Excavating Waves and Winds of (Ex)change: A Study of Maritime Trade in Early Bengal

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This volume offers a chronological overview of maritime trade across the region of ‘Bengal’ to the first half of the 16th century AD, asking: which nodal points or ports were engaged in that trade? What were the exports and imports of the region? What were the media of exchange? What maritime vessels were employed and how were they constructed? How were ships navigated? Which maritime routes connected the ports of ‘Bengal’? Who were the traders and what was their operative milieu? In the pursuit of answers to these questions, the work adopts the following methodology: extensive field-investigation of archaeological sites; study of artifacts indicative of maritime trade; synthesis of literature on epigraphic and numismatic findings, archaeological explorations and excavations; ethnographic field-level investigation on traditional maritime practices of contemporary communities; study of physiographic and geo-morphological features; and survey of available literary evidence pertaining to maritime trade.