Man has been deeply involved with the sea, since antiquity. This book is a step towards writing a definitive maritime history of India. The book contains well-researched articles contributed by the expert nautical archaeologists, maritime historians and navigators. The papers deal with ancient ships and shipping, maritime trade and contacts of Harappans with the Mesopotamians, later Indian trading and power systems, Indian ports in international trade, pottery and ceramics, vital aspects in the fields of shipbuilding, sailing outfits, cannon making, navigation and producing the national infrastructure to support a maritime industry, sociological factors prevalent in Indian mariners, role of mathematicians, engineers, metallurgists, astronomers and scientists in development of shipping and seafaring, pioneering work and foundation of nautical ethnography, British strategic vision, importance and status of maritime heritage researches in the Indian Ocean and reports on the excavation of an ancient shipwreck, Princes Royal, in the Arabian Sea, demonstrate India's preparedness to search, study and preserve her underwater cultural heritage.

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