Contributed articles.

This book looks at circulation and ships in a space that brings together the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayan regions, south-west China, and South-East Asia, connecting those regions to the larger Indian Oceanic trade. This space is organized around the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, where boats and ships play a pivotal role in circulation, trade and wealth. So far, boats and ships of the Northern Bay of Bengal have been rarely studied. Shallow draft vessels, able to navigate the coast, estuaries, and deep rivers are a form of transportation that evades the control of a central and land-based polity. Their understanding is crucial to reassess our idea of roads as well as the history of technology and trade in a space central to circulation.