Coastal India is a geo-cultural region in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

that spans the entire coastline of India. In 2024, the Indian total coastline was estimated to be 11,098 km. Earlier in 1970, the National Hydrographic Office and Survey of India had calculated the coastline to be 7,516 km; as per the then existing techniques and technologies of measurement. As per 2024 data,

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

has the longest coastline with 2,340 km. The 2nd longest coastline belongs to

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

with 1,068 km; followed by

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

with 1,053 km and

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

with 721 km. Coastal states of India are

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, Goa,

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, Tamilnadu,

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

and

along with coastal union territories of Puducherry,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep.

Sea trade and intermingling

A thriving trade existed between the Mediterranean world and Coastal Indian regions Bjorn Landstrom (1964) "The Quest for India",

Doubleday (publisher) Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897. By 1947, it was the largest book publisher in the United States. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and ...

English Edition, Stockholm.Miller, J. Innes. (1969). The Spice Trade of The Roman Empire: 29 B.C. to A.D. 641. Oxford University Press. Special edition for Sandpiper Books. 1998. .Thomas Puthiakunnel, (1973) "Jewish colonies of India paved the way for St. Thomas", The Saint Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India, ed. George Menachery, Vol. II., Trichur.''Periplus Maris Erythraei'' "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea", (trans). Wilfred Schoff (1912), reprinted South Asia Books 1995 This led to significant intermingling between the people of Coastal India and the

west asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

n world, particularly along the South West Indian Coastline along the Arabian Sea. Several west Asian communities have also settled and become part of the diversity of coastal south west India. These include the Parsis,Hodivala, S. (1920), Studies in Parsi History, Bombay BohrasThe Dawoodi Bohras: an anthropological perspective, by Shibani Roy. Published by B.R. Publishing, 1984. and Baghdadi JewsSargon, J(1987) 'Baghdadi Jews of India and the Sassoons' in Jewish Daily Israel Today, Perspectiv/Opinion; Tuesday 25 August in the westernmost region, The descendants of west asian and mediterranean traders like The Bearys of Kanara region and the Mappilas Bindu Malieckal (2005) Muslims, Matriliny, and A Midsummer Night's Dream: European Encounters with the Mappilas of Malabar, India; The Muslim World Volume 95 Issue 2 along Malabar region, and the cochin jewsKoder S. "History of the Jews of Kerala". ''The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India'', Ed. G. Menachery,1973.Leslie Brown, (1956) ''The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1956, 1982 (repr.)Menachery G (1973) The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India, Ed. George Menachery, B.N.K. Press, vol. 2, , Lib. Cong. Cat. Card. No. 73-905568; B.N.K. Press and Syriac Nasranis along the southernmost region of South India. The Chola Empire established vast Tamil influence across

South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n region K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, K.A (1984) 935 The CōĻas. Madras: University of Madras.Keay, John. India: A History. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers. .Hermann, Kulke; Rothermund D (2001) 000 A History of India. Routledge. . across

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. This brought South Indian Heritage to

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

and Bali where the Balinese Hindu traditions still thrives. This also lead to intermingling between coastal India and the south east Asia particularly in the South eastern Cholamandalam coastline along the Bay of Bengal.

Heritage

The linguistic diversity of Coastal India includes languages of the Dravidian language family including

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Beary and

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

; languages belonging to the western zone of Indo Iranian language families including Gujarati, Marathi,

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

, languages belonging to the central zone of the Indo-Iranian language families including

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and Persian and languages belonging to the eastern zone of Indo Iranian language family including Odia and Bengali. The region also has speakers of

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

s like

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

. The common elements of the people of coastal India includes

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...

that consists of agrarian and coastal products and clothing that involves long flowing drapes with bare midriff for both men and women suited for humid and warm climate.Boulanger, Chantal; (1997) Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping, Shakti Press International, New York. Throughout coastal India women wear drapes called saree in various styles. In the western corner of the region the drapes are called as Dhoti for men. and Chaniya choli for women, further southwards the drapes are called as lungi or mundu for men. and veshti for women. Towards the southernmost tip of coastal south western India the social system of inheritance was once matrilineal.Craddock, Norma. 1994. Anthills, Split Mothers, and Sacrifice: Conceptions of Female Power in the Mariyamman Tradition. Dissertation, U. of California, Berkeley.Trawick, Margaret. 1990a. Notes on Love in a Tamil Family. Berkeley: U. of California Press.Wadley, Susan, ed. 1980. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse: Syracuse U. Press.Smith R.T. (2002) Matrifocality, in International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (eds) Smelser & Baltes, vol 14, pp 9416. There are various festivals celebrated in the coastal states centered on deities.Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra, The Lalita Cult, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (Delhi, 1942, 2d ed. 1991, 3d ed. 1999).

Gallery

File:Sunrise @ Digha.jpg, Sunrise at Digha Beach. File:Mumbai 03-2016 46 evening at Marine Drive.jpg, Girgaon Chowpatty and Marine Drive . File:An afternoon view of RK Beach in Visakhapatnam.JPG, RK Beach in

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

. File:Puri Sea Beach viewed from the light house.jpg, Puri Beach as it viewed from a light House. File:Chennai - bird's-eye view.jpg, Marina Beach's Bird eye view. File:Varkala Beach, Varkala, Kerala.jpg, Varkala Beach, Kerala is the highest Cliff beach in India. File:Delight india.jpg,

Om Beach Gokarna is a small temple town located in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka state in southern India, It has a population of around 20,000. The Mahabaleshwar Temple, Gokarna, Mahabaleshwara Temple is dedicated to Shiva. Gokarna is one of ...

is known as one of seven important centers of pilgrimage in Hinduism. File:Palolem beach.jpg,

Palolem Beach Palolem Beach is situated in Canacona in southern Goa, India. The beach attracts many international tourists, mainly during the winter season between November and March. It is considered to be one of the region's most beautiful beaches. Overview P ...

is a tourist destination in South Goa. File:SOMNATH TEMPLE.jpg, Somnath Temple with Veraval Beach in the background. File:Rock beach night harbor.jpg, Promenade Beach at Night. File:Wandoor Beach Andaman 4160169.JPG, Wandoor Beach is an attraction of Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park. File:Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep.jpg,

Minicoy Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on Maliku atoll, the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian States and territories ...

is an island in Lakshadweep. File:Sunset at Devka beach, daman.jpg, Sunset at Devka Beach, Daman. File:A Scenic view of paddy fields from Bojjannakonda, Sankaram, India.jpg, Scenic view of coastal plain fields near

, Andhra Pradesh

References

{{Geography of India Regions of India *

Sea trade and intermingling

Heritage

Gallery

See also

References