Indians in the Ocean

Cultures of Trade and Travel c. 1000-1500

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Crossword Atlantic Amazon

Long before European ships dominated the Indian Ocean, traders and travellers from the Indian subcontinent were already navigating its vast waters. In search of profit, adventure, and knowledge, their journeys shaped how Indians evolved as a society, what they consumed in their material lives, and how and why they produced and circulated oceanic knowledge.

Indians in the Ocean explores the ocean’s role in shaping the economic and cultural histories of the subcontinent between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Drawing on a rich array of historical sources in many languages, it reconstructs the experiences of people from the region who travelled, traded, and participated in the global economy at a time when the oceans formed the principal highways linking countries and communities across continents.