‘Navigation’ may have originated in India 6,000 years ago - Here's why

Navigation is a field of study that has been monumental in globalising the world, enabling people, societies and cultures to mix, and trade and economics to thrive.

History has seen great adventurers who navigated the high seas to reach lands unknown and far away. Explorers like Vasco Da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Zheng He and Jacques Cartier charted territories unknown to Europe in the pre-modern history.

However, the science of navigation took thousands of years to perfect and reach a point where large ships with giant sails and hundreds of men can chart their course aided by celestial maps and knowledge of climate, tides and currents.

In fact, one of the earliest documented histories of navigation come from those that found their way around the Indus River more than 5-6000 years ago.

Here’s what we know about it.

Indian maritime history is as old as 3,000 BC

It begins with the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation who traded with the Mesopotamian Civilisation. The Vedic records suggest that Indian merchants had trade contacts in the far east and Arabia. There is certain evidence of a ‘Naval Department’ existing during the Mauryan period.

The world’s oldest dock

The world’s first dock was discovered to have been built by the Harappans at Lothal in around 2,400 BC. Scientifically located away from the tides to avoid silt deposit, the Lothal dock was equipped to berth and service ships. Modern oceanographers believe that Harappans possessed great knowledge of tides as exhibited by the hydrography and maritime engineering here.

The Astrolabe

A wonderous specimen of Indian ingenuity is said to be the 14^th Century Astrolabe called the ‘Yantraraja’ or ‘King of Instruments’ which is housed in the Geneva Museum of Science. This instrument was used to navigate the high-seas and is of Indo-Moroccan origin with Sanskrit inscriptions.

The word Navigation may have originated from Sanskrit

The word 'navigation' is said to have originated from the Sanskrit language, and arises from the Sanskrit word ‘navgatih’. The word 'navy' comes from the word ‘nov’.