Ranabir Chakravarti

Bio: Ranabir Chakravarti is an academic researcher from Jawaharlal Nehru University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Genizah & Hegemony. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 10 publications receiving 70 citations.

An Enchanting Seascape: Through Epigraphic Lens

Abstract: Studies in History, 20, 2, n.s. (2004) SAGE PUBLICATIONS New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London 1 Ashin Das Gupta, one of the founding fathers of Indian Ocean studies, maintained that statistical data in official Company papers was not an all-purpose key to solving the historian’s problems of understanding the sea and the people connected with it. See for example his collection of essays, The World of the Indian Ocean Merchants 1500–1800, New Delhi, 2001. An Enchanting Seascape: Through Epigraphic Lens

Agricultural Technology in Early Medieval India (c. A.D. 500–1300):

Abstract: The article discusses the spread of agriculture to an unprecedented degree in the period from c. A.D. 500 to 1300 (early medieval times) on the basis of both epigraphic and textual materials that a...

Indian trade through Jewish geniza letters (1000–1300):

Abstract: The letters of Jewish merchants from West Asia and North Africa found in Cairo shed considerable light on the trade and traders engaged in commerce across the Indian Ocean in the twelfth and thirte...

A Subcontinent in Enduring Ties with an Enclosed Ocean (c. 1000–1500 C.E.): South Asia’s Maritime Profile ‘Before European Hegemony’

Abstract: The waning influence of a Eurocentric paradigm paves the way for a close look at the maritime situation of the Indian subcontinent in the Indian Ocean during the first half of the second millennium C.E. Situated at the centre of the Indian Ocean, the two sea-boards of the subcontinent, along with Sri Lanka, appear in a wide variety of sources—literary (including letters of Jewish merchants), epigraphic, archaeological (including shipwreck archaeology)—as sites of vibrant commerce and cultural transactions across the sea. Nomenclatures and the historical geography of the Indian Ocean also form parts of the discussion. This essay pays particular attention to the exchange in daily necessity commodities, including plant products. A survey of ports dotting both the coasts of the subcontinent suggests the dynamic character of premier ports, shaped by their relation with subsidiary ports and their respective hinterlands and forelands. The paper highlights the role of seafaring groups, especially the ship-owners, active in and beyond South Asia. The available evidence irrefutably demonstrates that Indic people did take to sea during pre-modern times, thereby driving home the inefficacy of the taboos on seafaring in Sanskrit normative texts. To what extent the Indian Ocean experienced political contestations has been discussed in the light of a 14th century Latin Crusade tract. The advent of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in 1498 did not signal the Age of Discoveries in the Indian Ocean in the light of seafaring in this maritime zone during 1000–1500 CE phase.

Vibrant Thalassographies of the Indian Ocean: Beyond Nation States

Abstract: This review essay delves into three major works on maritime history, especially of—but not merely limited to—the Indian Ocean. Two of the three works relate to new kinds of primary source materials, viz. inscriptions (1st to 5th centuries CE) in Hoq cave in the island of Socotra in the western Indian Ocean and about 450 letters of Jewish ‘India Traders’ (c. 1000-1300 CE). The two sources have immensely lit up the pre-1500 CE Indian Ocean scenario and therefore, demand sustained attention and close scrutiny of maritime historians. The third work, an edited volume emerging out of an important conference, deals primarily with the port-cities which are mostly seen from the point of view of the network theory and understanding of space. The third work does not limit itself to any particular temporal and spatial frame. The review essay weaves several other important themes and issues of maritime history, especially on the formation of ports, to highlight the possibilities of new openings and interventions in thalassography.

The Worlds of the Indian Ocean: A Global History

Abstract: Europe's place in history is re-assessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 CE. Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a trans-regional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure. Volume II provides in-depth coverage of the period from the seventh century CE to the fifteenth century CE.

What Happened in History

Abstract: PROF. V. GORDON CHILDE is one of the foremost prehistorians. He has travelled widely and done much work of great importance to the specialist ; he has, as it were, personally added many bricks to the edifice of prehistoric knowledge. But he has also long realized that prehistory and early history form a continuum, and that, by standing back and contemplating the whole, many general conclusions can be arrived at with regard to the rise and fall of civilizations. Too often volumes purporting to give such cultural resumes come unavoidably from the pens of 'scissors and paste' authors who do very good work but cannot, of course, write with any personal authority. What Happened in History By Prof. V. Gordon Childe. (Pelican Books. A. 108.) Pp. 256. (Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1942.) 9d.

Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast

Abstract: Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a distinct form of Islamic thought and practice developed among Muslim trading communities of the Indian Ocean. Sebastian R. Prange argues that this 'Monsoon Islam' was shaped by merchants not sultans, forged by commercial imperatives rather than in battle, and defined by the reality of Muslims living within non-Muslim societies. Focusing on India's Malabar Coast, the much-fabled 'land of pepper', Prange provides a case study of how Monsoon Islam developed in response to concrete economic, socio-religious, and political challenges. Because communities of Muslim merchants across the Indian Ocean were part of shared commercial, scholarly, and political networks, developments on the Malabar Coast illustrate a broader, trans-oceanic history of the evolution of Islam across monsoon Asia. This history is told through four spaces that are examined in their physical manifestations as well as symbolic meanings: the Port, the Mosque, the Palace, and the Sea.

Introduction: The Geography of the Indian Ocean and Its Navigation

Abstract: The Indian Ocean covers approximately 75 million square kilometers. It is bordered to the west by the African coast and Arabia, to the east by the Thai–Malay peninsula, the Indonesian coasts, and – further south – western Australia. The Asian continent runs along its northern border, with India forming a wide peninsula that divides the northern Indian Ocean into eastern and western parts (the Bay of Bengal and the Sea of India, respectively). The western part of the Indian Ocean extends along both sides of Arabia, with a narrow entrance opening onto the Persian Gulf to the north and the Red Sea to the south.