 From Greeks and Romans to the English, East Asia to Africa, the Arabian Peninsula to the Americas, India has allured the world with all its natural wealth. From silk to spices, timber and tea, Indigo to ivory, India has been a provider at every stage of human civilization for over 5,000 years and the idea of trade is entwined with the idea of India. From the ancient spice, silk and incense trade routes to trade in crude oil and containerized cargo, India's maritime history beholds some of the most intriguing tales of wars and voyages, conquest and coalitions, events that have defined our world in the 21st century. The Indian Ocean has a much longer antiquity of sustained seafaring compared to Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the beginnings of which go back over 5,000 years to the earliest civilizations of mankind. Thriving along the river Indus and its tributaries, the Indus Valley civilization can be traced to the western regions of Indian subcontinent. Coastal trade existed between the mature periods of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilization. The world's first tidal dock at Lothal stands testimony to that. The next phase in India's trade history began when a young king's army swept across the lens of western Asia. Fought in 326 BC, the battle of Hydespress was fought between Alexander and King Porus. Alexander I, the trade between India and the European continent multiplied and cotton was at the center of commerce for more than 3,000 years. The trade of cotton cloth from India between 350 and 100 BC laid down well-defined land routes connecting important commercial centers to port. The Uttarapatha, Dakshinapatha and the Dwaravati Kambhoja were three major internal trade routes which connected the overland trade route running from Eastern Asia to Europe via Persia to the entire coastal belt of India. So Uttarapatha and Dakshinapatha gave you the cardinal directions, they do not give you the political systems. So here you've got the sense of the economic unity of the region from the point of view of commerce and I think that's something that we need to remember more often. As the incense trade route grew as a channel for goods like frankincense, myrrh, pearls and cotton, ports like surat, mangrove and baruch formed an important part of the trade network connecting the Persian Gulf and Eastern Africa. Even in modern times the Gulf of Kutch and India's west coast is of great importance to meet our growing energy needs. With a ship taking three to five days to reach India's west coast from the Arabian Peninsula, the bulk of the crude oil is imported from West Asia and Africa. India is the fourth largest exporter of refined petroleum in the world today, with Jan Naga on India's west coast having the biggest petroleum refinery complex in the world. Aided by the Karnala and Vardinar ports, majority of the refined petroleum is exported from India's west coast. The Vardinar oil terminal has contributed significantly to India's petroleum industry, owing to cost competitiveness and favourable weather conditions. The port of Karnala has also seen a rise in trade of essential commodities. It is the largest port of India by volume of cargo handled and one of the busiest in recent years. Along the eastern coast it was the spread of Buddhism that followed the wake of commerce. Merchants supported Buddhist monasteries along trade routes which were used as places to stay in as they travelled from city to city. You have the spice producing areas of the Archipelago, you have the cloth producing areas of India, you have China, silk and China gold and Japanese silver probably. All of these are the motor force behind the trade of what we today call the eastern Indian Ocean. One of the longest ruling dynasties in southern India, the Cholas, under the rule of Raja Raja Chola, created the first and only trans sea empire in the history of India. Between the 7th and 11th century AD, the Chola trade was steered by its trading gills like the Nanadesis and the Aihole 500. By the end of the 9th century, southern India had developed an extensive trade network with the Sri Vijaya Kingdom in Southeast Asia and the Tang dynasty of China. The eastern coast of India also occupies a pivotal position in India's modern maritime commerce owing to its proximity to the international trade routes across the Indian Ocean. Chennai has emerged as Asia's fourth largest exporter of passenger cars. India's automobile exports have grown consistently with over 300,000 cars exported annually from the Chennai-Enor port combined. Indian ports across western and eastern coast today are becoming focal points of convergence for various business interests. Its 13 major ports and 200 minor and intermediate ports serve 90% of trade by volume and 70% by value. Trading investment and cargo traffic point towards prosperity and a healthy outlook, not only for India, but for all countries in the Indian Ocean region with whom India has had strong historical and civilisation ties. The history of trade in the Malabar region of Kerala can be traced to India's most lucrative commodity of export, spices. From the 15th century onwards, kingdoms of the European continent sponsored travellers to find a direct sea link to the Indian subcontinent. Three Portuguese ships commanded by Vasco da Gama left Lisbon in July 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, nervously shadowed the eastern African coast and crossed the Indian Ocean, eventually anchoring in May 1498 at Kappard near Calicut in Kerala. The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch, French and to a lesser extent the Danes. But by the end of the 18th century, the English were to emerge as the prime force in the control of maritime trade between Asia and Europe for the next 200 years. Commerce leads to competition and competition leads to conflict. The western powers had to fight amongst themselves in order to control the land and the people. That is how the control of land started and that is how the empire was eventually built. The beginning of the 19th century saw tea, raw cotton and opium as the major commodities traded by the East India Company. By the turn of the 20th century, the British had virtually devastated the independent trading economy of India and India was reduced to being a mere supply of raw materials, commodities, labourers and soldiers. The 21st century has ushered a thrust in modern shipping where ports are piloting the economy. Perched on the precipice of development, India's enormous wealth is in transit upon the seas. Exhibiting the maturity and resolve befitting a responsible democracy, India is now poised to orchestrate a movement for global maritime cooperation. This perhaps will be the lingua franca of India's nautical narratives as it sails into the horizon of a poetic mesh between man, machine and maritime majesty.