From jayabarathi Sun Apr 18 21:50:16 1999
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 12:49:30 +0800
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Subject: [agathiyar] Re: Few men in a boat to repeat Chola feat
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Dear Netters,

Thanks to Manivannan for this interesting news item.
There seem to be some considerable amount of discrepencies
in the "adventure".
Apologists might say, "At least they are venturing into
such an adventure". But what should be stressed is the proper way
to do it. If it is to be the "Imperial Chola" method, then it has to be
so. Otherwise, it will just be another yachting cruise. Call it by
any other name.
Let's see the some of the passages.
We are only exploring the matter from what is in
the news.
If you want to simulate some adventure, it should be
done in more or less the same way that it was done. What you
don't know, you fill up the blanks. But don't fill all the blanks
in a totally empty space and call it by a specific name:-)
I hope that as the neo-Cholzhiyan mariners embark
on their adventure, they really are more serious and iron out
the details.

At 02:12 AM 4/10/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>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.

This is very strange. In alater passage, the learned professor
says that they don't have any knowledge on those details.

>``But due to the lack of any Indian documentation on the
>subject, we didn't know the technical data the Cholas used,''
>
>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.''

May be this professor is good in geography. But he fails
disasterously in history and astronomy:-)
The compass was already in use a thousand years ago. The Chinese
had invented it more than two thousand years ago.
On continous cloudy days, how did the mariners use this method
to find the stars? The sun or stars will not be visible.
It should be remembered that the Tamils had very close connections
with the Arabs and the Chinese. The Arabs had already been
well-settled in the coastal pockets of Tamilnadu. The Malays had
been expert sea-men for thousands of years.
We were already on par with them. If at all, our technoly would
have been better than theirs.
There was a simple navigational devise made of wood and thread.
The wood had small holes. This was widely used at that time to find
the location.

>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.

So many people have sailed around the world or longer distances
with lesser advantages and smaller vessels.
Sir Francis Chichester sailed in a yacht single-handed around the
world. And he was in his seventies!
The Kontiki was a balsam raft with a hut built of banana leaves
and bamboo. The trip was from South America to Australia.
The Ra made the trip across the Atlantic and it was made of reeds.
The Tigris was amde from reeds in Basra, Iraq. It sailed all the way
across the Arabian Sea to the mouth of the Indus River.

Something about the 35 foot boat.

The staem ship service from India to Malaya started only around the
secon decade of this century. The Nagappattanam Muslim Maraikkaayars
were running the merchant boat service. People also travelled by those
vessels.
They were quite small, about 30 -50 feet. They had only one or two sails.
The Maraikkaayars started from Nagapattanam and sailed all the way
to Penang.
It took thirty days for the journey. They followed the monsoon.
Funny thing is the name of the vessel. It was known as " the Suuththaattik
Kappal"(சூத்தாட்டிக் கப்பல்). It must have earned itsstrange name
from its rudder at the back.
I had a school-mate, Meera Mydin in Penang, forty years ago. His
father had a flourishing "pala sarakku" business in Penang Street,
Penang. He told me that his father first came from Anandhuur in
Ramanathapuram District forty years before that. He had travelled
by the "suuththaattikkappal".
Later, I learned that such vessels were still being used as late
as 1945. That was during the war. Big ships were getting blown up
at that time.

>
>``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 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.
>

Regards

Jayabarathi

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