The relations between the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of India are embedded in history with millennia old commercial, cultural, religious and economic linkages owing to geographical proximity and personal ties. Archaeological excavations indicate that Oman-India relations stretch back to thousands of years, to the earliest period of the Bronze Age. Linked by the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, these coasts have interacted continually, creating cross fertilisation of ideas, cultures, religions and ways of life which continue until today. Far from common perceptions that these ties are modern, the Gulf littoral and the shores of Indian coasts have engaged in frequent contact, as the ports along the northern coast of present day Oman have been an entrêport for goods going to the desert interior, as well as further to Africa and the Mediterranean. Prehistoric connections Emerging archeological evidence in Oman dates its maritime tradition to the sixth millennium BCE, with establishment of links with the Greeks in the Erythraean Sea1. The links with the Harappan civilization, part of the Indus Valley, has also found much evidence in Northern Oman, as far back as the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age began around 3000 BCE on the Indian subcontinent, leading to the beginning of the Indus Valley civilization2. Owing to their location along the Arabian Sea, the inhabitants of Harappa are known to have traded all along the Red Sea. By 3000 BCE, travelers in canoes and rafts moved between towns and trading ports in the western coast of India and along the Gulf of Oman. Archeological findings from ancient Harappa have been found in the upper Gulf area, including Qalhat and Dilmun. These include pottery and inscribed coins, shards with engravings in the Indus Valley script, carnelian beads3 and a Harappan jar dated 2400-2000 BCE4. These confirm continuing trade relations in the Harappan outposts on the Makran coast in the later Bronze Age. Historian Vogt states that “Harappan impact on the Oman peninsula possibly started as early as the middle of the third millennium BC”5. 1
Bhacker, R. (2009). ‘The cultural unity of the Gulf and the Indian Ocean: A longue duree historical perspective’.
2 The possible dates for the Indus Valley civilization go back to 7000 BCE, based on continuing archeological findings. 3
Vogt states that “the technique of etching carnelian was for long regarded as an extremely valuable marker of the Indus civilization”, p. 112.
4
The National Museum, Oman.
5
Vogt, B. (1996). ‘Bronze Age maritime trade in the Indian Ocean: Harappan traits on the Oman peninsula’. p.127. 35
