Indian High Sea

The Arabian Sea off Konkan faces a coast of river mouths and islands beneath the Western Ghats. Arab merchants visited western Indian ports for centuries, and the coast was connected to the Deccan by valleys leading inland. At Honnavar farther south, the traveller Ibn Battuta described a thriving port in 1342 and praised its ruler Jamaluddin. Later Portuguese, Dutch and English merchants also sought trade along these shores.