via Daily News, 10 October 2023: Sri Lanka has a rich history of maritime connectivity, serving as a critical hub in the Indian Ocean trade networks since prehistoric times. The island’s strategic location facilitated interactions with various cultures, kingdoms, and civilizations, making it a melting pot of diverse influences.
It was the Indian Ocean that nurtured the personality of Sri Lanka and shaped its landscape and cultural scape since pre-historic times. It is also the Indian Ocean, which binds us to the larger oceanic scape and the communities of the Indian Ocean rim with a common thread. The ocean is also the greatest repository that gifted the line of communication and resources. The cultural timeline of our connectivity with the Indian Ocean goes back to pre-4000 BCE. The earliest common term known for this ocean is Samudra, as recited in the Rig Vedic hymns (C.1500 BCE). It is also known to have a Western and Eastern ocean. The earliest texts mention oceanic seafaring luxury trade (‘From every side, O Soma, for our profit, pour thou forth four seas filled with a thousand-fold riches.’ RV 9.33.6). The ocean craft in Sanskrit Vedic literature is known as Nau (neva in Sinhala). Seafaring provided connectivity to multiple kingdoms, cultures and civilizations that thrived over time and space during the pre-modern period of the Indian Ocean Rim. Sri Lanka was a prime recipient of this Indian Oceanic connectivity. Our relationship with the ocean is an interdependent factor which is mainly due to the centrality of our location in the Indian Ocean and the commonality shared by its resident communities.
