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186 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
in width and 20 fathoms in depth. In this case, the merchant was a Brāhmaṇa of Benares.1 The Silanisamsa-Jātaka narrates the story of the wreck of another merchant ship in the midst of the ocean. In this instance, the merchant was a barber.2 The Samuddavānija-Jātaka narrates the story of the arrival at an island in the sea of a thousand families of carpenters in a large ship built by them. The MahajanakaJātaka relates the story of how Mahajanaka reached Suvarnabhumi from Videha in a ship with an accommodation for seven hundred caravans with their beasts. The ship is said to have made 700 leagues in seven days. The ValāhassaJātaka tells us the story of the arrival of five hundred shipwrecked merchants from Benares at the town of Sirisavatthu in Tambapannidipa, the inhabitants of which were mostly daring sea-going merchants. A matriarchal system of society prevailed in this part of the country owing to the uncertainty of the return of the husbands. As pointed out by Rhys Davids, in the Pāli Nikayas, mention is made of seavoyages out of sight of land and of long voyages
1 Jätaka, No. 442.
2 Ibid., No. 190.
a Ibid., No. 466.
Ibid., No. 539.
5 Ibid., i, p. 127f. For details of India's sea-borne trade, sec R. K. Mookerjee, History of Indian Shipping and Maritime Activity from the earliest times (1912).
