In the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, a navigator could take advantage of the fairly constant monsoon winds to judge direction.[16] This made long one-way voyages possible twice a year.
The earliest known reference to an organization devoted to ships in ancient India is to the Mauryan Empire from the 4th century BCE. The Arthashastra of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya's prime minister, Kautilya, devotes a full chapter on the state department of waterways under a navadhyaksha (Sanskrit for "superintendent of ships"). The term, nava dvipantaragamanam (Sanskrit for sailing to other lands by ships) appears in this book in addition to appearing in the Buddhist text Baudhayana Dharmasastra