Coastal India

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Coastal India is a geo-cultural region in the Indian subcontinent that spans the entire coastline of India. [1]

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Indian total coastline is estimated to 11,098 km. [2]

Gujarat has the longest coastline with 2340 km. Second longest coastline belongs to Tamilnadu with 1068 km. Andhrapradesh comes third with 1053 km. West Bengal has the 721 km coastline. It's the 4th longest coastline in India.

Coastal states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhrapradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

Other coastal union territories are Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep.

Coastal India Coastal India.jpg
Coastal India
Satellite Picture of Coastal India. Coastal India Satellite picture.jpg
Satellite Picture of Coastal India.
Map of Coastal India with major landmarks. Coastal India topographical.jpg
Map of Coastal India with major landmarks.
Roman trade with ancient Coastal India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei 1st century CE. Indo-Roman trade.jpg
Roman trade with ancient Coastal India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei 1st century CE.
Scenic view of coastal plain fields near Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India A Scenic view of paddy fields from Bojjannakonda, Sankaram, India.jpg
Scenic view of coastal plain fields near Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

Sea trade and intermingling

A thriving trade existed between the Mediterranean world and Coastal Indian regions [3] [4] [5] [6] This led to significant intermingling between the people of Coastal India and the west asian world, particularly along the South West Indian Coastline along the Arabian Sea. Several west Asian communities have also settled and become part of the diversity of coastal south west India. These include the Parsis, [7] Bohras [8] and Baghdadi Jews [9] in the westernmost region, The descendants of west asian and mediterranean traders like The Bearys of Kanara region and the Mappilas [10] along Malabar region, and the cochin jews [3] [4] [5] [10] [11] [12] [13] and Syriac Nasranis [3] [4] [5] [10] [11] [12] [13] along the southernmost region of South India. The Chola Empire established vast Tamil influence across South East Asian region [14] [15] [16] across Indonesia, Java, Bali and Sumatra. This brought South Indian Heritage to Cambodia, Indonesia and Bali where the Balinese Hindu traditions still thrives. This also lead to intermingling between coastal India and the south east Asia particularly in the South eastern Cholamandalam coastline along the Bay of Bengal.

Heritage

The linguistic diversity of Coastal India includes languages of the Dravidian language family including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Beary and Kannada; languages belonging to the western zone of Indo Iranian language families including Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, languages belonging to the central zone of the Indo-Iranian language families including Urdu and Persian and languages belonging to the eastern zone of Indo Iranian language family including Odia and Bengali. The region also has speakers of Semitic languages like Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic. The common elements of the people of coastal India includes cuisine that consists of agrarian and coastal products and clothing that involves long flowing drapes with bare midriff for both men and women suited for humid and warm climate. [17] Throughout coastal India women wear drapes called saree in various styles. [17] In the western corner of the region the drapes are called as Dhoti for men. [17] and Chaniya choli for women, [17] further southwards the drapes are called as lungi or mundu for men. [17] and veshti for women. [17] Towards the southernmost tip of coastal south western India the social system of inheritance was once matrilineal. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] There are various festivals celebrated in the coastal states centered on deities. [22]

See also

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References

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  2. ↑ "MHA: India's recalculated coastline up 48% in 53 years". timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
  3. 1 2 3 Bjorn Landstrom (1964) "The Quest for India", Doubleday (publisher) English Edition, Stockholm.
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  5. 1 2 3 Thomas Puthiakunnel, (1973) "Jewish colonies of India paved the way for St. Thomas", The Saint Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India, ed. George Menachery, Vol. II., Trichur.
  6. ↑ Periplus Maris Erythraei "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea", (trans). Wilfred Schoff (1912), reprinted South Asia Books 1995 ISBN   81-215-0699-9
  7. ↑ Hodivala, S. (1920), Studies in Parsi History, Bombay
  8. ↑ The Dawoodi Bohras: an anthropological perspective, by Shibani Roy. Published by B.R. Publishing, 1984.
  9. ↑ Sargon, J(1987) 'Baghdadi Jews of India and the Sassoons' in Jewish Daily Israel Today, Perspectiv/Opinion; Tuesday 25 August
  10. 1 2 3 Bindu Malieckal (2005) Muslims, Matriliny, and A Midsummer Night's Dream: European Encounters with the Mappilas of Malabar, India; The Muslim World Volume 95 Issue 2
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  12. 1 2 Leslie Brown, (1956) The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1956, 1982 (repr.)
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  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boulanger, Chantal; (1997) Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping, Shakti Press International, New York. ISBN   0-9661496-1-0
  18. ↑ Craddock, Norma. 1994. Anthills, Split Mothers, and Sacrifice: Conceptions of Female Power in the Mariyamman Tradition. Dissertation, U. of California, Berkeley.
  19. ↑ Trawick, Margaret. 1990a. Notes on Love in a Tamil Family. Berkeley: U. of California Press.
  20. ↑ Wadley, Susan, ed. 1980. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse: Syracuse U. Press.
  21. ↑ Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416.
  22. ↑ Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra, The Lalita Cult, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (Delhi, 1942, 2d ed. 1991, 3d ed. 1999).
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