Liminalities and Centralities of Early Historic Ports: The Gulf of Khambhat in Perspective

The ports of the Gulf of Khambhat at the physical edge of the Indian subcontinent, where the land meets the sea, constitute the region discussed in this chapter. By virtue of being a physical edge, the coast and its ports are both an ecotone and a political, economic, and social frontier. Like other frontiers, the coast was also crossed, and ties to various commercial, religious, and diplomatic networks beyond the coast’s physical edges were established. Such networks were not stagnant but dynamic, as can be seen in changes in technology, consumption habits, and also rituals. In this chapter, I examine the economic processes of the region by considering three broad variables: physical affordances and settlement scenarios, economic actors, and craftspecific networks of knowledge. Before I delve into a discussion of these variables, I will situate this research in its historiographical background.