Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 434

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1923
the South Kathiawar, Canbay and Gujarat coasts the pirates were chiefly Kolis and to a less extent Kharvas. About the Gulf of Cutch, near Beyt, Dwarka and Porbandar, which was their chief haven, they were Jats, Vaghers, Sanghars, Meds or Mers, and Mianas. Of these, the Sanghars and Vaghers were probably the most ancient. The Vaghers or Kabas are mentioned in the Mahabharata, the Sanghars (of Sindh and west of the Indus) are possibly alluded to by Nearchus, as already stated. (Bomb. Gaz., IX, 526). According to Vincent, in the time of Agatharchides (B.c. 200) the ports of Arabia and Ceylon were entirely in the hands of the people of Gujarat (Periplus, I, 25, 36, 254; Bomb. Gaz., I, i, 492 n). Mediterranean Pirate Boats.
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9. It was in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes that one Eudoxus is said (Strabo, II, 3, 4) to have circumnavigated Africa, taking with him two boats resembling those used by pirates, probably such as were used in the Mediterranean and described later as Hemiolis or Myoparones or Liburnian Galleys.
Chinese.
10. In the third century B.C. possibly occurred an instance of Chinese piracy, for in the Bodhisattvavadana Kalpalata of the poet Kohemendra (tenth century A.D.) it is stated that Indian merchants trading to distant lands, complained to the Emperor Asoka (d. 223 B.C.) that they had been plundered by certain pirates called Nagas i.e., Serpent-worshippers and so, probably, Chinese (Mukherji, Indian Shipping, p. 113). In 400 A.D. a famous Chinese pirate San-wen, who had ravaged the northern seaboard of China, raised a rebellion in the south in Chehkiang. He was not suppressed until 403, when having been defeated by Sinking, Governor of Linhai, and seeing no chance of escape, he leaped into the sea and was drowned (Macgowan, p. 195). In 447 A.D. the Emperor Won-ti sent a punitive expedition which laid the country waste and sacked the capital of Tonquin, because pirates from that country had harassed towns and villages on the south coast of China (Macgowan, pp. 209210).
Arabians.
11. During the first century A.D. it appears unlikely that the inhabitants of Arabia Proper engaged in open piracy. When the Roman Aelius Gellius invaded Arabia Felix he found no use for his warships "for the Arabians being mostly engaged in traffic and commerce are not a very warlike people on land, much less so at sea" (Strabo, XVI, 4, 23). On the other hand, Pliny (23-79 A.D.) mentions a report that some islands on the Ethiopian coast were inhabited by a piratical tribe of Arabians called Ascitae, who, "placing the inflated skins of oxen beneath a raft of wood......ply their piratical vocation with the aid of poisoned arrows (Hist. Nat., VI, 35). It is not possible to identify these people, but it is a fact that such petty piracy by the coast Arabs prevailed right on into modern times (see para 538 below).
Malabarese.
12. Pliny tells us (Hist. Nat., VI, 23) that the merchant vessels, Greek or Egyptian, waich traded to India, were large, well-found and well-manned, and carried companies of archers, as those seas were greatly infested with pirates. According to him, the port of departure was Ocelis (? Gehla at the south-west point of Arabia Felix) and the nearest mart in India was Muziris (? Cranganore), which however was not a very suitable port "on account of the pirates which frequent its vicinity, where they occupy a place called Nitrias". This was probably Nitran or Netrani (or Pigeon Island), fifteen miles north-west of Bhatkal and