ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses aspects of shipbuilding, and then navigation, before the arrival of the Portuguese. It provides the various indigenous sources throwing light on these aspects of shipbuilding. The Vedanga Jyotisha of about the fifth century BC, Sanskrit astronomical texts, generally discusses various kinds of instruments for time measurement and astronomical observation. The making of instruments did not interest Indian astronomers, but interaction with Islamic astronomy paved the way for a substantial change of attitude. The chapter describes the medieval accounts of Indian navigation. Navigational material gathered from Lakshadweep, Malabar and southern Tamil Nadu have been written in Arvi and Arabu- Malayalam. Beypore, south of the present city of Calicut, was the most famous centre of shipbuilding before the arrival of the Portuguese. The chapter explains the stages of shipbuilding and felling of suitable tree for building ship. The keel is the foundation or backbone of a ship and made first.
