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Boats Tell Migratory Tales
Partly to explore new worlds, and partly to escape hostile environments, early humans fanned out in several directions. First, they wandered on land. Then, about 40,000 years ago, they migrated from Asia to Australia by sea. "It all became possible because early humans had invented watercrafts," said Mr. Swarup Bhattacharya, a scientist formerly with the Anthropological Survey of India
(ASI), who is currently busy in a research project titled 'Boat Race of West Bengal' for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He was delivering the Apurba Kumar Bose Memorial Lecture on
'Torikatha: Boats in Human History and Culture' at the seminar hall of Brahmananda Keshab Chandra College.
About 40 millennia ago, during the last ice age the sea levels dropped far below their present reading. "This brought the Asian continent nearer to Australia and New Guinea," said
Bhattacharya, "despite that, to reach Australia those nomads had to cross at least eight channels including the broadest one, 50 miles wide. Those seafarers set out on a voyage using rafts made of bamboos tied together to provide a platform for cargos and passengers." About 13,000 years ago, rafts also appeared in the Mediterranean region, the melting pot of human
civilisation and culture. In that region, people made rafts tying several bundles of reed, a type of marsh plants.
In India, specifically in West Bengal, people have long been using the stem of banana tree to produce rafts, locally known as
Kalar Vela to stay afloat during flood. In South India, in the coast of Tamil
Nadu, log rafts locally known as
Kuttamaran (possibly derived the word 'catamaran'), have long been in use. As water seeps through and spills over the raft, it cannot sail a long distance even in inland waterways, leave alone make a voyage in a turbulent sea. Eventually 'dugout canoe' was invented to deal with the shortfall of rafts.
According to Bhattacharya, early men started making dugout canoe long before the last ice age came to an end around 10,000 years ago. "A dugout canoe is made hollowing out a solid tree trunk," he said. "In West Bengal, people make dugout canoe from the trunk of palm tree. They are called
taler dinga or dingi. People use poles to join two dugout canoes, producing double canoes, which can ferry more than one passenger."
Bhattacharya pointed out that in Asia, Europe and North America, people made boats by covering a circular light framework of wood with stout hide. It is still in use and widely known as 'coracle'. Compared to rafts and dugouts, coracles and other boats were relative latecomers. In South India, coracles covered with animal hide still sail in the river
Cauvery. In West Bengal, too, people cross the turbulent water of Ajoy river boarding a coracle-shaped big iron vessel locally known as 'nada'.
As the dugouts and most of the modified rafts could capsize in wavy seas, the early humans found a way out. It was to tie up two smaller logs parallel to the hull (the body of a canoe) by poles lying perpendicular to the body. "Whenever the hull started to tip toward one side, the buoyancy of a side prevented it from being pushed under the water, so it didn't capsize.
According to Bhattacharya, this canoe helped the Chinese colonise the Pacific islands and ultimately took them to New Guinea 3,600 years ago. It is believed that using similar boats people from Pacific islands travelled 4,000 miles across sea to reach the island of Madagascar around 1,500 years ago. "Archaeological excavations have shown that these early migrants spread their cultural package of pottery and stone tools wherever they
colonised," Bhattacharya said. "The use of those particular canoe is still found in Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and the east coast of South India."
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