INDIAN SHIPPING
enemy's passage. And, further, it was in these ships that the Bengalis once made a stand against the invincible prowess of Raghu as described in Kālidāsa's Raghuvańsa, who retired after planting the pillars of his victory on the isles of the holy Ganges.[1]
The conclusions as to ancient Indian ships and shipping suggested by these evidences from Sanskrit literature directly bearing on them are also confirmed by similar evidences culled from the Pali literature. The Pali literature, like the Sanskrit, also abounds with allusions to sea voyages and sea-borne trade, and it would appear that the ships employed for these purposes were of quite a large size. Though indeed the Pali texts do not usually give the actual measurements of the different dimensions of ships such as the Sanskrit texts furnish, still they make definite mention of the number of passengers which the ships carried, and thus enable us in another very conclusive way to have a precise idea of their size. Thus, according to the Rājavalliya, the ship in which Prince Vijaya and his followers were sent away by King Sińhaba (Sińhavāhu) of Bengal was so large as to accommodate full seven hundred passengers, all
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वङ्गानुत्खाय तरसा नेता नौसाधनोद्यतान्।
निचखान जयस्तम्भं गङ्गा स्रोतोऽन्तरेषु च॥
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