Medieval Seafarers of India

Medieval Seafarers attempts to explore the dimensions ofIndian seafaring from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, a period of striking change and growth tor the trade and traders of the Indian Ocean. The vitality and resilience of Indian seafaring, attested by both tradition and historical experience, is set against the growing colonial domination that changed the contours of the traditional maritime world. The interplay of colonial domination and indigenous enterprise found echoes in literature and popular traditions, examples of which are woven into the narrative tapestry of the book.

Born in Calcutta in 1955, Lakshrni Subramanian is currently Reader in the Department of History, Calcutta University. Her field of specialisarion is Economic and Social History of Western India in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, with special reference to business communities. She has a number of publications to her credit. Her recent monograph, Indigenous Capital and Imperial Expansion in Bombay, Surat an d the West Coast (1996) was released by Oxford University Press. For the same publisher, she has co-edited a volume with Rudrangshu Mukherji, Trade an d Politics au d the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Dasgupta. She has edited and introduced .collection of essays by the late Dr Indrani Ray, TIJe French East India Company and the Trade of the lutiian Ocean. Her interests include classical Indian music and travel. She lives in Calcutta with her eleven year old daughter, Indu.