Trade by Water

The Buddhs talks of sea merchants who, on their voyage, take with them a bird to sight land (tiradassim sakunam gahetva). When the ship is out of sight of land they free the bird which flies all round the ship. And if the bird sight land nearly it goes away for good; but if it sees no land, it returns to the ship.^[1]

In another instance we find a sea going ship (sammuddikaya nava) rigged with a mast which is beached on the shore for the winter. Affected by wind, rain and heat, the hull of the ship weakens and rots away, if not properly looked after.^[2] Although the term samudda generally refers to sea it may also mean a large river, for instance the Ganga.^[3] In this connection we may note that the geographical limits of Majjhima janapada do not include any sea ports of western or eastern India. We find virtually no reference to sea ports in our texts.