From Salsette to Socotra: Islands across the Seas and Implications for Heritage

Abstract

Salsette island off the west coast of India is one of the group of islands that have been merged into one landmass known as Bombay or the present city of Mumbai, as a result of several land reclamation projects. Though densely settled, Salsette is known for the 109 Buddhist caves located on the hill of Kanheri on the northern side of the island in a protected forest area termed the Borivali National Park. Richly sculpted and inscribed with donations from patrons, the rock-cut caves at Kanheri continued to be occupied well into the tenth–eleventh century. At present, the Buddhist caves are nationally protected monuments preserved for their heritage value. Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands about 250 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia in the western Indian Ocean. The largest island in the group is also called Socotra. The 132-kilometer-long island is often described as the most isolated place on Earth, though this account does agree with its central location in the maritime networks of the early centuries of the Common Era. In keeping with the theme of connectivity and locating hubs across the Indian Ocean, my focus in this paper is on narratives relating to sailing between Salsette island and Socotra in the early centuries of the Common Era. To what extent can these narratives justify the identification of a cultural route connecting the two islands within UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention?