river near it called the Ganges, and it rises and falls in the same way as the Nile. On its bank is a market-town which has the same name as the river, Ganges. Through this place are broughtmalabathrum and Gangeticspikenard and pearls, and muslin of the finest sorts, which are called Gangetic. It is said that there are gold-mines near these places, and there is a gold coin which is calledcaltis.[3]
Patia boats used in the Talsari-Digha belt use an overlapping technology that dates back to the 11th and 12th centuries as recorded in a plaque at the Jagannath temple in Puri, on stone reliefs at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and at Indian Museum in Kolkata. .... But unlike the Viking ships that also used overlap planking but were replaced after the 11th century by other boat-making technologies, the overlap-planking technology (clinker) used in Bengal's boats continued to evolve and has survived the test of time.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)