Cyclones could’ve been a rarity in the Arabian sea historically; but not storms, says historians

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical geography

Context:

The Arabian Sea is witnessing Cyclone Biporjoy. The fourth-strongest cyclone that occurred in June in the Sea, is expected to make landfall around June 14. It follows Cyclone Vayu (2019), Cyclone Nisarga (2020) and Cyclone Tauktae (2021), all of which occurred off the west coast of India.

Increased frequency of cyclones in Arabian sea:

A 2021 study had noted a 52 per cent increase in the frequency of cyclonic storms on the west coast of India.

Tracing the storms through historical literary evidence:

One simple indicator was to see how many fewer shipwrecks there are in the Arabian Sea compared with the Bay of Bengal.
Ibn Majid, an Arab navigator, had mentioned several storms in his treatises.
Shipwrecks due to storms are mentioned in Jataka stories.
- A lot of caves in the western Deccan were where Avalokiteshwara, the Buddhist Bodhisattva, was worshipped, especially by merchants and sailors because he was believed to protect them from shipwrecks.
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and a lot of Arabic accounts are also very careful about the windows for appropriate travel in the Arabian Sea because at some points the monsoon blows faster and sometimes slower.
It was also a time when ships were more delicate than they are now. So obviously sailors would be concerned about any adverse weather activity in the Arabian Sea and not just necessarily cyclones.
Medieval Warm Period which began in the ninth century and continued till the 12 century or so.
- That is when the Indian Ocean was a bit warmer resulting in drier summers and more sustained monsoons. But it was not anywhere near the scale of the global warming being witnessed today.
- That led to an increase in commercial activity across the Indian Ocean by Fatimid Egypt, the Cholas in India and the Song Dynasty in China, on the other side of the ocean. The Songs exchanged embassies with the Cholas.