Borrowed with thanks from ‘Know Your Bhārat’
Bhārata was a world leader in exports even as late as 1700s. The following is the story of what caused the decline of Bhārata.
Economically, Bhārata was the world leader upto 1800. The British broke Bhārata’s back and reduced Bhārata to a poor and hungry country. We need to understand this in detail.
It is important for two reasons. Firstly, Bhārat that an economic giant was enslaved and it’s industries closed by brute force. Several thriving industries were shut, as a result of which invaluable technology was lost. Crores of people were brought to penury and killed by various means. When the stage reached where they could no longer extract any revenue out of us, we were granted freedom.
Secondly, this tale of loot and economic collapse has been denied to Bhāratīyās, as a result of which we don’t even know that we were a true global leader in all respects. Instead of working with a goal to reclaim that pristine position, Bhāratīyas are today ignorantly chasing foreign countries.
It’s important that the country makes a course correction and chases the right goal. We were not dethroned by competition. We were dethroned by deceit, cruelty and were pushed off the cliff. It’s our duty to reclaim the position, as we owe it to our ancestors.
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
There were two Important discoveries that changed the narrative in respect of Bharat.
One of the earliest such discovery was the text “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” that is believed to be written around the 1st Centure CE and presents a firsthand description by someone familiar with the area and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient European world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean.
The document records direct trade relations between Roman Egypt and Bhārat. At the time of its writing, the trade from ports of Egypt was conducted by up to 120 ships every year, setting sail to Bhārat, following the monsoon winds. Barygaza (modern Bharuch in Gujarat) and Muziris (in modern Kerala) feature prominently in the Periplus. The recent discovery of the port of Muziris, mentioned in the Periplus, in Kodungallur (Kērala), corroborates the records. Large hordes of Roman coins have been found in various places in Kerala and as far away as in Tamil Nāḍu, suggesting brisk Roman trade with Bhārat.
The Periplus apart from telling us about a direct trade route between Bhārat and Egypt, also suggests that Bhārat was a major international export hub since early centuries of the Common Era. The need to lower the cost of imports, made the Romans, study the monsoon patterns, bypass the Arab intermediaries and establish direct trade contacts with the Bhāratīyās.
The second discovery was the Bakhshali manuscript. It was found in 1881, in the village of Bakhshali, Mardan (modern Pakistan). The manuscript was discovered by a villager while he was digging a stone enclosure. Along with the manuscript he also discovered an earthen lamp, a pencil and an earthen pot with perforated bottom. Having no formal training in archaeological excavation, much of the manuscript was lost while the villager pulled it out, from the enclosure. It was handed over to the assistant commissioner of Mardan and it eventually reached the Oxford University in 1902.
The manuscript is written in Shāradā script (Kāśmīr) and deals in mathematical subjects like algebra, geometry and mensuration. However, the most important discovery in the manuscript was the use of zero as a number. The carbon dating of the manuscript revealed that it dated to around 3rd Century CE. This disproved the popular belief that zero was used in Bhārat since 9th century.
Read full article: https://bit.ly/2JX2sTF
Rigveda contains numerous references to navigational terms and shipping, like nau (boat), nāva (ship), navya (navigational stream), nāvya (sailor), aritrā (oar), aritrī (oarsman), etc., Vedic texts give three classifications for water routes viz., kulya or artificial waterways/ canals routes, nadipatha or riverine routes, and varipatha or sea routes. For River traffic, the Rigveda mentions 90 navigable rivers!
There are references in Rig Veda to sea-vessels propelled by one-hundred oars and also equipped with wings (sails). A ship is also referred to as patanga ratha rathavi, patatri, pakśi – literally meaning winged chariot. Likewise there are references to śatāpada meaning vessel with hundred oars as well as śatārita meaning one with thousand oars! Imagine the size of those ships thousands of years ago!
Rigveda mentions about Aśvins carrying out rescue operation of Bhujya whose ship was wrecked on the sea and brought him to the shore in their hundred-oared boat after voyaging for three days and three nights.
The Śatapata Brāhmaṇa talks of Ratnākara and Mahādadhī which have been renamed by British to Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengāl and the Bhāratīyās. Don’t you think the independent Bhārata should restore the original names of our great seas?
See the trade routes of ancient Bharat-
https://easyzoom.com/imageaccess/ec482e04c2b240d4969c14156bb6836f
This shows the trade routes around 11th Century across the globe. Here’s what it has to tell about Bhārat:
In India, which has always had a central role in Afro-Eurasian trade as being the main producer of exotic goods and spices, was also on the rise. Especially in the southern part of India the Chola Kingdom started to expand ever more until finally reaching as far as Sumatra. They were a conquering as well as a commercial kingdom, establishing factories and trading networks wherever they conquered.
Bhāratīya Scholars like Sanjeev Sanyal have opined that the map doesn’t present the full picture of Bhārat’s trade routes.
Link to article:
Teak Wood of Malabār region (Keraḷa) must have been in special demand, as logs of teak wood were cut on Malabār coast and shipped to Persian Gulf in vessels large enough to carry them. According to Zénaïde Alexeïevna Ragozin, who wrote on civilizations in ancient times, in the ruins of 3000 BC in one site in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), a piece of Bhāratīya Teak has been found. This evidence is exceptionally conclusive because the teak wood was grown only in Bhārat. She suspects that the said teak wood must have been exported out of Malabār.
It is reported that in an old Babylonian list of clothes dating back to period around 3000 BCE, the word ‘Sindhu’ has been used for muslin (light weight cotton). It is the clearest proof that there was a trade between Babylon and people who spoke Aryan dialect, as the muslin was simply named after the country which exported it.
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