Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 439

MAY, 1923;
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
11
of Gujarat) long retained the title of " lord of the sea ", which we find applied to Sultan Bahadur when he was defeated by Humayun in 1535 (Bayley, Gujarat, p. 386). In fact, thege Rajputs were the ancestors of the Sanganian pirates who were to become so troublesome in the 17th and 18th centuries, and are described in the Bombay Gazetteer (I, i, 495) as the Sangar Rajputs of Mandvi in Cutch and of Navanagar in North Kathiawar. The origin of the name Sangadian or Sanganians is not certainly known. Colonel Tod was of opinion that it was not taken from any particular tribe or country, but was derived from the word sangam (meaning " confluence of waters", such as occurs at the mouths of creeks or rivers). At such places were found the haunts of pirates, e.g., at Aramra and Dwarka, and shrines were there erected to Sangam-Narayan, the God of thieves, their protector. These nests they called Sangada or Sangam-dhara, whence the name Sangadian or Sanganian was applied to the pirates, though the Gohils' own name for themselves was "children of Tricum-Rae". On the other hand, Sir Richard Temple informs me that the various forms under which the name appears are clearly descriptive, relating to a tribe occupying Sind, if not in the time of Alexander (see para. 7 above), at least as early as the 8th century A.D., which spread later as Rajputs to many parts of Western India and notably to Cutch and Kathiawar, those on the sea-board betaking themselves to piracy. In Ogilvy's Atlas (1670) Cutch is called Sanga. (See also Bomb. Gaz., IX, i, 519 and XIII, ii, 713-4.7.) I use the term for all the pirates of this coast, whatever their race or religion.
35. "These corsairs," says Tod, "never spread their sails in quest of prey without first propitiating or bribing their deity, and never returned without offering a share of their spoils to this Mercury. Like the Pindaris, those scourges of India who prayed geven times a day, these "seizers of rings considered their hazardous occupation not only honourable but sanctified". It was not until the 19th century that they were finally suppressed, and how high was the honour in which the pirate chiefs were held by their fellow tribesmen is shown by their sepulchres. "Let us quit," says Tod (p. 430), "the graves of the giants of Aramra for its mcre interesting memorials, the pallias of the pirates........There remain two on which are sculptured in high relief 'the ships of Tricum-Rae'engaged in combat. One of these is a three-masted vessel, pierced for guns, the other is of a more antique form and character, having but one mast and none of those modern inventions of war. Both are represented in the act of boarding the chase. One of the piratical sailors, with sword and shield, is depicted as springing from the shrouds, another from the bow of his ship, and it may be supposed they are the effigies of the heroes who lie there". Another pallia was inscribed to the memory of Rana Raimal, who in A.D. 1572 performed the Saka, when attacked by the king. There was another, and the latest in date, erected to the memory of these buccaneers and sufficiently laconic, S. 1819 (A.D. 1763) Jadoo Kharwa was slain on the seas'. Kharwa is the most common epithet of the Indian sailor.
36. Opposite Aramra is the Pirates' Island Baté or Beyt (Bet.) In the last edition of the Imperial Gazetteer this is called Beyt Shankhodar, owing to the immense number of sankh or conch shells found there. It is a very holy place and on its western side the Kullore-kot or Pirates' Castle still stands, as in Tod's time, "a memorial of a scourge which from the earliest period of History infested these waters from the Shankhodwara at the entrance of the Red Sea to the Gulf of Cutch." The most famous chief of Beyt was Rana Raimal, who was known as Sangam-Dhara or the Pirate. After a long career he was captured and taken to Timur, who not only get him free but gave him a title, (Tod, pp. 431-437). The last chief of Beyt was one Singram, who was so terrified by the storming of Dwarka, the stronghold