"In the Dialogues of the Buddha is a passage in the Kevaddha Sutta of Digha—5th cent. B. C. The Buddha says:
"Long ago ocean-going merchants were wont to plunge forth upon the sea, on board a ship, taking with them a shore-sighting bird. When the ship was out of sight of land they would set the shore-sighting bird free. And it would go to the East and to the South and to the West and to the North, and to the intermediate points, and rise aloft. If on the horizon it caught sight of land, thither it would go, but if not it would come back to the ship again. Just so, brother," etc.
Cosmas Indicopleustes found this same custom in Ceylon in the 6th century A. D., merchants depending on shore-sighting birds instead of observations of the sun or stars.
There are similar passages in the oldest of the Vedas (see Gibson's Rig Veda, Vol. I):
"Varuna, who knows the path of the birds flying through the air, he, abiding in the ocean, knows also the course of ships."
"May Ushas dawn today, the excitress of chariots which are harnessed at her coming, as those who are desirous of wealth send ships to sea."
"Do thou, Agni, whose countenance is turned to all sides, send off our adversaries, as if in a ship to the opposite shore. Do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare." (A remarkable prayer for safe conduct at sea.)
Kālidāsa, in the Sakuntalā, gies the story of the merchant Dhanavriddhi, whose immense wealth devolved to the king on the former's perishing at sea and leaving no heirs behind him.
The Hitopadesa describes a ship as a necessary requisite for a man to traverse the ocean, and a story is given of a certain merchant, "who, after having been twelve years on his voyage, at last returned home with a cargo of precious stones."
The Institutes of Manu include rules for the guidance of maritime commerce.
The passages quoted above indicate a well-developed and not a primitive trade. The sea-trade was principally of Dravidian development, while both the Vedas and the Buddhist writings are of Aryan origin, and refer to things new to their race but old to the world.
(See also Bühler, Indische Studien, in Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, Vienna, 1895, No. 3, pp. 81–2; Indian Palaeography, § 5; Foulke, in Indian Antiquary, XVI, 7; Lassen, III, 3.)
More significant is the Phoenician origin of the Dravidian alpha-
