NEW DELHI (PTI): Cotton from India reached Latin America at least 4000 years before Columbus, carried across the oceans by ancient mariners from Asia who had mastered long-distance navigation, that fascinating theory emerged at an international scientific meeting here recently where scholars from six countries also said ancient Indian boat-building and navigational skills have remained unrecognized.
“India was one of the earliest sites where maritime contacts flourished,” said Dr. Jean Francois Salles, a French archaeologist. “The bulk of exchange between the 4500-year old Indus civilization and west Asia was by sea.”
The discovery that a Hybrid Variety of cotton was growing in America long before Columbus reached there in 1492 A.D. has triggered speculations that cotton from Asia, specifically India, was carried there well before 2500 B.C.
“This cotton is a cross between old world and new world cotton and the only way it could have been in the Americas before Columbus was through direct human introduction,” said Dr. Lotika Varadarajan, a leading Indian Ethno historian.
The northwest part of the Indian subcontinent had by 2500 B.C. established a very strong tradition in cotton, This makes India one of the most likely sites of the origin of the cotton taken to the Americas. Scientists engaged in a national program to piece together maritime history have uncovered evidence to suggest Indian seafarers had evolved a high degree of boat-building and navigational expertise.
“Seafarers from this country used constellations, the position of the pole star, and the movements of the sunrochan out nautical routes,” said Dr. B. Arunachalam, a principal investigator in the maritime history program.
Studies presented at the five-day international seminar on seafaring in the Indian ocean portray periods in history when vessels sewn or nailed together crisscrossed the seas, connecting India with west Asia and south-east Asia.
An Indian colony existed in south Mesopotamia in the second millennium, said French marine archaeologist Dr. Salles. Items imported from India of the 4thcentury B.C. have been found in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Indian seamen also relied on horizon measurements, underwater seafloor features, and observations of aquatic life to chart out routes and even anticipate subtle changes in the weather, said Dr. Aninachalam. He said it is difficult to predict when traditional navigation methods first nominated, but several studies show that they were in use in the northern Indian ocean and Arabian sea before the Europeans arrived here. No one knows today how far ancient Indian mariners travelled.
The hybrid variety of cotton called “tetraploid” cotton was growing in Mexico as early as 4000 years B.C. and fabrics based on this cotton dating backto2500 B.C. have been found at a site called Huaca Preita in Peru, she said.
The old world cotton used to produce this hybrid was the same wild species used at Mohenjodaro and Harappa of the Indus civilization, Dr. Vardarajan said. “ Act his point in time we cannot Say who transported the cotton to the new world, but the likely route would have been across the Pacific,” she said.
Dr. Arunachalam in his paper Said a navigational device called the “Kamal” was devised as an efficient hand tool to measure finger distances of stellar parameters. Boat-building techniques believed to have origins in Europe evolved independently in India, said Dr. Sean Megrail, a marine archaeologist from Oxford.
One of these is “clinker” boats from Eastern India which have overlapping planks and were until now believed to have been first used by the Vikings.
The Indian maritime history project has also provided new evidence of seafaring in south India. “Out studies prove beyond doubt that Tamil navigation was at its Zenith before the Europeans. arrived,” said Dr. G.Victor Rajamanickam,
Article extracted from this publication >> July 15, 1994
