INDIA'S CULTURAL LINKS WITH AFRICA IN ANCIENT TIMES
Mrs. M.V.GADRE

   India had established contacts with Africa long before the discovery of monsoon winds by Hippalus in 43 A.D. Strabo in 120 B.C. refers to an Indian sailor who was found drifting in the Red Sea, being taken to Egypt.

   Dr.S.Musafir Ali, notes that by Salmalidvipa of the Puranas mean the tropical part of Africa bordering the Indian Ocean included Madagascar, the Zang of the Arab and for Persian geographers, the Harina of the Puranas and the Sankhadvipa of some other writers.

  The representation of elephant being ridden in a shrine of Hussarawwarat is unique in the Nile Valley. At Naga, we come across a temple of first century with the representation of Meroitic Lion God, Apedemak similar to Narsimha.

   The discovery of 103 Kusana Gold coins, dated 230 A.D. in Axum (modern Ethiopia) bore the legends in Prakrit and Kharosthi. The Israeli philologist, Dr. Chaim Rabin states that the early Ethiopians must have learnt their system of vowel indication from India, as they recite the vowels in approximately the same order as is customary in Sanskrit.

   Commiade and Burkitt have noticed a remarkable affinity between various implements belonging to the Paleolithic Age that are found in South India, similar to South Africa. By 1000 A.D. the working of gold, copper and iron mines spread across the whole area of the Congo, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and down to South Africa.

   It was the Indian sailor Kanji, who piloted Vasco-Da-Gama across the Indian Ocean to of religion Calicut.

                                                                                                                                Address :-
11, Suruchi, Shivaji Nagar,
Daftary Road, Malad (E)
Mumbai 400 097.