ABSTRACT
The 'Boats of South Asia' Project
Sean McGrail
This paper summarises the results of fieldwork, undertaken as a Society project between 1996 and 2000, along India's Bay of Bengal coast and in the Sylhet District of Bangladesh. During the first four years, research was focused on two types of traditional vessels: the reverse-clinker boats of northern Orissa, southern West Bengal, and Bangladesh; and the frame-first boats and ships of Tamil Nadu. The documentation of these two types has not only laid the foundations for future research into the history of South Asia's water transport, but has also provided comparative data which can be used in the study of certain types of Medieval European ships.
In the fifth season of the project a training course in the art and science of documenting traditional boats was held in Tamil University, Thanjavur. Nine archaeologists and historians from various regions of India attended lectures and demonstrations, carried out fieldwork on the northern shores of Palk Bay, and recorded a vattai fishing boat. The skills learnt should enable them to document other boats and thus complement the research undertaken by the Boats of South Asia Project.