Samuel Berthet

Shipbuilding, Navigation and the South-West Silk Road Samuel Berthet

Shipbuilding, Navigation and the South-West Silk Road: North Odisha, Bengal and Arakan looks at circulation and ships in a space that brings together the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayan regions, south-west China and South-East Asia, connecting those regions to the larger Indian Oceanic trade. This space is organized around the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, a constantly moving topography criss-crossed by hundreds of changing rivers, where boats and ships play a pivotal role in circulation, trade and wealth. So far, boats and ships of the Northern Bay of Bengal have been the subject of very few studies. Shallow draft vessels, able to navigate the coast, estuaries and deep rivers provided the technological response to a particular typography. They are also the reflections of a form of transportation that evades the control of a central and land-based polity. Their understanding is crucial to reassess our idea of roads as well as the history of technology and trade in a space central to circulation, yet highly politically fragmented and evading sustainable control. The study of shipbuilding highlights the relevance of technological features shared beyond area studies and periodization. Thanks to a cross-discipline, cross-area and cross-era approach, the book offers a water-centric perspective on the region.