This volume examines a number of themes pertaining to different coastal regions of India: coastal ecology, commercial crops, transmission of diseases, fortifications, port hierarchy, new port towns, vessels and boats, fishing communities, and social life of women. It studies littoral societies, or the coastal regions, to better understand the influence of the ocean upon these lands. Coastal societies have their own particular notion of identity and ambience, which differentiates them from the extensive continental zones. It is in this context that coastal territories and their histories constitute an interesting theme of enquiry. The general pattern of existence and the rhythm of life in all these dissociated regions, however, had considerable commonality, due to the overwhelming impact of the two dominant elements, water and land-in shaping the destinies of its inhabitants.
About the Author
Yogesh Sharma, Ph.D. from l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU. His field of research includes the European traders and Indian commercial and maritime history. Dr Sharma has co-edited Portuguese Presence in India during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (2008) and Biography as History, Indian Perspectives (2009).
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