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Subject: [agathiyar] Few men in a boat to repeat Chola feat
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>From The Indian Express dated April 10, 1999



Sandeep Unnithan

MUMBAI, APRIL 9: Nearly a thousand years ago, the
sailors and merchantmen of the imperial Cholas of South
India set out to successfully conquer the territories of South
East Asia.

A millennium later, a seven-man team of Indian sailors is to
set sail from Mumbai for the South East Asia on a
three-month voyage of discovery. The mission here is to
simulate the Chola naval expedition in a sailing vessel using
the forgotten tools and techniques used by the seafarers of
the imperial Cholas.

The methods used by the Cholas weren't elaborately
complicated as B Arunachalam, retired Geography professor
of the Mumbai university and leader of the expedition,
explains. ``Remember, the compass is a recent invention.
While the Chola seafarers read directions by looking at the
sun, at night, they calculated direction by holding out their fists
to certain celestial constellations.''

``But due to the lack of any Indian documentation on the
subject, we didn't know the technical data the Cholas used,''
says Arunachalam.However, the professor obtained a precise
reading of Chola tabulations by reading Arab texts where
medieval Arab sailors compared their values to those of the
Indian mariners.

Arunachalam presented a paper on the topic at a seminar in
Mumbai last December when the seeds of the unique
expedition were sown. He explored the feasibility with two
sailing enthusiasts Surendra Kulkarni and Vivek Ganpule,
working at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
(TIFR). The duo had sailed on two previous marathon
expeditions from Mumbai to Calcutta and later Mumbai to
Lakshadweep.

The group also roped in the Thane-based Institute for
Oriental Study and the Goa-based National Institute of
Oceanography to support the expedition.

Arunachalam hopes to validate these ancient Chola readings
by actually sailing on the sea route taken by the Cholas, even
sailing in the same season they sailed. The voyage will take
the crew from Mumbai to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and
then around the Indonesian island of Sumatra and back,a
journey of 7150 nautical miles.

``We also want to prove that Indians were great seafarers,''
says Ganpule. As the enthusiasts explain these little-known
facts of history, the imperial Cholas who ruled South India
between the 11th and 12th century AD held a unique place in
India's maritime history. No other maritime expedition was as
spectacular as their naval expeditions, who had the mightiest
naval fleets known in India.

However, trying to rebuilding a period sailing vessel from
keel-up would be prohibitively expensive and would end up
costing several crore rupees. So the group decided to
borrow a 35-foot long craft in Mumbai for the purpose.

While Arunachalam will use traditional navigational methods
to guide the boat, one member of the crew will be equipped
with all that modern navigation gizmos from radars to Global
Positioning System and an echo sounder, intervening only in
case of an emergency.

However, this crew member will maintain a separate log of
his readings to be compared with ourreadings after the
voyage. He will intervene only in case of an emergency,'' says Kulkarni.

Racing to raise finances for their voyage which begins in eight
months, the duo rue the fact that adventure sailing is still so
backward in the country that both Kulkarni and Ganpule will
have to apply for special leave from the Indian
Mountaineering Foundation (IMF).

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.



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