The Seasons of Maritime Life
— Sara Keller

Port towns host unique forms of urban life, and they are often seen as particularly vibrant and dynamic cities. Maritime metropolises on all continents, such as Shanghai, New York, Bombay, Hamburg or Marseille, have gained a reputation of being exceptionally busy, diverse and connected places. This is also true of maritime cities of the past, and archaeology and history tell us that historical port towns were already busy, diverse and connected places. The Harappan city of Lothal, around 2200 BC (today in Gujarat, India) for instance, the Egyptian city of Alexandria from the 4th century BC onwards, or the floating Italian city of Venice, especially from the 10th to the 15th century, were active place of industry and trade, enlivened by a diverse population of locals and foreign merchants and travellers crossing seas and oceans to sell their goods and gain exotic ones.
Diversity and dynamism have also been two major concepts to understand and analyse historically the unique urban identity of celebrated past port cities such as Lothal, Alexandria, Venice and many others. Diversity of communities, practices, languages and ideas are characteristic of connected port towns that not only host local inhabitants but also merchants, sailors, ambassadors, pilgrims, scientists and a great variety of other travellers who visited the port town or were on their way to further destinations. Discussions on living-together, coexistence, inclusion and exclusion, communal conflicts, communication and negotiation have been central to the studies of historical port towns.
Another focus of discussions has been the atmosphere of intensive exchange, creativity, flexibility, dynamism, and ultimately entrepreneurship that characterises port towns. This feature ensues from port towns being areas of transition, that is, as discussed in boundary studies, liminal spaces, ecotones, interphases and other permeable points in boundaries. Against other urbanities that favoured the codification and perpetuation of political, social or religious guidelines, port towns were platforms of exchanges that displayed the unknown and inspired new ideas. These unstable environments were also the stage of innovation and rapid evolutions. Products changing quickly, prices rocketing or dropping overnight, and fashions and ideas spreading fast gave the illusion of an acceleration of time in comparison with the slow pace of the neighbouring countryside or of other cities.

Fig.1. Venice: View on the Doge Palast and the main city square (San Marco), 1732.
Painting by Canaletto entitled “The Bucintoro Returning to the Molo on Ascension Day” (The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148700
Time and rhythm could be another entry to look at the urbanity of port towns: not just were historical maritime cities diverse and dynamic, they also had their own rhythm. Beside the feeling of speed or acceleration due to the intensity of exchanges, the temporality of port towns could also be looked at in seasonal terms. Indeed, the urban life of historical port towns can hardly be seen as a homogenous block, but should be considered through the lens of maritime seasons. In the age of sail, winds determined the pace of exchanges as they were the ones bringing the ships to the shore. Consequently, the urban life in a port town could be drastically different according to the season: calm and empty during the low season, the city became a dynamic and overloaded hub when the winds brought ships and goods to the harbour.
A telling example of this seasonality are the port towns of the Indian Ocean in which the maritime movements were dictated by the monsoon wind. Knowing about these winds and about sailing routes favoured trade and cross-regional exchanges since the early days of the Harappan civilisation, thus making the Indian subcontinent the host of a long maritime history. Its coastline, exceptionally rich in port towns of all periods, was the witness of a dynamic maritime culture: after Harappan cities such as Lothal came early port towns like Barbarikon (near today’s Karachi), Arikamedu (near today’s Pondichery), Muziris (in today’s Kerala) and Barigaza (today’s Bharuch in Gujarat), followed by medieval and early modern port towns such as Calicut, Surat, Goa, Masulipatnam, Kochi, Chittagong and many others.
Very few locations were continuously busy in the longue durée, generally because silting and geo-climatical conditions caused the decline of the port towns that could not be reached any more by large trading vessels. Their longevity, however, is to be considered in terms of maritime culture that survived the decline of places and was transmitted from one port to another. In Western India for instance, merchants and trading activities shifted several times in order to escape the fatal destiny of silting harbours: the maritime culture of Gujarat thus can be seen as a continuous phenomenon that moved from Bharuch to Cambay around the 12th-13th century, from Cambay to Surat during the late 16th and finally from Surat to Bombay already from the late 17th century onwards.

Fig. 2. Engraving of Surat by Jakob van der Schley (1753-5).
Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
This immense variety of port towns across South Asia in time and space sustained the development of various urban cultures, yet all these cities shared a rhythm imposed by the winds: travel could not be undertaken at any time, and vessels had to wait the adequate season to set sail. Let us look at the city of Surat, the prime port of the Mughal empire and one of the most important maritime cities of South Asia during the 17th century. In one of his many travelogues, French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) describes the navigation between Surat and Hormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, in the following terms:
“November, December, January, February and March are the only months of the year when you sail from Ormus to Surate, and from Surate to Ormus, but with the difference that you don’t leave Surate much later than the end of February. For the first four months there is a north-easterly wind, which takes us from Surate to Ormus in fifteen or twenty days, then this wind gradually turns to the north and is then used both by the ships going to Surate and those coming from there; During this period, merchants generally stay at sea for thirty or thirty-five days; but if you want to get from Ormus to Surate in fourteen or fifteen days, you have to set sail in March or early April, because then you always have the setting wind at your stern.” (Tavernier, 1681: 2, translation by author)
Tavernier confirms here other early modern accounts on sailing in the western part of the Indian Ocean, indicating that the travels were done between November and early April. According to Tavernier, between November to February, Hormuz could be reached from Surat in 15 to 20 days. In March, one could travel from Hormuz to Surat or vice versa in 30 to 35 days. Finally, Surat could be reached from Hormuz in 14 to 15 days in March and early April. Further accounts give indications for other destinations, as each maritime route had different timings. In contrast to modern travels that allow us to start our journey any day of the year thanks to train and flight facilities, and ultimately combustion technologies, travellers of the pre-industrial era had to wait for the adequate season.
For a port town surviving on trade and cross-regional exchanges, the seasonality of travels had significant consequences on the urban life. Against busy months when ships loaded with merchandises reached the port, when goods were checked, transhipped, sold, redistributed, when the city was flooded with sailors and goods, other months were times of waiting. Business was not made and the streets and bazars remained quiet. A good way to judge the city’s activity is to look at its population. Another French traveller, Jean de Thévenot (1633 – 1667) described how the city of Surat filled up during the winter months:
“Sourat is of medium size, and it is difficult to say exactly how many inhabitants there are, because the seasons make it uneven: there are always many all year round; but at monsoon time, that is the time when ships can go to and from India without danger, in the months of November, December, January, February and March, and even in April, the town is so full of people that it is difficult to conveniently find an accommodation, and all three suburbs are full.” (Thévenot 1684: 43, translation by author)
This account gives a glimpse on how drastically the urban life could change according to the rhythm of seasons and wind. When ships could cross the Arabian sea, from November to April, the city was exceptionally full, and people could hardly find a place to stay. Just as touristic cities today are empty during the low season and flooded by tourists during the high season, the life of the city of Surat greatly varied according to a two-beat rhythm. Other European accounts suggest how foreign merchants and travellers waited for the active season, and how solitude and boredom could affect their moral during the rest of the year, possibly contributing to the higher mortality during the long months of waiting. Unfortunately, no contemporary local account indicates how Surtis (the inhabitants of Surat) perceived this urban temporality, but it is possible that it was seen ambiguously, just as local inhabitants await and also fear, today, the arrival of tourists who sustain their economy but also flood the city.

Fig. 3. Dutch ships anchored in the West Indies (central America), engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1647.
The MET (25.83.5), Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925.
This two-beat urban rhythm certainly also translated into spatial and social terms, notably differentiating a permanent city from seasonally occupied areas. As shown by the example of Surat and other ports of the Indian Ocean, the temporality of port towns seems a promising entry, beside diversity and dynamism, to better understand the unique urban life of historical port towns. On this matter, some conceptual clues related to urban time have been addressed during the KFG workshop on “Co-temporality”, while the theory of “rhythmanalysis” proposed in 1992 by sociologist Henri Lefebvre seems an ideal framework to think and analyse the temporality of port towns.
Henri Lefevre differentiated cyclical rhythms, connected with the natural rhythm of seasons and agrarian and traditional societies, from linear rhythms deriving from a systematic count of time with the help of technology and science. For Lefebvre, the linear perception of time is a process of abstraction, in which a fictitiously homogeneous time is fragmented by machines. Modernity is for him characterised by an increasing influence of linear time, although both systems often coexist or alternate. In the case of port towns, it is indeed clear that the technologisation of transport via the development of steam and then combustion engine blew away the physical boundaries imposed by winds and monsoon sailing. From the 19th century onwards, it became possible to cross the ocean at any time of the year, which eventually led to the disappearance of the two-beat rhythm of urban life in port towns.
Beyond this drastic change, the history of port towns certainly illustrates other expressions and aspects of temporality and changes in temporality: more detailed analyses of the times and rhythms of port towns in the pre-industrial period appear as a promising entry to better understand the urbanity of port cities and their variations in time and space. Moreover, as some modern cities have shown interest in reviving traditional rhythms to reenchant urban life with festivals and commemorative events, looking at the temporality of port towns might be inspiring in reconnecting modern maritime cities with the “music of the wind.”
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My peer reviewed contributions to the maritime history of Gujarat
Keller, Sara. 2013. Port Towns of Gujarat, Les cités portuaires du Gujarat. Bilingual exhibition catalogue (English-French). French Embassy in India.
———. 2015. ‘Bharuch, the City Fortress’. In Port Towns of Gujarat, edited by Sara Keller and Michael Pearson, 213–29. Primus.
———. 2015. ‘Bharuch Fort during the pre-Sultanate Period’. In Ports of the Ancient Indian Ocean, edited by M.F. Boussac, J.F. Salles and J.B. Yon. Primus, 217–234.
———. 2016. ‘Surat. The first steps of the French adventure in India.’ RFIEA (Réseau français des instituts d’études avancées) n.14, 8–9.
———. 2019. ‘Introduction’. In Knowledge and the Indian Ocean. Intangible Networks of Western India and Beyond, edited by Sara Keller, Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies, 1–15. Palgrave Macmillan.
———. 2020. ‘False Cannons on Bharuch Barbican: A Fortified Custom House in an Active Port Town of Gujarat (16th Century Onwards)’. In Ports and Fortifications in the Muslim World. Coastal Military Architecture from the Arab Conquest to the Ottoman Period (Fouilles de l’Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale), edited by Stéphane Pradines, 159–72.
Keller, Sara, and Michael Pearson, eds. 2015. Port Towns of Gujarat. Primus. New Delhi.
Keller, Sara, and Fernando Rosa. 2019. ‘Scholars in Gujarat’s Bazaars –Revisiting L’académie Ambulante („The Roving Academy“)’. In Knowledge and the Indian Ocean – Intangible Networks of Western India and Beyond, edited by Sara Keller, 87–112. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan.
Keller, Sara, ed. 2019. Knowledge and the Indian Ocean – Intangible Networks of Western India and Beyond, Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, XLI.
Also see:
Keller, Sara. 2021. “Hasmukh Shah: Tribute to a visionary and a generous mentor” MIWA. Metrology of Indian Waters. 06.12.2021.
———. 2020. Escale Nantaise. A la recherche de l’esprit du lieu. E-Book.
———. 2017. “Ports of Gujarat. The first Gateway to India” Vibrant Gujarat Special 2017 Biz@India. pp. 46-48.
———. 2015. “Tailleurs de pierre, métier d’avenir ?” Indes, La fenêtre sur l’Inde pour le monde francophone. 07-08.2015.
———. 2015. “Piram Island. Explorations sur l’île aux pirates” Indes, La fenêtre sur l’Inde pour le monde francophone. 03-04.2015.
———. 2014. ‘Bharuch Heritage’. Bilingual brochure (English-Gujarati) on the material heritage of Bharuch. French Embassy in India.
———. 2014. “Bharuch, la Dubai de l’Antiquité” Indes, La fenêtre sur l’Inde pour le monde francophone. 05-06.2014. pp. 50-52.
———. 2014. “Agate, Voyage à l’aube des civilisations” Indes, La fenêtre sur l’Inde pour le monde francophone. 01-02.2014. pp. 58-60.
———. 2013. “Ports du Gujarat, Portes des Indes” Indes, La fenêtre sur l’Inde pour le monde francophone. 07-08.2013. pp. 58-62.
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Further readings on Lefebvre, port towns and Indian maritime history
Beaven, Brad; Bell, Karl; James, Robert, eds. 2016. Port Towns and Urban Cultures. International Histories of the Waterfront, c.1700–2000. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chakravarti, Ranabir. 2021. The Pull Towards the Coast and Other Essays: The Indian Ocean History and the Subcontinent Before 1500 CE. Delhi: Primus.
Lee, Robert. 2012. ‘The Social Life of Port Architecture: History, Politics, Commerce and Culture.’ Bd. 54, ICOMOS – Hefte des Deutschen Nationalkomitees. 33–52. https://doi.org/10.11588/ih.2012.0.20425
Lefebvre, Henri. 1992. Éléments de Rythmanalyse : Introduction à La Connaissance Des Rythmes. Syllepses. Paris.
Malekandathil, Pius. 2020. ‘Maritime Histories, Indian Ocean and Port-Towns: Changing Dynamics of Urban Spaces in Pre-Modern India.’ Atna Journal of Tourism Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, 115–147. https://doi.org/10.12727/ajts.24.6
Mehta, Makrand. 2015. ‘Genesis and Growth of Khambhat as a Port Town, c.600 to c.1600 CE’. In Port Towns of Gujarat, Primus, 123–38. Delhi.
Pearson, Michael N. 2003. The Indian Ocean. Routledge
Pradel Benjamin. 2013. ‘La mise en scène événementielle des saisons dans la ville.’ In Les saisons des villes, edited by A. Guez et H. Subremon. 22–38. Paris: Ed. Donner Lieu.
Rau, Susanne Rau. 2023. ‘The multiple beginnings of a city: Calicut (Kozhikode).’ EPOCH. https://www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the-multiple-beginnings-of-a-city-calicut-kozhikode
Rawat, Yaduvir Singh. 2015. ‘Coastal Sites: Possible Port Towns Of Harappan Time in Gujarat’. In Port Towns of Gujarat, edited by Sara Keller and Michael Pearson, 187–215. New Delhi: Primus Books.
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. 2018. ‘The Hidden Face of Surat’. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol. 61, No. 1/2, Speaking the End Times: Prophecy and Messianism in Early-Modern Eurasia. 205–255.
Subramanian, Lakshmi. 2018. ‘Introduction: The Ocean and the Historian’. Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies 2, no. 1. 2-11.
Tagliacozzo, Eric. 2022. In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama. Princeton University Press.
Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste. 1681. Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier Ecuyer, Baron D’Aubonne, En Turquie, En Perse Et Aux Indes (Seconde Partie). Gervais Clouzier. Paris.
Thévenot, Jean de. 1684. Troisième partie des Voyages De Mr. De Thevenot contenant la relation de l’Indostan, des nouveaux Mogols, & des autres Peuples & Pays des Indes. Paris: Claude Barbin.
Thévenot, Jean de. 1689. Les Voyages De Mr. De Thevenot Aux Indes Orientales (3). Charles Angot. Vol. 3eme partie. Paris.
Varadarajan, Lotika. 2011. Gujarat and the Sea. Darshak Itihas Nidhi.
Overhead picture:
‘Kai Khusrau Crosses the Sea’, Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi, painted by Abu’l Qasim Firdausi Iranian, ca. 1610. The MET (1982.476.3), Gift of Wendy Findlay, 1982.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Sara Keller (March 19, 2025). The Seasons of Maritime Life. Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations. Retrieved January 12, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13ill






Thank you for this fine blogpost!
I can observe similar “rhythms” in Malabarian cities. This will be a chapter of my book 🙂
But you might also want to have a look into the travellogue of Francois le Gouz de la Boullaye, see:
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2021). Once bitten, twice shy: A French traveller and go-between in Mughal India, 1648–67. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 58(2), 153-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464621997863