Sailing Around Erythraean Sea: Forty Four

In Section forty three the unknown sailor was along the River Narmada which drains into the Gulf of Khambat. At the left bank of the estuary, where the River Narmada drains, is Luvara, a village;  moving along the River towards east, there is a shoal which according to the unknown sailor is Heron, a shoal with rocks, followed by Dhanturiya/Aliya Bet island, before getting to Bharuch.  Let us see the next stage of the Voyage of the unknown navigator who wrote Periplus Maris Erythraea:

Because of this, native fishermen in the King's service, stationed at the very entrance, in well-manned large boats called trappaga and cotymba, go up the coast as far as Syrastrene, from where they pilot vessels to Barygaza. And they steer them straight from the mouth of the river between the shoals with their crews; and they tow them to fixed stations, going up with the beginning of flood, and lying through the ebb at anchorages and basins. These basins are deeper places in the river as far as Barygaza; which lies by the river about three hundred stadia up from the mouth.

My Search:-

1. Trappaga: A kind of raft made of long teak logs or bamboo polls fastened together with coir ropes. They are flat bottomed. They were called therappam along Malabar coast. The term is Malayali adaptation "trappaga". According to some scholars, Trappaga is Basque word brought to Greek by Romans.  To dig the origin may be difficult because it had travelled along with maritime trade.


2. Cotymba: Also called Kottya were vessels used to come from Kutch area.

2. Syrastrene: Saurashtra.

3. Barygaza: Bharuch. It was the epicenter of ancient maritime trade of Indian subcontinent with Rome, Greece, Persia and Arabia.

End of the Section 



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