Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 435

JANUARY, 1923)
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
25 miles south-west of Hona var. In 1801 it was a nest of Maratha pirates. On it was & pillar sacred to the spirit Jetiga, which destroyed the boats of fishermen and traders who neglected to propitiate it (Bomb. Gaz., XV, ii, 335).
18. Ptolemy (second century A.D.) refers definitely to a portion of the western coast of India as the Pirate Coast, which (McCrindle, India as described by Plolemy, p. 45) extended from Chaul to Mangalore, or roughly from Bombay to Goa, and which Ptolemy calls a part of Ariaka (Bomb. Gaz.. I, ii, 1). This part of the coast remained piratical up to the nineteenth century. Ptolemy says (VII, i, 84) that the pirates occupied five ports, viz., Mandagara (modern Madangad to the south of Bankot creek), Byzantion (i.e., Vaijayanti, probably Chiplun or Dhabol), Khersonesus (the peninsula of Goa), Armagara (Cape Rainas) and Nitria (? Mangalore), and even two inland towns, viz., Olokhaira (? Kheda in the Ratnagiri District, and Mousopalla (? Miraj near the river Krishna), (Bom. Guz., I, 1, 541 ; X, 192 n.).
14. According to Vincent (Periplus, p. 105, supposed to have been composed about 247 A.D., Colonel Miles says 80 A.D.), there were pirates on the Malabar Coast at places conjectured to be Vingurla, Goa and Marmagon.
Sanganlans. 15. Wilford (Asiatic Researches, IX, 224) says that in the fourth century A.D. the Diveni or pirates of Diu were forced to send hostages to the Emperor Constantine (320-340), one of them being a Christian Bishop named Theophilus.
16. In the sixth and seventh centuries, fleets from the coasts of Sind and Gujarat are said to have formed settlements in Java and Cambodia, whilst Sumatra is said to have reoeived settlements from Bengal and Orissa (Bomb. Gaz., I, 1, 489).
17. In the sixth century A.D. the Jats of the Indus and Cutch (Kachh), driven from their homes by the White Huns, occupied the Bahrein Islands. At the same time the Persians complained of Indian piracy, and Naushirvan the Sassanian demanded the cession of the whole of the Baluchistan coast. It is said that in 570 he invaded the lower Indus, and perhaps Ceylon. Possibly he used the very Jats just mentioned to man his ships. At any rate it is certain that the early Muhammadan piratical attacks on Gujarat and the Konkan (637-770) were due to these Jat settlers and not to the Arabs themselves, whose chiefs forbade Buch enterprises (Bomb. Gaz., I, I, 433 n.; XIII, 433 n.).
18. About 710 the Meds and other pirates of Debal and the Indus mouths plundered eight vessels sent by the Ruler of Ceylon with presents, pilgrims, Muhammadan female orphans and Abyssinian slaves to secure the favour of Hajjaj-bin-Yusuf-al-Saquali (Governor of Arabia, who rebuilt the tomb of the Prophet at Mecca). This and other Sanganian outrages led to the Arab invasion of Sind (711-12) under Muhammad son of Kasim. When Muhammad besieged Debal (i.e., Karachi), the defenders flew a red flag on a long staff placed upon a lofty temple but the destruction of the staff by a stone from a manjanik ( a kind of catapult) so discouraged them that they surrendered (Al Biladuri in Elliott, I, 118-20). This is the earliest instance I have found of the use of the red flag and it probably had the signification of "No Surrender " or a fight to the death. How this use has continued up to the present day in India may be seen from the following extract from the Times of the 2nd June 1919
Simla, May 29.-The assault and capture of the Spin Baldak fort were characterized by smart work. Early in the morning a party bearing a white flag advanced to the fort to deliver a written message requiring its surrender. The garrison