a painting of a sailing ship in the ocean

Friends, India's maritime heritage is very rich. First of all, great oceans, seas and rivers have been mentioned in Rig Veda. 5000 years ago, i.e. in 3000 BC, trade between Indus Valley civilisation and Mesopotamia used to take place only through sea route. Apart from this, between 500 BC and 200 BC, during the time of Nandas and Mauryas, there used to be trade through sea route with our neighbouring countries. We find proof of this in Roman and Greek literary records. Greek historian and Macedonian ambassador Megasthenes during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya has described the presence of a naval war fighting group inside Pataliputra. Hence the navy of Magadha kingdom is the first recorded navy of the whole world. Apart from this Maharaja Shivaji also established a strong navy and single-handedly fought the Portuguese and British navy for 40 years. Maratha navy had 500 ships but after the death of Shivaji Maharaj, Maratha navy started weakening and finally in 1962 East India Company formed the East India Co