ABSTRACT
Maritime dynamics is one of the key factors that have shaped the history of Kerala from the early times. Although maritime activities and interactions might have begun in the prehistoric times, no concrete evidence is available for the maritime contacts of Kerala till the early historic period, i.e. around the second half of the first millennium BCE. But, from the early historic period, copious evidence is available for the maritime activities and interactions of Kerala. During this period, long-distance trade and exchange activities that developed in the Indian Ocean region, due to the cultural efflorescence in far-off regions, led to active interactions among various cultures of the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Kerala or Tamil country or India cannot be seen as ‘self-generating islands’—as the nationalist or regionalist perspectives would want us to believe-that contributed to the long-distance trade and exchange, rather they were part of the systems and processes happening in the regions covering parts of Asia, Europe and Africa (Indian Ocean Region). The reasons for the development of long-distance interactions in the early historic period include, the cultural developments in India and the regions around the Indian Ocean Rim and beyond, e.g. the rise of the Mauryan state and several other political formations, development of socio-economic complexities in ancient India and the emergence of the Roman empire and the related cultural dynamics. Several coastal towns and ports became important for the maritime interactions and the region of Tamizhagam (the
states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu) witnessed the growth of many ports near the river mouths. The study of ancient ports forms an important aspect of maritime historical and maritime archaeological investigations. In this paper, I present an overview of the evidence available for the ancient ports of Kerala. Only the major ancient ports of Kerala are discussed here, although there must have been many major and small ports of call on the Kerala coast.
