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CAUTION AGAINST TIIE USE OF LITERARY SOURCES • •• • 155

Fig. 2 : A stitchcd boat depiclcd on the stonc railing of the Sanchi

Stupa of c. 2nd-lst ccntury B. C. moved in shallow watcr with the help of a long pole to push and paddle or spade-like oar used as a propcller or rudder.

Persian Gulf/⁰ The earliest definite representation of a stern-rudder in Europę, however, is also dated 1242 A.D. ⁴⁰

Vivid testimony to the ancient Indian maritime movemcnts is also suggested to be borne by the representations of ships and boats, sail and paddles, masts and merehandise, oars and side-rudders, depicled in the Ajanta painlings and referred to by the marinę archacologists of Krsna’s Dvaraka.⁴¹ The landing of Prinee Vijaya in Ccylon, for cxamplc, is the theme of one of the paintings of Ajanta representing his four soldiers on horses and four on elephants, in two boats, and engaged in battle, with arrows dischargcd (Fig.3). In another