Coastal Histories : Society and Ecology in Pre-Modern India

Contents: Foreword/Michael N. Pearson. Acknowledgements. Introduction: Facets of Ecology and society in coastal India in the pre-modern phase/Yogesh Sharma. 1. Implantation of commercial crops: Cochineal culture and the regional ecology in the eighteenth century Coromandel/Arvind Sinha. 2. Of rives and roads: transport networks and economy in eighteenth-century Bengal/Tilottama Mukherjee. 3. The politics and culture of early modern warfare on the Konkan Coast of India during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries/Anirudh Deshpande. 4. Coastal polity and the changing port-hierarchy of Kerala/Pius Malekandathil. 5. Women in Portuguese India: their representations in sixteenth century sources/Joy L.K. Pachuau. 6. Disease, morbidity and mortality in the Indian Ocean World, 1500-1800/Abhay Kumar Singh. 7. Life and death: life of early English settlers at Bombay, 1661-1760/Vaibhav Sharma. 8. From fishermen to Boatmen: The Mucquas of Madras, 1650-1750/Jangkhomang Guite. Notes on editor and contributors. Index. 

"The subject of maritime and oceanic history comprises a large corpus and includes related thematic engagements such as the history of overseas exploration and expansion, naval-military history, shipping, port cities, the role of migrations and cross-cultural processes. This extensive field of enquiry also focuses upon the study of littoral societies or the coastal regions, in understanding the influence of the ocean upon these lands. 

The interface between the land and the sea, with its several ecological and topographical variations, has played an important role in determining human activity, the settlement patterns and material culture in the coastal regions, which taken together constitute huge masses of territories in all continents. 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.

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 present volume examines a number of themes pertaining to different coastal region of India: coastal ecology, commercial crops, transmission of diseases, fortifications, port hierarchy, new port towns, vessels and boats, fishing communities, social life of women etc. It should be of interest to students and scholars of maritime history of India." (jacket)