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The book is focused on the Indian Ocean world. Instead of approach maritime history as control of trade networks and domination—which is normally done—this book looks at the cultural transfer and transmission with the region over time. Drawing on research undertaken for almost three decades, it examines coastal architecture and archaeology, narratives of shipwreck and travel in literature and provides an account of the changing maritime conceptions of space across two millennia of history. It gives an overview of the Indian Ocean network covering the ocean in Sanskrit narrative literature, the impact of the trade and maritime developments under the Muslims on the region, Chinese pilgrims and their ceramics in the Indian Ocean trade. It covers narratives of travel and shipwreck and aspects of the region’s history like the state of early medieval Gujarat and the Konkan coast and the Chola naval attacks against Srivijaya in Malaysia.