The Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies

Sketch of a ship based on a mural in Ajanta Caves, ca. 6th century

Editors of the JIOWS — 2026-02-12

A sketch of a ship, from Ajanta mural (ca. 6th century AD), which depicts an ancient Indian ship with high stem and stern and three oblong sails attached to three masts. Steering-oars (double quarter rudders) can also be seen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chola_Navy#/media/File:Ajanta_Caves_boat_sketched_by_Mookerji.jpg [Accessed 12 Feb. 2026]

Crafting the Divine Ship: Understanding Indigenous Shipbuilding Practices through Performative Traditions

Maya Vinai — 2026-02-12

The Malabar coastline in present-day southwestern India is renowned for its maritime heritage and its indigenous shipbuilding traditions. Much of what is currently known about shipbuilding in this region’s past is garnered from European documents, marine archaeology, and excavations of ancient ports. This article adds to this knowledge by consulting centuries-old performative traditions and folklore. Specifically, we examine the Thottam of Marakkalathamma, which is an expression of veneration for the goddess Marakkalathamma. It is sung as a prelude to Theyyam performances (a ritualistic dance form) that takes place in northern Malabar, in present-day India’s Kerala State. The article focuses on the materials and labour of shipbuilding, the form and motifs of ships, how ships were tested in oceanic waters, and rituals associated with shipbuilding. By intertwining a translation of the thottam and ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that a history of shipbuilding can be found in an embedded mode in this performative tradition.

Knowledge without Borders: Epistemic Communities, Dialogically Engaged Discursive Tradition, and the Transmission of Islamic Scholarship in the Eastern Indian Ocean World: Connections between Southeast and Western Asia

Omer Awass — 2026-02-12

This article examines the dynamics of epistemic communities across the Eastern Indian Ocean, whose raison d’être is the cultivation and communication of Islamic scholarship. This body of Islamic knowledge, the formal basis for this epistemic community, is represented in a set of discourses that are the communicative medium transacted among its members. This transaction creates the shared discursive space that situates their relationships over the vast disjointed physical area of the Indian Ocean. After this theoretical discussion, the essay documents the transformation in the contemporary character of the historical relationships between the shared epistemic communities in the Indian Ocean basins of Southeast Asia and Western Asia. This transformation is illustrated by examining how the dissemination process of Islamic knowledge has changed in modern times. This study is based on ethnographic research in Indonesia, where students/scholars from this region were interviewed regarding their experiences of pursuing Islamic knowledge in the Middle East. The study will show that there was a shift in the structural relations of these epistemic communities, where the basis of interactions in colonial and pre-colonial times revolved around individual relationships and distinctive knowledge networks. In contrast, in the postcolonial period, the interactions centered more around knowledge institutions and amorphous associations.

Editorial Introduction

Editors of the JIOWS — 2026-02-12

In Conversation: Alastair McClure on Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922

Alastair McClure — 2026-02-12

In this interview, Alastair McClure discusses his book, Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857 to 1922, which was published by Cambridge University Press in November 2024 as part of its Legal History series.