HINDU PERIOD
the Pāṇdava brothers from the destruction planned for them in a ship that was secretly and specially constructed for the purpose under orders of the kind-hearted Vidura.[1] The ship was of a large size, provided with machinery and all kinds of weapons of war, and able to defy storms and waves.
But besides the epics, the vast mass of Sutra literature also is not without evidences pointing to the commercial connection of India with foreign countries by way of the sea. That these evidences are sufficiently convincing will probably be apparent from the following remarks of the well-known German authority, the late Professor Bühler: "References to sea voyages are also found in two of the most ancient Dharma Sutras. Baudhāyana, Dh. S. ii. 2. 2, forbids[2] them to the orthodox Brahmans, and prescribes a severe penance for a transgression of the prohibition, but he admits,[3] Dh. S. i. 2. 4, that such transgressions were common among the 'Northerners' or, strictly speaking, the Aryans
- ↑
ततः प्रवासितो विद्वान् विदुरेण नरस्तदा।
पार्थानां दर्शयामास मनोमारुतगामिनीम्॥
सर्व्ववातसहां नावं यन्त्रयुक्तां पताकिनीम्।
शिवे भागीरथीतीरे नरैर्विश्रम्भिभिः कृताम्॥आदिपर्व्व। - ↑ "Now (follow the offences) causing loss of caste, (viz.) making voyages by sea." (Bühler's translation in S.B.E.)
- ↑ "Now (the customs peculiar) to the North are, to deal in wool, to drink rum, to sell animals that have teeth in the upper and in the lower jaws, to follow the trade of arms, to go to sea." (Ibid.)
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