- Hippalus
Hippalus was a Greek navigator and merchant who probably lived in the 1st century BCE. He is sometimes conjectured to have been the captain of the Greek explorer
Eudoxus of Cyzicus ' ship.The writer of the "
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea " credited Hippalus with discovering the direct route from theRed Sea toIndia over theIndian Ocean by plotting the scheme of the sea and the correct location of the trade ports along the Indian coast.Pliny the Elder claimed that Hippalus discovered not the route but themonsoon wind also called "Hippalus" (the south-west monsoon wind). Most historians have tried to reconcile the reports by stating that knowledge of the monsoon winds was necessary to use the direct route, but the historianAndré Tchernia explains that Plinius' connection between the wind and the navigator was based on common pronunciation: in the Hellenistic Era the name of the wind was written as "Hypalus", only in Roman times the spelling "Hippalus" came in use. The wind had already been known in Hellenistic times and had before been used by Arab and Indian sailors to cross the Indian Ocean.To understand the importance of Hippalus' discovery we have to know that before him Greek geographers thought that the Indian coast stretched from west to east. Hippalus was probably the first (in the west) to recognize the north-south direction of India's westcoast. Only someone who has this insight will think crossing the Indian Ocean might be a faster way to
south India than following the coastline.The use of Hippalus' direct route greatly contributed to the prosperity of trade contacts between the Roman province of Aegyptus and
India from the 1st century BCE onwards. From Red Sea ports like Berenice large ships crossed the Indian Ocean to the Tamil kingdoms of thePandyas ,Cholas andCheras in present dayKerala andTamil Nadu .In modern times a crater on the moon was named after the navigator. He is also a prominent character in
L. Sprague de Camp 's novel about Eudoxus, "The Golden Wind ."ee also
*
Kodungallur References
*Federico De Romanis and André Tchernia, "Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India" (New Delhi 1997)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.