Pelagic Passageways: The Northern Bay of Bengal Before Colonialism

This volume visualizes the cultural space of the northern Bay of Bengal as embracing upland landlocked areas Ava, Yunnan, the Tripuri, Dimasa and Ahom statesnot usually seen as part of maritime history, therefore suggesting that they too be studied as part of the social and commercial networks of the Indian Ocean. There are not one but two deltas here: the western delta, corresponding to the present West Bengal, and the southeastern delta, in present Bangladesh. The essays in this volume question the conventional fault line located on the southeastern Bengal delta, between the historiography of South and South East Asia. Concentrating on commodity and currency flows, travel, trade routesand interactive networks, this volume proposes that these areas be viewed as crossroads, mediating flows between the landdwelling and aquatic worlds.