MACCHA-YANTRA-Ancient Vedic mariner's Compass

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MACCHA-YANTRA - THE ANCIENT INDIAN MARINER'S COMPASS

 

 

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There were Sanskrit terms for many parts of a ship. The ship's

anchor was known as Nava-Bandhan-Kilaha which literally means 'A

Nail to tie up a ship' . The sail was called Vata Vastra a which

means 'wind-cloth'. The hull was termed StulaBhaga i.e. an'expanded

area'. The rudder was called Keni-Pata, Pata means blade; the rudder

was also known as Karna which literally means a 'ear' and was so

called because it used to be a hollow curved blade, as is found

today in exhaust fans. The ship's keel was called Nava-Tala which

means 'bottom of a ship'. The mast was known as Kupadanda, in which

danda means a pole.

 

Even a sextant was used for navigation and was called Vruttashanga-

Bhaga. But what is more surprising is that even a contrived

mariner's compass was used by Indian navigators nearly 1500 to 2000

years ago. This claim is not being made in an overzealous

nationalistic spirit. This has in fact been the suggestion of an

European expert, Mr. J.L. Reid, who was a member of the Institute of

Naval Architects and Shipbuilders in England at around the beginning

of the present century. This is what Mr. Reid has said in the Bombay

Gazetteer, vol. xiii., Part ii., Appendix A.

 

"The early Hindu astrologers are said to have used the magnet, in

fixing the North and East, in laying foundations, and other

religious ceremonies. The Hindu compass was an iron fish that

floated in a vessel of oil and pointed to the North. The fact of

this older Hindu compass seems placed beyond doubt by the Sanskrit

word Maccha Yantra, or fish machine, which Molesworth gives as a

name for the mariner's compass".

 

It is significant to note that these are the words of a foreign

Naval Architect and Shipbuilding Expert. It is thus quite possible

that the Maccha Yantra (fish machine) was transmitted to the west by

the Arabs to give us the mariner's compass of today.

 

- Sudheer