Hippalus
Also called: Monsoon winds · Topic: Economy of Early India: Agriculture, Trade, Guilds, Coinage · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Hippalus was a Greek sailor, usually placed in c. 1st century BCE. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives him credit for showing how to use the monsoon winds to sail straight across the Arabian Sea to India. Before this, ships hugged the coast, which was slow. In summer the south-west monsoon carried ships towards India. In winter the north-east monsoon carried them back. The open-sea route made trips shorter and cheaper. It helped Indo-Roman trade grow. Indian and Arab sailors probably knew these winds long before him.
Example
By the 1st century CE, ships from Roman Egypt were using the monsoon to reach Muziris on the Malabar coast. They brought gold coins and took back pepper and malabathrum (a leaf spice).
Don't confuse with
- The author of the Periplus: an unnamed Greek sailor of c. 1st century CE who wrote about Hippalus. He was not Hippalus himself.
Related concepts
- Trade routes
- Uttarapatha
- Dakshinapatha
- Indian Ocean trade
- Indo-Roman trade
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
- Pliny's Natural History
- Ptolemy's Geography
- Muziris
- Arikamedu