Member-only story
Featured
Monsoon Wind and Sea Trade in Ancient South Asia
Churning Historical Evidences from the Bay of Bengal
The word Monsoon refers to seasonal wind. The evolution of the Monsoon wind began approximately nine million years ago (Tripathi and Raut 2006, 871). Yearly, this wind has two reverse cycles. First wind starts from the summer time of June, whereas the second wind outsets from October.
During the summer time, this wind comes from the southwest, and during the reverse wave season, i.e., October to November, dry wave blows from the Himalayas towards the Southwest.
For ancient sailors, a general rule of monsoon wind use in sailing was that ships sailed along one monsoon and return with the other wind (Rivers 2004; Perttola, Slayton and Vadillo 2024, 430).
In the Indian Ocean region, the Monsoon wave is observed both in the Arabian Sea as well as in the Bay of Bengal.
While discussing about the Monsoon wind, this would be very relevant to bring discussion about the Bay of Bengal, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
My intent here is to make aware the readers that in the historical discussion about the Monsoon wind, the Bay of Bengal and its littoral states, i.e., Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka are very relevant.
In fact, regarding the historical use of the Monsoon wind in sailing is intersected and overlapped with these parts of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
This article takes the historical connection of the Bay of Bengal and the littoral states quite seriously, since contemporary historical discussion on Monsoon wind remains obscure about that part of the Indian Ocean region and the Monsoon winds.
Who Discovered the Monsoon Wind?
Before the 100 B.C., there was no evidence of using the Monsoon wind to sail across the South Asia region, specifically the Southwest and the Southern coast of ancient India.
It is the Greek sailors who around 100 B.C., discovered the Monsoon sea routes to South Asia and eastward…
