Sanjiva’s SERENDIB Straddles the TRading Routes Over The Centuries

Having such a prominent place in the middle of the Indian Ocean’s maritime trade routes, Sri Lanka had a rich maritime tradition. The little island not only had safe harbours in which visiting ships could anchor, take on provisions and engage in trade, but the nation also had artisans who could build ships, mariners who could navigate these ships and a prosperous society that could maintain such vessels.
Historical records in other countries refer to Sri Lankan traders, ships and diplomats visiting them, but there is precious little in the island’s ancient chronicles about her naval history and maritime connections.
The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, writing in 77 AD, described the ships of Taprobane that could carry 3000 amphorae (a weight of about 75 tons) while in the 16th century the Portuguese writer Tome Pires wrote ‘the land of Ceylon has a few ships of its own that traded from Bengal to Cambar’.
The famous Egyptian historian Taki al-Din al Maqrizi in writing his detailed history about the Mameluke sultans of Egypt, described the visit of ‘the ambassador from the prince of Ceylon al-Háj Abú’Uthman who came to the court of Egypt accompanied by several others’. According to them they had embarked on a Ceylon vessel and arrived in the port of Hormuz.
These and similar references give credence to the fact that the ancient Sri Lankans were navigators and traders, sailing in their own ships to other lands in the then known world. Yet much of this history has been lost and is unknown to the present generation.
This book presents important and new information in an engaging and entertaining style, discussing not only how goods were exported across the seas from Sri Lanka but also how recipes, religions and ideas travelled across the seas along the maritime trade routes to and from this island
Although this book is the result of extensive research, it is not a boring book written as an academic publication. This is a book written for a general audience – the amateur history buff and the reader interested in travel. It would also be of interest to Sri Lankans both at home as well as in the diaspora now living in lands far beyond the Indian Ocean.