The Far Horizons: The Changing Patterns of Maritime Connections between and South Asia, 1000-1450

Tansen Sen Baruch College, The City University of New York

DRAFT. NOT FOR CITATION

The period between 1000 CE and 1450 CE witnessed significant changes in the patterns of maritime trade and cultural exchanges in the Indian Ocean. While K. N. Chaudhuri (1985) has emphasized the advent of “segmented trade” pattern during this period, the convergence of maritime and overland routes that lead to the emergence of a thirteenth-century world system has been underscored by Janet Abu-Lughod (1989). Three other features of maritime interactions in the Indian Ocean for this period are also important to highlight. First, it should be noted that by the eleventh century, seafaring merchant communities of , Tamils, and Southeast Asians had established their shipping and commercial networks, which integrated most of Asia (and beyond) more intimately and more lucratively and any time before. Travel by the sea routes had also become easier and safer due to the advances in shipbuilding and navigational technologies. Second, several polities connected through these Indian Ocean mercantile networks, including the Chola kingdom (850?-1279) in southern , in Southeast Asia, and the Song court in China, became important participants in overseas commercial and diplomatic activities. Such state participation in long-distance maritime trading activity was unprecedented in the history of the Indian Ocean. Third, the fourteenth century witnessed a substantial increase in the presence of Chinese traders and court officials (Yuan and subsequently Ming) in the Indian Ocean, culminating in the famous maritime expeditions of Zheng He 鄭和 between 1405 and 1433.

Within these wider contexts, this paper examines the changes that took place in China’s maritime engagement with the coastal regions of South Asia from the eleventh to the mid-fifteenth century. It focuses on the ways in which the Song, Yuan, and Ming courts in China pursued diplomatic exchanges with South Asian polities. It also explores the gradually expanding knowledge about the South Asian coast and the spread of Chinese trading and shipping networks to the region. The study is intended not only to explain the changing patterns of maritime connections between China and South Asia, but also to demonstrate the increasingly complex and multilayered nature of Chinese engagement with the maritime world during the first half of the second millennium.

Song China and the Coastal Regions of South Asia In 720, a king from southern India named Shilinaluolu(seng?)jiamo, identified as Narasiṃhavarman II Rājasiṃha (r. 700-728) of the Pallava kingdom (Petech 1989), sent a diplomatic mission to the Tang court in China. The Pallava king sought permission from the Tang court to attack the and Tibetans with war elephants and horses he possessed and asked Emperor Xuanzong to pick a title for his army. The Chinese emperor, who was at that time confronting the Arabs and Tibetans at his western frontiers, acknowledged the diplomatic mission and bestowed the title of “Huide jun” (the Army that Cherishes Virtue) to Rājasiṃha’s army. Two other missions from the Pallava king followed, one seeking an epithet for a (Buddhist?) temple and another acknowledging the title of “king” (wang) that the Chinese emperor had also bestowed on him (Cefu yuangui 973: 11433a-b; 995: 11687a; Jiu Tang shu 198: 5309; Sen 2003: 26).

This exchange of diplomatic missions between the Pallava ruler and the Tang court could be easily linked to the intensifying maritime commercial activities during the eighth century. Any geopolitical concerns could be dismissed, as Petech (1989: 156) does, due to the “obvious geographic reasons.” However, Rājasiṃha may have had such concerns despite the fact that his polity was located far away from the regions Xuanzong was trying to defend. By 711, Arab armies led by Muhammad al-Qasim had invaded the Sind region (in present-day Pakistan). Although the Arab expansion into South Asia lost impetus in 715 due to political problems within the Umayyad (661-750), occasional raid in what are modern-day Rajasthan-Gujarat areas are known to have troubled rulers in the Deccan region (Wink 1999: 206-208). At the same time, the forays of Tibetan troops into the -Bengal region may have also concerned rulers elsewhere in the subcontinent. Thus, while commercial motives would have played an important role in the dispatch of Pallava embassies to the Tang court, the possibilities of geopolitical discourse between the two regions cannot be completely ruled out.

It is not clear, however, what knowledge the Tang court had about the Pallava polity or if it was at all interested in establishing military alliance with the ruler in coastal India. With little interest in promoting maritime trade, the Tang court may not have even considered the arrival of Pallava embassies as of any economic relevance. Rather, it is possible these embassies were perceived as the usual tributary missions from the far horizons. Indeed, even in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when the Chinese court, under the Song rulers, became actively engaged in maritime trade, it had limited knowledge about the geopolitical situation in the or other parts of the Indian Ocean.

This limited knowledge about the South Asian coastal regions is surprising given the fact that the Chola kingdom on the Coromandel coast had sent several diplomatic missions to the Song court and traders from Song China had started using the Malabar coast as a transit site for travel to locations in the Persian Gulf. Additionally, a Tamil merchant guild may have also existed at Quanzhou, the main maritime commercial town during the Song period. Despite these factors, neither the Song court nor the custom officials at the Chinese port cities had any significant

2 understanding about the South Asian coast. This may have been partially due to the Srivijayan polity’s attempts to deliberately misinform the Song authorities about the Chola kingdom (Sen 2009). The Song court, which does not seem to have sent any diplomatic missions to South Asia, may not have had any way of verifying the information supplied by the Srivijayan representatives.

By the beginning of eleventh century, Song China had emerged as a lucrative market for seafaring merchants and polities located in the greater Indian Ocean world (i.e., from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf). Changes in economic policies and market structures starting from the later half of the eighth century, triggered by internal as well as external factors, were key reasons for the incorporation of maritime trade into the revenue system of the Tang court after the rebellion (755-763). Revenue from maritime trade became crucial for the , which was forced to sign peace treaties with its northern neighbors. In order to raise state income from the flourishing maritime trade, the Song court liberalized the tribute system, dispatched envoys to entice foreign merchants, and opened customhouses at several ports. Such encouragements of maritime activities eventually resulted in the entry of Chinese merchants in the Indian Ocean trade, the development of shipbuilding industry, and the spread of Chinese diasporic communities.

For most part of the Song period, however, contacts between the Chinese and the South Asian coasts were through Muslim (mostly Arab) and Southeast Asian (primarily Srivijayan) intermediaries. This is evident from the records of the diplomatic exchanges between the two regions. The Chola diplomatic missions, which are reported to arrived in 1015, 1020, 1033, and 1077, for example, involved Muslim traders and, at least in the case of the 1077 embassy, Srivijayan natives (Sen 2009). It is intriguing that the Song court until at least the early twelfth century believed that the Chola kingdom was a vassal state of Srivijaya. This is revealed in a memorial submitted to the Song Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-25) in 1106. In response to Huzong’s order to receive the envoys from Pagan (in present-day Myanmar) in accordance with the status to the Chola embassies, the president of the Council of Rites objected by saying,

The Chola [kingdom] is subject to Srivijaya, this is why during the reign period (1068-1077), we wrote to its ruler on coarse paper with an envelope of plain stuff. Pagan, on the other hand, is a great kingdom and should not be perceived as small tributary state. [It] deserves a comparable status [given to] the Arabs, Jiaozhi (present-day Vietnam), and other smaller states. (Song shi 489: 14087; Sen 2009: 69)

Almost a century before this argument was made, the Chola kingdom had, in fact, launched a massive naval attack on the Srivijayan ports. This 1025 offensive against the Srivijayans seems to have gone unnoticed by the Song court most likely because of the ubiquitous presence of Srivijayans in Song China (Sen 2009).

3 The Arab Muslims seem to have also passed on incorrect information about the South Asian coasts to the Song scribes. Zhufan zhi 諸番志 (Records of the Barbarous People), written by a maritime custom official named Zhao Rugua 趙汝适 in 1225, for example, gives a description of a seven-fold walled city in the Chola kingdom that does not seem to relate to any urban center in southern India. Additionally, some of the products listed as local produce, such as opaque and transparent glass and Persian dates, were not of Chola origin, but rather commodities sourced from the Mediterranean or the Persian Gulf regions (Karashima and Sen 2009).

According to an earlier work, Chinese traders were already visiting the port of Kollam in the Malabar coast in the twelfth century. Zhou Qufei 周去非 (c.1135- c.1189), the author of the book called Lingwai daida 嶺外代答, composed in 1178, reports that “Chinese seafaring traders planning to go to Dashi (i.e., the Persian Gulf) changed to smaller boats in Kollam.” These Chinese traders may have just started reaching the South Asian coasts in the late-twelfth century and were probably still not the main source of information about the Indian Ocean world for Zhou Qufei. Knowledge about South Asian ports in China seems to have improved significantly in the early fourteenth century with an increase in the presence of Chinese merchants in the region. It is during this period that a person named Wang Dayuan 汪大淵 (ca. 1311-?) traveled to South Asia and described the region in detail in his travelogue entitled Daoyu zhilüe 島夷誌略 (Brief Record of the Island Barbarians).

Yuan China and the Coastal Regions of South Asia

Unlike the Song writers mentioned above, Wang Dayuan had traveled to the South Asian coast with Chinese seafaring traders in the 1330s. He seems to have visited almost every important port in the region, including those in Bengal, Coromandel and Malabar coasts, as well as those in the present-day Gujarat state. Wang’s record indicates that by the early fourteenth century, the South Asian ports had become key destinations for Chinese merchants. At the Nagapattinam port in the Coromandel coast, for example, Wang reports the existence of a pagoda constructed with mud bricks, which had a Chinese inscription stating that it was completed in the third year of the Xianchun reign era (1267). “It is said,” he writes (Daoyi zhilüe 285; Sen 2006), “people from China visited the place that year and wrote [the characters] on the stone and engraved them. Up to the present time, they have not faded.” Wang’s report suggests that already during the second half of the thirteenth century there was a Chinese diasporic community in South Asia.

Wang was primarily interested in the economic and commercial aspect of the coastal towns he visited. About Bengal in the eastern coast, he notes (Daoyi zhilüe: 330),

4 The Five Ranges 五嶺 (i.e., Rajmahal Hills) have rocky summits and covered by a dense forest. The people [of the kingdom] reside around these [hills]. [The people] engage in plowing and sowing throughout the year, so there are no wastelands. The rice fields and arable lands are spectacular. Three crops are harvested every year. Goods are all reasonably priced. During the ancient times, it was the capital of Sindu. The climate is always hot. The customs [of the people are to be] extremely pure and honest. Men and women cover their head with a fine cotton cloth and wear long skirts.

The official tax rate is twenty percent. The kingdom mints silver coins called Tangjia 唐加(i.e., tangka), two of which weigh eight hundredth of a tael (i.e., Chinese ounce), that is circulated and used [by the government]. They can be exchanged for more than 11520 pieces of cowrie shells. The lightness of the coins is convenient and very beneficial to the people.

[The kingdom] produces [fabrics such as] bibu 苾布(bairami/bafta), gaonibu 高你布(kain cloth?), tuluojin 禿羅錦 (malmal), [and also] kingfishers’ feathers. [The Chinese traders] use southern and northern [varieties of] silks, pentachrome taffetas and satins, cloves, nutmegs, blue and white China-ware, white tassels and such things [to trade with native merchants].

Wang also comments that with regard to the prosperity of the kingdom and generosity of the common people, Bengal could surpass Palembang and Java. In fact, it is clear from Wang’s record that Bengal was becoming a major trading center for Chinese traders venturing into the Bay of Bengal.

At the same time, however, the Malabar coast and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) were seen as vital locations for the wider Indian Ocean trade. Wang Dayuan writes that Calicut was the “most important of all maritime centers of trade. It is close to Sengjiala (Sri Lanka) and is the principal port of the Western Ocean” (Daoyi zhilüe: 325; Rockhill 1915: 454; Sen 2011: 59). Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta also highlight the significance of Calicut to Indian Ocean commerce. “It is,” Ibn Battuta (4: 812-814) reports, “visited by men from China, Jāwa, Ceylon, the Maldives, al-Yaman and Fārs, and in it gather merchants from all quarters. Its harbor is one of the largest in the world.” Additionally, Ibn Battuta mentions seeing Chinese ships in Calicut, which according to him were built in either Quanzhou or Guangzhou. These ships, he notes, passed the rainy reason at Calicut.

Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta also stress the importance of Kollam in maritime commercial activity. A major producer and exporter of pepper and indigo, Kollam,

5 according to Marco Polo, was a prominent transshipment center, where seafaring traders from various regions of the Indian Ocean world congregated. It was, Ibn Battuta (4: 817) writes, “the nearest of the Mulaibār towns to China and it is to it that most of the merchants [from China] come.”

Indeed, the importance of the Malabar coast, and in particular Kollam, was known to the Yuan court in China. After 1277, when the took control of the major ports in coastal China, the new government and coastal officials tried to revive maritime trade. In fact, the last quarter of the thirteenth century marks the beginning of an aggressive maritime policy undertaken by the Mongol court that was executed through the display of military might and a flurry of diplomatic missions.

Unlike the preceding Song dynasty, which also promoted maritime trade but mostly by inviting foreign traders and tribute carriers and offering them various incentives, the Yuan emissaries traveled beyond the shores of China expressly to extract tributary missions from polities in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Foreign rulers who failed to submit to the Yuan court were often threatened with military repercussions. In 1281, for example, after repeated demands by the Yuan court for the king of Champa (present-day southern Vietnam) to personally lead one of the tributary missions to China, Kubilai sent an armada of one hundred naval ships under the command of general Sogatu 唆都 against the Southeast Asian polity. Then in 1293, the Mongols launched a naval attack on the island of Java. Before this, Kubilai, in 1274 and 1281, had tried to invade Japan. Clearly, during the Yuan period, the seas no longer posed an obstacle for the expansionist policies of imperial regimes located in China.

The fact that the maritime interest and influence of the Yuan court extended to the South Asian coasts is reflected in the multiple missions it sent to the region between 1280 and 1296. The four diplomatic missions of Yang Tingbi 楊庭璧 to southern India between 1280 and 1283 are most revealing about the Yuan court’s interest in South Asia. Yang’s main destination was Kollam. He failed to reach the port on one occasion, when his entourage was forced to disembark on the Coromandel coast and became involved in a local political intrigue (Sen 2006). Yang Tingbi’s visits were very successful. Not only did he secure “submissions” and promises of tributary missions from the Kollam ruler, a number of other South and Southeast Asian states and merchant communities agreed to recognize the Mongol regime in China.

Additionally, Yang’s missions seem to have enticed seafaring merchants to return to coastal China after the brief hiatus caused by the battles between Song and Mongol forces. A bilingual inscription found in Quanzhou, for example, indicates that Tamil traders had returned to coastal China shortly after Yang Tingbi’s first mission. Written in Tamil and Chinese, the inscription bears the date April 1281 and notes of the installation of an idol of Siva in a Brahmanical temple at the Chinese port for the “welfare” of the Yuan ruler.

6 Kubilai Khan also had other intentions in sending his emissaries to South Asia. Between 1272 and 1287, Kubilai sent a Uighur named Yighmish 亦黑迷失 to the region multiple times seemingly for “spiritual” reasons. Yighmish visited a kingdom called Baluobo 八羅孛 (identified as the “Malabar”) in 1272 and 1275 and returned from his second trip with “famous drugs.” Then, in 1284, he was sent to Ceylon to offer various gifts, including a jade belt, to the Buddha’s alms-bowl relic. And finally, in 1287, he visited the Ma’bar kingdom on the Coromandel coast with the aim to bring the alms-bowl relic to China, but, according to the Yuanshi (131: 3198-3199), Yighmish only returned with a “good physician and fine drugs.” These missions, it seems, were also known to Marco Polo and Wang Dayuan. The latter (Daoyi zhilüe: 244; Rockhill 1915: 376), for example, describes the alms-bowl relic as something that is “neither [made of] jade, nor copper, nor iron. Its color is dark brown, and it is lustrous; it rings like glass when struck.” Wang then reports that, “In the beginning of the [], three missions were sent to fetch it.”

Kubilai’s interest in the relic, at least during the 1280s, may have been related to his failing health. In the last decade of his life, Kubilai seems to have taken a keen interest in Buddhist paraphernalia from South Asia as well as the metaphysical aspects of Buddhist doctrine. This interest, a significant change from his earlier use of for political legitimization, could have been due to depression, caused by the deaths of his wife Chabi 察必 in 1281 and the crown prince Zhenjin 真金 in 1286, and other health ailments, including chronic gout (see Rossabi 1988: 224- 228). Kubilai is reported to have searched for various kinds of remedies, such as drugs, physicians and Buddhist paraphernalia (especially relics) from Korea and South and Southeast Asia. Yighmish’s missions seem to be part of this search. Thus, when the Yuan diplomat was unable to fetch the alms-bowl relic, he returned from the Ma’bar kingdom with a physician and drugs for the ailing ruler. During his last few years, Kubilai also “welcomed” a sandalwood image of the Buddha, funded the repair of Buddhist monasteries and stupas, and made offerings to the relics of the Buddha available to him (Fozu lidai tongzai T. 2036: 908a-c). His actions were similar to some previous rulers in China, who attempted to find miraculous cures through the veneration of Buddhist relics and the search for South Asian physicians and drugs (Sen 2003). Especially with regard to the alms-bowl relic, it was believed that “in all the countries it passes through, sovereigns and subjects will be health and happy; crops and silk will be in abundance, and people will rejoice and have no worries” (T. 392: 1114c, trans. from the French version of Wang-Toutain 1994: 67 by Strong 2004: 214).

Earlier in his life, however, if the 1272 and 1275 missions to Baluobo were also related to the procurement of the alms-bowl relic, Kubilai might have been planning to use the relic to project himself as a cakravartin (the Universal Emperor) ruler of the world. In fact, the Tibetan lama P’ags-pa had formulated a genealogy for Kubilai and Chinggis that linked them to the cakravartin kings of India. This strategy, as Herbert Franke (1981: 307) has explained, was designed to provide the Mongol rulers “with a sacral kingship that legitimized their domination over China and the

7 world.” Between 1258 and 1278, Kubilai had conquered Korea, most of China, launched attacks on Japan, and was preparing to attack Indian Ocean states. He had also claimed, in May 1260, the title of great khan. And as the great khan, the legitimacy of which was challenged by other descendants of Chinggis Khan, Kubilai had to continue his predecessors’ policy of expansion. Perhaps Kubilai believed that the relic would help him legitimize his status as the great khan and his rule over and conquests of regions with substantial Buddhist populations.

The fact that kingdoms in South Asia were part of Kubilai’s planned conquests can be discerned from the biography of a Uighur monk called Jialu’nadasi 迦魯納答思 (Karandas?). Karandas is said to have been“knowledgeable about Indian religion (Buddhism) and [conversant] in the languages of various [other] kingdoms” 通天竺 教及諸國語 (Yuanshi 134: 3260). He was ordered by Kubilai to receive training in Buddhism from the state preceptor and then engage in translating Buddhist texts (Yuanshi 134: 3260-61). On learning that Kubilai was planning to attack Indian Ocean polities, including the kingdoms of Ma’bar and Kollam, Karandas, sometime in 1278-79, recommended the use of diplomacy before launching military attacks. It seems the Yuan court accepted his suggestion and the multiple missions of Yang Tingbi, mentioned above, may have stemmed from this decision.

Ming China and the Coastal Regions of South Asia

Ming China’s engagements with the coastal regions of South Asia, particularly before the mid-fifteenth century, were in many ways similar to the preceding Yuan period. These included the networking by Chinese merchant communities, exchange of diplomatic missions, and an interest in exerting power over South Asian polities. Additionally, similar to Kubilai Khan, the Yongle emperor was also interested in Buddhist artifacts in South Asia. A key development during the early Ming period was the augmented role of ethnic Chinese merchants based in Southeast Asia. After the Ming court’s ban on maritime commerce, these Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia seem to have become more active in the commercial exchanges between the coastal regions of South Asia and Ming China.

Chinese interest in the Malabar coast increased substantially during the early Ming period. Calicut, ruled by Hindu kings with significant input from their Muslim officials, was strategically located in the Indian Ocean trading system. Diplomatic relations between the Ming court and Calicut were established soon after the Yuan government was overthrown, and peaked during the Yongle period when Zheng He made multiple visits to the South Asian port. In fact, Calicut was not only the terminus of Zheng He’s first two expeditions, it was also the place where the famous Ming mariner might have died participating in a military conflict.

8 Solicitation of tributary missions, enfeoffment of titles to native rulers, and overseeing of trading activities between Chinese and local merchants were some of the main tasks carried out by the members of the Zheng He expeditions to the Malabar coast. Tributary missions from Calicut often accompanied Zheng He and his entourage to the Ming court, where they presented tribute of local products. The Ming court, in turn, customarily invited the envoys from Calicut, along with other foreign representatives, to lavish banquets and conferred titles and return gifts. On one occasion, in October 1405, the ruler of Calicut, a person named Shamidi 沙米的 (or Shamidixi 沙米的喜), reportedly traveled to China and had an audience with the Yongle emperor (Mingshi 326: 8440; Sen 2011: 61). Although it is doubtful that the Calicut ruler made a special trip to Ming China, such records of tributary missions led by rulers of foreign kingdoms, especially when a new emperor ascended to (or usurped) the throne, was usually employed to legitimate the transition of power. Together with the normal tributary missions, such accounts also served the general purpose of demonstrating the emperor’s symbolic suzerainty over foreign kingdoms.

The enfeoffment of titles of “king” to foreign rulers had similar functions. The Yongle emperor, we are told, enfeoffed Shamidi as the “king” of his kingdom when the latter visited China. In 1407, according to Ma Huan 馬歡 (died c.1460), the Ming court “ordered the principal envoy the grand eunuch Cheng Ho (Zheng He) and others to deliver an imperial mandate to the king of this country and to bestow on him a patent conferring a title of honour, and grant of a silver seal, [also] to promote all the chiefs and award them hats and girdles of various grades” (Mills [1970] 1997: 138). On one hand, this act of bestowing title to the king of Calicut through special envoys represented the ambition to portray the Chinese emperor as the sovereign leader of the known world. On the other hand, however, the Chinese court may have learned about the influence of Muslim traders (of Arab origin) in Calicut and, thus, sought to create their own clout within the South Asian kingdom.

Ma Huan reports that the majority of the Hindu king’s (the Zamorin, i.e., “Ocean King”) subjects in Calicut were Muslims. They also held the top two positions at the port and administered “the affairs of the country.” According to Ma Huan, the Muslims and the Hindu king also came to an understanding regarding their eating habits: “The king of the country and the people of the country all refrain from eating the flesh of the ox. The great chiefs are Muslim people; [and] they all refrain from eating the flesh of the pig. Formerly there was a king who made a sworn compact with the Muslim people, [saying] ‘You do not eat the ox; I do not eat the pig; we will reciprocally respect the taboo’; [and this compact] has been honoured right down to the present day” (Mills [1970] 1997: 138).

Muslims, especially those invested in foreign trade, also funded the expansionist policies of the Zamorin in the region. Some of these merchants had been lobbing the Zamorin to invade Cochin that was quickly becoming the main rival port on the Malabar coast. Sometime in the late fifteenth century, the Zamorin did in fact occupy

9 Cochin and install his representative as the king of the port-city (Menon [1967] 1970; Malekandathil 2001: 35). The Chinese trading community and the Ming court, both of which were aware of the influence of Muslim traders in Calicut, probably also knew and were concerned about this rivalry between Calicut and Cochin. It was perhaps in order to prevent a military confrontation between Calicut and Cochin that the Ming court, in 1416, granted special status to Cochin and its ruler Keyili 可 亦里 (see Sen 2011: 80n. 96).

As part of his fifth expedition, Zheng He was asked to confer a seal upon Keyili and enfeoff a mountain in his kingdom as the zhenguo zhi shan 振國之山 (“Mountain Which Protects the Country”). The Yongle emperor even composed a proclamation that was inscribed on a stone tablet carried to Cochin by Zheng He. The composition of a proclamation for a maritime state by the Yongle emperor in addition to the enfeoffment of mountains in a foreign polity was a rare step. Only three other polities, Malacca (in 1405), Japan (in 1406) and Brunei (in 1408), received this privilege. This exceptional status must have been granted to Cochin because the Ming court decided to support an emerging port (i.e., Cochin) over the Arab- dominated Calicut. Cleary the Zamorin took issue with the decision of the Ming court to embrace his local rival. Diplomatic missions from Calicut to China declined after 1416 and it ceased to be one of the main destinations of Zheng He’s remaining two expeditions.

Additionally, the relationship between the Zamorin and the Chinese merchants, either residing in or sojourning to Calicut, seems to have deteriorated. The Portuguese traveler Joseph of Cranganore, in the early sixteenth century, provides the following report on Chinese merchants in Calicut:

These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy, and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of Calicut having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and returning shortly after inflicted no small slaughter on the people of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After that they began to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha; a region towards the East, ... and there they now drive their trade.” (Yule 1875: 2. 391)

This skirmish between Chinese traders and the Zamorin that Joseph is referring to above is believed to have taken place in the mid-fifteenth century. Some have suggested that it were the Muslim traders who, “with the powerful aid of the Zamorin massacred the Chinese inhabiting the ports of Malabar” (Menon [1924] 2001: 287) Others have speculated that this incident may have involved Zheng He, who was critically injured during the conflict and died in Calicut or on his way back to China in 1433 (Ray 1993: 208-209). Although the dates, causes and the extent of Zheng He’s involvement in this incident are speculative, it seems evident that Chinese traders had withdrawn, at least temporarily, from the Malabar coast.

10 Similar to the Malabar coast, the coastal regions of Ceylon were also important for Indian Ocean commerce and of strategic significance to the Ming court. Through the Zheng He expeditions, the Ming court had “pacified” the Strait of Malacca in 1406-7 by defeating the “pirate” Chen Zuyi 陳祖義. Later, in 1414 Zheng He trounced the usurper Sekander and resolved a civil war in Semudera, in 1416, as mentioned above, he had backed the emerging port-city of Cochin in its conflict with Calicut, and in 1420 members of the Zheng He mission traveled to Bengal to resolve a local dispute. The Zheng He expeditions were, thus, intimately linked to the Ming court’s intention to assert its power in the Indian Ocean, specifically at the key ports of the trading networks that linked the coastal region of Ming China to the markets in the Middle East (Wade 2005). Ceylon seems to have formed part of this strategy, where, in 1411, during his third expedition, Zheng He successfully instituted a regime change.

Zheng He’s third expedition started from the Chinese coast in October-November 1409. Passing through Champa, Java, Malacca, and Semudera (in Sumatra), the ships led by Zheng He reached Galle in Ceylon in 1410. The 48 ships in Zheng He’s armada carried 27,000 people, many of whom were soldiers. According to Ming sources, the “king of Sri Lanka” had “insulted” Zheng He when he reached the island during his first expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1405-07. For his third voyage, Zheng He seems to have come prepared to battle the “king” named Yaliekunaier 亞烈苦柰兒 or Aliekunaier 阿烈苦柰兒 ([Vira] Alakéswara or Alagakkonāra). Zheng He defeated and captured Yaliekunaier, and brought him to the Ming court. While Yaliekunaier was pardoned, the Ming court placed its own representative, a person named Yebanaina, in charge of the region. Local Sinhalese sources dispute this narrative and instead suggest that the Chinese had launched a military attack in Ceylon to obtain the famous tooth-relic at Kandy (Sen Forthcoming).

At least two Ming sources, a notation added during the Yongle period to the seventh- century travel record of the Tang monk Xuanzang 玄奘 called Da Tang Xiyu ji 大唐西 域記 and a letter written by the Yongle emperor to the Tibetan lama Tsong-kha-pa in 1413, also imply that Zheng He had obtained the tooth-relic during his expedition to Ceylon in 1410-11. The tooth-relic had previously attracted several other foreign military raids. The relic was said to not only have power to legitimize a political regime, the control of it also implied sovereignty over Ceylon. During the first decade of his reign, the Yongle emperor is reported to have undertaken Buddhist several activities, perhaps to legitimize his accession to the Ming throne, which came at the expense of deposing his nephew. The Ming emperor would have thus known about the spiritual and symbolic values of Buddhist, relics especially one that could legitimize his rule (for details, see Sen Forthcoming).

The overlapping interest in commerce and Buddhism may have also led Yongle to develop Ming court’s ties with Bengal. Already during the Yuan period, the Bengal coast had become an important destination for Chinese merchants and goods. The Ganges river facilitated the transportation of Chinese porcelain from the coastal

11 region to the hinterland areas as far west as Delhi. Additionally, the region exported several commodities to the Ming markets. Haraprasad Ray (1993), for example, has suggested that Bengal may have been exporting as many as sixty items, including cotton and horses, to Ming China. The region was also part of trading networks that linked the Southeast Asian islands of Java and Sumatra to the kingdoms of Jaunpur, Delhi, and . Indeed, while the Coromandel and Malabar coasts may have been vital to the Chinese merchants because they formed part of a trading network that extended to the Middle East, Bengal provided these merchants an access to the South Asian hinterland.

The porcelain fragments found along the route from Bay of Bengal to the , for instance, indicate Bengal’s role as an entrepôt for Chinese goods destined for markets in the Indian hinterland (Gray 1964: 21-36; Carswell 1988; Das 1991-92). The itinerary of a Ming mission visiting the Delhi Sultanate in 1412 similarly illustrates the position of Bengal as the gateway to the Indian hinterland. The Chinese embassy seems to have disembarked at Bengal and taken the route along the river Ganges, passing through Jaunpur, to Delhi (Yamamoto 1977).

The Chinese even got involved in a dispute between Bengal and its neighboring Jaunpur Sultanate. In 1420, the king of Bengal complained to the Ming ruler that Jaunpur forces had carried out several military raids on its territory. In response to the complaint, the Ming court dispatched the eunuch Hou Xian 侯顯 and others “with Imperial orders of instruction for them (i.e., Bengal and Jaunpur), so that they would both cultivate good relations with their neighbors and would each protect their own territory” (Ming shilu 14: 2226; Wade 2690). The entourage led by Hou Xian arrived in Bengal in August or September 1420 and was welcomed to a grand reception. It was Hou Xian’s second visit to the region and this time he seems to have brought along Chinese soldiers, who were all presented silver coins by the ruler of Bengal. The entourage then proceeded to Jaunpur to convey the Yongle emperor’s message to resolve territorial dispute peacefully.

Bengal’s request to intervene in the local dispute and the Chinese emperor’s swift response to the appeal demonstrates the influence the Ming court seems to have had beyond its shores during the first half of the fifteenth century. The rulers of Bengal undoubtedly knew about the Chinese military interventions in other maritime polities. Bengal had sent at least eight embassies to the Ming court before 1420 and the traders from the region were actively engaged in commerce across the Bay of Bengal. These Bengali diplomats and traders must have been familiar with the Ming court’s use of its naval prowess to the remove Chen Zuyi in the Strait of Malacca, capture the Sinhalese Yaliekunaier, and take military action against the “usurper” Sekander in Semudera (for details, see Levathes 1994). The court in Bengal also may have been aware of the Ming court’s backing of Cochin against the Zomorin of Calicut.

12 A significant political transition within the Bengal Sultanate could have been another reason that prompted the Indian ruler to seek help from the Yongle emperor. In fact, the military conflict between Bengal and Jaunpur had resulted due to the usurpation of throne by a local Hindu noble named Raja Ganesh. Probably a descendent of the former, non-Muslim, ruling family of Bengal, Raja Ganesh deposed the Turko-Muslim ruler and, in 1415, installed his twelve-year old son as the new king. The son, because of pressure from the local Muslim nobility and neighboring Sultanate of Jaunpur, converted to Islam and took on the name Jalāl ud-Dīn Muhammad. To seek recognition of his rule, Jalāl ud-Dīn is reported to have contacted the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh and the Abbasid in Egypt. He seems to have also requested Shah Rukh to help him fend away the military threat from Jaunpur (Eaton 1993: 50-63; Hussain 2003: 104-115).

Chinese sources do not specify if a title of “king” was bestowed on the Bengali ruler through the Hou Xian mission of 1420. However, an imperial edict, a strong contingent of Chinese soldiers, and precious gifts for the king, his family, and officials were part of the entourage. By dispatching this powerful mission to Bengal, the Ming court seems to have provided Jalāl ud-Dīn an opportunity to demonstrate his diplomatic capabilities and assure many of his wealthy Muslim citizens, many of whom invested in maritime trade across the Bay of Bengal, about the continuing trading ties between Bengal and China. Not only did Jalāl ud-Dīn successfully rule over Bengal for the next thirteen years, diplomatic and commercial links between the two regions grew until the Ming court, in the mid-fifteenth century, decided to reverse its policies regarding the maritime voyages and diplomacy.

The Ming court, under the Yongle emperor, also seems to have had a spiritual interest in the eastern region of ancient India. In 1403, the same year he ascended to the Ming throne, the Yongle emperor sent an invitation to the Fifth Karma-pa (De- bzin-gségs-pa, 1384-1415) of Tibet. Carried by Hou Xian, who happened to be a Tibetan Buddhist (Zheng 2011; Yang 2008; Tsai 1996: 125-127), the invitation requested the Karma-pa to visit the Ming capital and perform rituals for the deceased parents of the Yongle emperor. A little over three years later, in 1407, the Karma-pa accompanied by Hou Xian arrived in Nanjing. In 1408, the Yongle emperor invited Tsong-kha-pa, the other important Tibetan leader to the Ming capital. Tsong-kha-pa, however, declined the invitation. In 1413, when Hou Xian was sent to , perhaps to bring the Indian monk Śāriputra to Ming China (McKeown 2010), the eunuch passed through Tibet and met Tsong-kha-pa, presumably to again urge him to visit the Ming court (Sperling 1982; Sperling 1983: 146-147). It is possible that Hou Xian’s visits to Bengal in 1415-16 and 1420-21, like his earlier trip to Nepal, may have included Buddhism-related undertakings on behalf of the Yongle emperor. In fact, during his trip to Bengal in 1420-21, Hou Xian and the Ming delegation are reported to have visited the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment in Bodh Gayā (Ming shilu 14: 2226; Wade Entry: 2690).

From the above episodes it is clear that the Ming court, specifically under the Yongle emperor, engaged with the South Asian coastal regions in several ways. It had brisk

13 diplomatic exchanges with the polities located in the Malabar coast, Bengal, and Ceylon. With its naval power, the Ming court also wielded significant influence over these regions. And finally, it made connections, through the maritime channels, to the Buddhist sites that held important relics and paraphernalia. At the same time, the coastal regions of South Asia became fully integrated into the Chinese trading and shipping networks. These networks, especially those belonging to the ethnic Chinese traders in Southeast Asia, continued to sustain the maritime interactions between South Asia and Ming China after the Zheng He’s expeditions ended in 1433. The Ming sources, for instance, mention Chinese traders, based in Java, representing Bengal to the Ming court. There is also a report of a Chinese interpreter named Chen Deqing 陳得清 working for Bengal (Ming shilu 24: 916; Wade 733). The presence of Chen Deqing, and perhaps other Chinese like him, in Bengal might explain how Bengali script and a list of more than two hundred Bengali words transcribed in Chinese found their way into the sixteenth-century Ming work Siyi guangji 四夷廣記 (Extensive Records of the Four Barbarian [Regions]). The work, which includes words related to terrestrial objects, types of clothing, commodities, names for birds and animals, and etc., indicates the continued importance of the South Asian coastal regions to Chinese merchants even after state support for maritime commercial activity had ceased.

Concluding Remarks

Prior to the eleventh century, Chinese courts and traders had limited interest in South Asian ports and Indian Ocean commerce. Non-Chinese merchant groups and sailors operated most of the maritime networks between South Asia and the Chinese ports. In fact, there is no evidence of merchants and ships from China venturing into the South Asian coasts before the Song period. China’s engagement with the coastal regions of South Asia, as the above study demonstrates, evolved gradually over the first four-five centuries of the second millennium. Not only did the Song, Yuan, and Ming courts start encountering the South Asian polities located on the coastal regions more frequently than during the previous periods, seafaring merchants from China successfully established their trading and shipping networks in the Bay of Bengal region and may have eventually dominated maritime trade between the South Asian ports and China.

The formation of Chinese trading and shipping networks in the Indian Ocean during the eleventh and twelfth century was connected to the Song court’s decision to participate in and promote maritime commerce. By the Yuan period, ports in South Asia had become key destinations for traders, ships, and diplomatic missions from China. For the first time, Chinese merchants seem to have settled in South Asian ports, ships belonging to Chinese sailors ferried people and goods between South Asia and China, and the imperial courts of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, started to exert political and military power at the South Asian coasts. At the same time, the Buddhist legacy of South Asia was not totally forgotten. Kubilai Khan and the Yongle

14 emperor sought to procure Buddhist paraphernalia from South Asian sites by sending emissaries through the maritime routes. These exchanges make it clear that the maritime routes during the Song-Yuan-Ming period had replaced the overland roads as the main conduits of communication and interactions between South Asia and China. They also indicate that Chinese traders and courts were no longer passive participants in Indian Ocean trade and diplomacy.

Within the wider context of China’s engagement with the maritime world, the commercial, political, and religious connections to the coastal regions of South Asia suggest a significantly transformed perception of the maritime frontier among Chinese merchant groups and courts in China. Ports in the coastal regions of China ceased to be the only sites of interactions with foreigners. Traders, diplomats, and soldiers from China started frequenting far-flung regions of the Indian Ocean. While seafaring merchants from China bypassed intermediaries and procured goods directly from foreign markets, emissaries from the courts in China were able to project their military power as far as South Asia. For the first time, the Chinese coast was neither the perimeter nor an obstacle to the expansion of cultural, economic, or military activities. In fact, for Zheng He and the Yongle emperor the maritime frontier of Ming China might have extended beyond the far horizons of the South Asian ports.

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