Yamata no Orochi
Yamata no Orochi or Orochi, is a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon. Yamata no Orochi legends are recorded in two ancient texts about Japanese mythology and history; the ca. 680 AD Kojiki transcribes this dragon name as 八岐遠呂智 and ca. 720 AD Nihongi writes it as 八岐大蛇. In both versions of the Orochi myth, the Shinto storm god Susanoo or Susa-no-O is expelled from Heaven for tricking his sister Amaterasu, the sun goddess. After expulsion from Heaven, Susanoo encounters two "Earthly Deities" near the head of the Hi River, now called the Hii River, in Izumo Province, they are weeping because they were forced to give the Orochi one of their daughters every year for seven years, now they must sacrifice their eighth, Kushi-inada-hime. The Kojiki tells the following version: So, having been expelled, descended to a place Tori-kami at the head-waters of the River Hi in the Land of Idzumo. At this time some chopsticks came floating down the stream. So His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, thinking that there must be people at the head-waters of the river, went up it in quest of them, when he came upon an old man and an old woman, --two of them,--who had a young girl between them, were weeping.
He deigned to ask: "Who are ye?" So the old man replied. I am called by the name of Foot-Stroking-Elder, my wife is called by the name of Hand-Stroking Elder, my daughter is called by the name of Wondrous-Inada-Princess." Again he asked: What is the cause of your crying?" Saying: "I had eight young girls as daughters. But the eight-forked serpent of Koshi has come every year and devoured, it is now its time to come, wherefore we weep." He asked him: "What is its form like?" answered, saying: "Its eyes are like akakagachi, it has one body with eight heads and eight tails. Moreover on its body grows moss, chamaecyparis and cryptomerias, its length extends over eight valleys and eight hills, if one look at its belly, it is all bloody and inflamed." His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness said to the old man: "If this be thy daughter, wilt thou offer her to me?" He replied, saying: "With reverence, but I know not thine august name." He replied, saying: "I am elder brother to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity.
So I have now descended from Heaven." The Deities Foot-Stroker-Elder and Hand-Stroking-Elder said: "If that be so, with reverence will we offer." So His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, at once taking and changing the young girl into a multitudinous and close-toothed comb which he stuck into his august hair-bunch, said to the Deities Foot-Stroking-Elder and Hand-Stroking-Elder: "Do you distill some eight-fold refined liquor. Make a fence round about, in that fence make eight gates, at each gate tie eight platforms, on each platform put a liquor-vat, into each vat pour the eight-fold refined liquor, wait." So as they waited after having thus prepared everything in accordance with his bidding, the eight-forked serpent came as had said, dipped a head into each vat, drank the liquor. Thereupon it was intoxicated with drinking, all lay down and slept. His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness drew the ten-grasp sabre, augustly girded on him, cut the serpent in pieces, so that the River Hi flowed on changed into a river of blood.
So when he cut the middle tail, the edge of his august sword broke. Thinking it strange, he thrust into and split with the point of his august sword and looked, there was a great sword. So he took this great sword, thinking it a strange thing, he respectfully informed the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity; this is the Herb-Quelling Great Sword. Compare the Nihongi description of Yamata no Orochi. "It had an eight-forked tail. As it crawled it extended over a space of eight hills and eight valleys." These botanical names used to describe this Orochi are akakagachi or hoozuki, hikage and sugi. The legendary sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which came from the tail of Yamata no Orochi, along with the Yata no Kagami mirror and Yasakani no Magatama jewel, became the three sacred Imperial Regalia of Japan; the Japanese name orochi 大蛇 derives from Old Japanese woröti. Besides this ancient orochi reading, the kanji 大蛇 are pronounced daija "big snake. Carr notes that Japanese scholars have proposed "more than a dozen" orochi < woröti etymologies, while Western linguists have suggested loanwords from Austronesian and Indo-European languages.
The most feasible native etymological proposals are Japanese o- from o 尾 "tail", ō 大 "big. Benedict proposed woröti "large snake" was suffixed from Proto-Austro-Japanese *oröt-i acquired from Austronesian *uḷəj "snake.
Shinto
Shinto or kami-no-michi is the traditional religion of Japan that focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified religion, but rather to a collection of native beliefs and mythology. Shinto today is the religion of public shrines devoted to the worship of a multitude of "spirits", "essences" or "gods", suited to various purposes such as war memorials and harvest festivals, applies as well to various sectarian organizations. Practitioners express their diverse beliefs through a standard language and practice, adopting a similar style in dress and ritual, dating from around the time of the Nara and Heian periods; the word Shinto was adopted as Jindō or Shindō, from the written Chinese Shendao, combining two kanji: shin, meaning "spirit" or kami.
The oldest recorded usage of the word Shindo is from the second half of the 6th century. Kami is rendered in English as "spirits", "essences", or "gods", refers to the energy generating the phenomena. Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the singular divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms: rocks, rivers, objects and people can be said to possess the nature of kami. Kami and people are not separate; as much as nearly 80% of the population in Japan participates in Shinto practices or rituals, but only a small percentage of these identify themselves as "Shintoists" in surveys. This is. Most of the Japanese attend Shinto shrines and beseech kami without belonging to an institutional Shinto religion. There are no formal rituals to become a practitioner of "folk Shinto". Thus, "Shinto membership" is estimated counting only those who do join organised Shinto sects. Shinto has about 85,000 priests in the country. According to surveys carried out in 2006 and 2008, less than 40% of the population of Japan identifies with an organised religion: around 35% are Buddhists, 3% to 4% are members of Shinto sects and derived religions.
In 2008, 26% of the participants reported visiting Shinto shrines, while only 16.2% expressed belief in the existence of a god or gods in general. According to Inoue: "In modern scholarship, the term is used with reference to kami worship and related theologies and practices. In these contexts,'Shinto' takes on the meaning of'Japan's traditional religion', as opposed to foreign religions such as Christianity, Islam and so forth." Shinto religious expressions have been distinguished by scholars into a series of categories: Shrine Shinto, the main tradition of Shinto, has always been a part of Japan's history. It consists of taking part in worship events at local shrines. Before the Meiji Restoration, shrines were disorganized institutions attached to Buddhist temples; the current successor to the imperial organization system, the Association of Shinto Shrines, oversees about 80,000 shrines nationwide. Imperial Household Shinto are the religious rites performed by the imperial family at the three shrines on the imperial grounds, including the Ancestral Spirits Sanctuary and the Sanctuary of the Kami.
Folk Shinto includes the numerous folk beliefs in spirits. Practices include divination, spirit possession, shamanic healing; some of their practices come from Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism, but most come from ancient local traditions. Sect Shinto is a legal designation created in the 1890s to separate government-owned shrines from local organised religious communities; these communities originated in the Edo period. The basic difference between Shrine Shinto and Sect Shinto is that sects are a development and grew self-consciously, they can identify a founder, a formal set of teachings and sacred scriptures. Sect Shinto groups are thirteen, classified under five headings: pure Shinto sects, Confucian sects,mountain worship sects, purification sects, faith-healing sects (Kurozumikyo／黒住教, Konkokyo/金光教 and its branching Omotokyo/大本教 and Tenrikyo／天理教. Koshintō, literally'Old Shinto', is a reconstructed "Shinto from before the time of Buddhism", today based on Ainu religion and Ryukyuan practices.
It continues the restoration movement begun by Hirata Atsutane. Many other sects and schools can be distinguished. Faction Shinto is a grouping of Japanese new religions developed since the second half of the 20th century that have departed from traditional Shinto and are not always regarded as part of it. Kami, shin, or, jin is defined in English as "god", "spirit", or "spiritual essence", all these terms meaning "the energy generating a thing". Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, kami refers to the divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms. Rocks, rivers, objects, places
Legend
Legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions perceived or believed both by teller and listeners to have taken place within human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants, includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility," but may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time, in order to keep them fresh and realistic. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being believed by the participants, but never being resolutely doubted; the Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale grounded. A modern folklorist's professional definition of legend was proposed by Timothy R. Tangherlini in 1990: Legend is a short episodic, traditional ecotypified historicized narrative performed in a conversational mode, reflecting on a psychological level a symbolic representation of folk belief and collective experiences and serving as a reaffirmation of held values of the group to whose tradition it belongs.
Legend is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage circa 1340. The Old French noun legende derives from the Medieval Latin legenda. In its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event; the word legendary was a noun meaning a collection or corpus of legends. This word changed to legendry, legendary became the adjectival form. By 1613, English-speaking Protestants began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event was fictitious. Thus, legend gained its modern connotations of "undocumented" and "spurious", which distinguish it from the meaning of chronicle. In 1866, Jacob Grimm described the fairy tale as "poetic, legend historic." Early scholars such as Karl Wehrhan Friedrich Ranke and Will Erich Peuckert followed Grimm's example in focussing on the literary narrative, an approach, enriched after the 1960s, by addressing questions of performance and the anthropological and psychological insights provided in considering legends' social context.
Questions of categorising legends, in hopes of compiling a content-based series of categories on the line of the Aarne–Thompson folktale index, provoked a search for a broader new synthesis. In an early attempt at defining some basic questions operative in examining folk tales, Friedrich Ranke in 1925 characterised the folk legend as "a popular narrative with an objectively untrue imaginary content" a dismissive position, subsequently abandoned. Compared to the structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, Helmut de Boor noted in 1928; the narrative content of legend is in realistic mode, rather than the wry irony of folktale. In Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft, Ernst Bernheim asserted that a legend is a longstanding rumour. Gordon Allport credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise; when Willian Jansen suggested that legends that disappear were "short-term legends" and the persistent ones be termed "long-term legends", the distinction between legend and rumour was obliterated, Tangherlini concluded.
In the narrow Christian sense, legenda were hagiographical accounts collected in a legendary. Because saints' lives are included in many miracle stories, legend, in a wider sense, came to refer to any story, set in a historical context but that contains supernatural, divine or fantastic elements. Hippolyte Delehaye distinguished legend from myth: "The legend, on the other hand, has, of necessity, some historical or topographical connection, it refers imaginary events to some real personage, or it localizes romantic stories in some definite spot."From the moment a legend is retold as fiction, its authentic legendary qualities begin to fade and recede: in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving transformed a local Hudson River Valley legend into a literary anecdote with "Gothic" overtones, which tended to diminish its character as genuine legend. Stories that exceed the boundaries of "realism" are called "fables". For example, the talking animal formula of Aesop identifies his brief stories as fables, not legends.
The parable of the Prodigal Son would be a legend if it were told as having happened to a specific son of a historical father. If it included a donkey that gave sage advice to the Prodigal Son it would be a fable. Legend may be transmitted orally, passed on person-to-person, or, in the original sense, through written text. Jacob de Voragine's Legenda Aurea or "The Golden Legend" comprises a series of vitae or instructive biographical narratives, tied to the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, they are presented as lives of the saints, but the profusion of miraculous happenings and above all their uncritical context are characteristics of hagiography. The Legenda was intended to inspire extemporized homilies and sermons appropriate to the saint of the day; the vanishing hitchhiker is the best-known urban legend in America, traceable as far back as 1870, but it is found around the world including in Korea and Russia. In the legend, a young girl in a white dress picked up alongside of the road by a passerby.
The unknown girl in white remains silent for the duration of her ride, thanks the driver, gets
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally-based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami; this article will discuss only the typical elements present in Asian mythology, such as cosmogony, important deities, the best-known Japanese stories. Japanese myths, as recognized in the mainstream today, are based on the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, some complementary books; the Kojiki, or "Record of Ancient Matters", is the oldest surviving account of Japan's myths and history. The Shintōshū describes the origins of Japanese deities from a Buddhist perspective, while the Hotsuma Tsutae records a different version of the mythology. One notable feature of Japanese mythology is its explanation of the origin of the Imperial Family, used to assign godhood to the imperial line; the title of the Emperor of Japan, tennō, means "heavenly sovereign". Japanese is not transliterated across all sources, see: #Spelling of proper nouns In the Japanese creation myth, the first deities which came into existence, appearing at the time of the creation of the universe, are collectively called Kotoamatsukami.
The seven generations of kami, known as Kamiyonanayo, following the formation of heaven and earth. The first two generations are individual deities called hitorigami, while the five that followed came into being as male/female pairs of kami: brothers and sisters that were married couples. In this chronicle, the Kamiyonanayo comprise 12 deities in total. In contrast, the Nihon Shoki states that the Kamiyonanayo group was the first to appear after the creation of the universe, as opposed to the Kamiyonanayo appearing after the formation of heaven and earth, it states that the first three generations of deities are hitorigami and that the generations of deities are pairs of the opposite gender, as compared to the Kojiki's two generations of hitorigami. Japan's creation narrative can be divided into the birth of the land; the seventh and last generation of Kamiyonanayo were Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto, they would be responsible for the creation of the Japanese archipelago and would engender other deities.
To help them to achieve this and Izanami were given a naginata decorated with jewels, named Ame-no-nuboko. The two deities went to the bridge between heaven and earth and churned the sea below with the halberd. Drops of salty water formed Onogoro; the deities made their home on the island. They fell in love and wished to mate. So they built. Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions, when they met on the other side, the female deity, spoke first in greeting. Izanagi didn't think that this was proper, they had two children and Awashima, but the children were badly formed and are not considered gods in their original form. The parents, who were dismayed at their misfortune, put the children into a boat and sent them to sea, petitioned the other gods for an answer about what they had done wrong, they were informed that Izanami's lack of manners was the reason for the defective births: a woman should never speak prior to a man. So Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, this time, when they met, Izanagi spoke first.
Their next union was successful. From their union were born the Ōyashima, or the eight great islands of Japan: Awaji Iyo Oki Tsukushi Iki Tsushima Sado Yamato Note that Hokkaidō, Chishima and Okinawa were not part of Japan in ancient times. Izanami died giving birth to Kagutsuchi called Homusubi due to severe burns, she was buried on Mount Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hoki, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture. In anger, Izanagi killed Kagutsuchi, his death created dozens of deities. The gods who were born from Izanagi and Izanami are symbolic aspects of culture. Izanagi undertook a journey to Yomi. Izanagi found little difference between Yomi and the land except for the eternal darkness. However, this suffocating darkness was enough to make him ache for life, he searched for Izanami and found her. At first, Izanagi could not see her, he asked her to return with him. Izanami informed him that he was too late, she had eaten the food of the underworld and now belonged to the land of the dead.
Izanagi was shocked at this news, but he refused to give in to her wishes to be left to the dark embrace of Yomi. Izanami first requested to have some time to rest, she instructed Izanagi to not come into her bedroom. After a long wait, Izanami did not come out of her bedroom, Izanagi was worried. While Izanami was sleeping, he took the comb that set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once graceful Izanami; the flesh of her ravaged body was rotting and was overrun with maggots and fou
Japanese dragon
Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China and India; the style of the dragon was influenced by the Chinese dragon. Like these other East Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, are depicted as large, serpentine creatures with clawed feet; the modern Japanese language has numerous "dragon" words, including indigenous Tatsu from Old Japanese ta-tu, Sino-Japanese ryū or ryō 竜 from Chinese lóng 龍, nāga ナーガ from Sanskrit nāga, doragon ドラゴン from English "dragon". The c. 680 AD Kojiki and the c. 720 AD Nihongi mytho-histories have the first Japanese textual references to dragons. "In the oldest annals the dragons are mentioned in various ways," explains de Visser, "but as water-gods, serpent- or dragon-shaped." The Kojiki and Nihongi mention several ancient dragons: Yamata no Orochi 八岐大蛇 "8-branched giant snake" was an 8-headed and 8-tailed dragon slain by the god of wind and sea Susanoo, who discovered the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi in one of its tails.
Watatsumi 海神 "sea god" or Ryūjin 龍神 "dragon god" was the ruler of seas and oceans, described as a dragon capable of changing into human form. He lived in the undersea Ryūgū-jō 龍宮城 "dragon palace castle". Toyotama-hime 豊玉姫 "Luminous Pearl Princess" was Ryūjin's daughter, she purportedly was an ancestress of Japan's legendary first emperor. Wani 鰐 was a sea monster, translated as both "shark" and "crocodile". Kuma-wani 熊鰐 "bear shark/crocodile" are mentioned in two ancient legends. One says the sea god Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami transformed into an "8-fathom kuma-wani" and fathered Toyotama-hime, the other says a kuma-wani piloted the ships of Emperor Chūai and his Empress Jingū. Mizuchi 蛟 or 虯 was a river water deity; the Nihongi records legendary Emperor Nintoku offering human sacrifices to mizuchi angered by his river engineering projects. The myths about Emperor Jimmu descending from Toyatama-hime evidence the folklore that Japanese Emperors descend from dragons. Compare the ancient Chinese tradition of dragons symbolizing the Emperor of China.
Dragons in Japanese folklore were influenced by Chinese and Indian myths. Kiyohime 清姫 "Purity Princess" was a teahouse waitress. After he spurned her, she studied magic, transformed into a dragon, killed him. Nure-onna 濡女 "Wet Woman" was a dragon with a snake's body, she was seen while washing her hair on a riverbank and would sometimes kill humans when angered. Zennyo Ryūō 善如龍王 "goodness-like dragon king" was a rain-god depicted either as a dragon with a snake on its head or as a human with a snake's tail. In the fairy tale "My Lord Bag of Rice", the Ryūō "dragon king" of Lake Biwa asks the hero Tawara Tōda 田原藤太 to kill a giant centipede. Urashima Tarō rescued a turtle which took him to Ryūgū-jō and turned into the attractive daughter of the ocean god Ryūjin. Inari, the god of fertility and agriculture, was sometimes depicted as a dragon or snake instead of a fox. Chinese dragon mythology is central to Japanese dragons. Japanese words for "dragon" are written with kanji, either simplified shinjitai 竜 or traditional kyūjitai 龍 from Chinese long 龍.
These kanji can be read tatsu in ryū or ryō in Sino-Japanese on ` yomi. Many Japanese dragon names are loanwords from Chinese. For instance, the Japanese counterparts of the astrological Four Symbols are: Seiryū < Qinglong 青龍 "Azure Dragon" Suzaku < Zhuque 朱雀 "Vermilion Bird" Byakko < Baihu 白虎 "White Tiger" Genbu < Xuanwu 玄武 "Black Tortoise"Japanese Shiryū 四竜 "4 dragon " are the legendary Chinese Longwang 龍王 "Dragon Kings" who rule the four seas. Gōkō < Aoguang 敖廣 "Dragon King of the East Sea" Gōkin < Aoqin 敖欽 "Dragon King of the South Sea" Gōjun < Aorun 敖閏 "Dragon King of the West Sea" Gōjun < Aoshun 敖順 "Dragon King of the North Sea"Some authors differentiate Japanese ryū and Chinese long dragons by the number of claws on their feet. "In Japan," writes Gould, "it is invariably figured as possessing three claws, whereas in China it has four or five, according as it is an ordinary or an Imperial emblem." During World War II, the Japanese military named many armaments after Chinese dragons. The Kōryū 蛟竜 < jiaolong 蛟龍 "flood dragon" was a midget submarine and the Shinryū 神竜 < shenlong 神龍 "spirit dragon" was a rocket kamikaze aircraft.
An Imperial Japanese Army division, the 56th Division, was codenamed the Dragon Division. Coincidentally, the Dragon Division was annihilated in the Chinese town of Longling, whose name means "Dragon's Tomb"; when Buddhist monks from other parts of Asia brought their faith to Japan they transmitted dragon and snake legends from Buddhist and Hindu mythology. The most notable examples are the nāga 龍 "Nāga. "This is quite clear. Moreover, many Japanese dragons, to which Chinese legends were applied, were afterwards identified with nāga, so that a blending of ideas was the result." For instance, the undersea palace where nāga kings live is called Japanese ryūgū 龍宮 "dragon palace" from Chinese longgong 龍宮. Compare ryūgū-jō 龍宮城 "dragon palace castle", the sea-god Ryūjin's undersea residence. Jap
Yasaka Shrine
Yasaka Shrine, once called Gion Shrine, is a Shinto shrine in the Gion District of Kyoto, Japan. Situated at the east end of Shijō-dōri, the shrine includes several buildings, including gates, a main hall and a stage. Initial construction on the Shrine began in 656; the Shrine became the object of Imperial patronage during the early Heian period. In 965, Emperor Murakami ordered that Imperial messengers be sent to report important events to the guardian kami of Japan; these heihaku were presented to 16 shrines. Three years in 994, Ichijō refined the scope of that composite list by adding Umenomiya Shrine and Gion Shrine. From 1871 through 1946, Yasaka Shrine was designated one of the Kanpei-taisha, meaning that it stood in the first rank of government supported shrines. In 869 the mikoshi of Gion Shrine were paraded through the streets of Kyoto to ward off an epidemic that had hit the city; this was the beginning of an annual festival which has become world famous. Today, in addition to hosting the Gion Matsuri, Yasaka Shrine welcomes thousands of people every New Year, for traditional Japanese New Year rituals and celebrations.
In April, the crowds pass through the temple on their way to a popular hanami site. Lanterns decorate the stage with the names of festival sponsors. List of Shinto shrines Twenty-Two Shrines Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines Breen and Mark Teeuwen.. Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2363-4 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard.. Studies in Shinto and Shrines. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 399449 ____________.. The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
Navy
A navy or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare. It includes anything conducted by surface ships, amphibious ships and seaborne aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications and other fields; the strategic offensive role of a navy is projection of force into areas beyond a country's shores. The strategic defensive purpose of a navy is to frustrate seaborne projection-of-force by enemies; the strategic task of the navy may incorporate nuclear deterrence by use of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Naval operations can be broadly divided between riverine and littoral applications, open-ocean applications, something in between, although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division. In most nations, the term "naval", as opposed to "navy", is interpreted as encompassing all maritime military forces, e.g. navy, naval infantry/marine corps, coast guard forces. First attested in English in the early 14th century, the word "navy" came via Old French navie, "fleet of ships", from the Latin navigium, "a vessel, a ship, boat", from navis, "ship".
The word "naval" came from Latin navalis, "pertaining to ship". The earliest attested form of the word is in the Mycenaean Greek compound word, na-u-do-mo, "shipbuilders", written in Linear B syllabic script; the word denoted fleets of both commercial and military nature. In modern usage "navy" used alone always denotes a military fleet, although the term "merchant navy" for a commercial fleet still incorporates the non-military word sense; this overlap in word senses between commercial and military fleets grew out of the inherently dual-use nature of fleets. Although nationality of commercial vessels has little importance in peacetime trade other than for tax avoidance, it can have greater meaning during wartime, when supply chains become matters of patriotic attack and defense, when in some cases private vessels are temporarily converted to military vessels; the latter was important, common, before 20th-century military technology existed, when adding artillery and naval infantry to any sailing vessel could render it as martial as any military-owned vessel.
Such privateering has been rendered obsolete in blue-water strategy since modern missile and aircraft systems grew to leapfrog over artillery and infantry in many respects. Naval warfare developed. Prior to the introduction of the cannon and ships with sufficient capacity to carry the large guns, navy warfare involved ramming and boarding actions. In the time of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, naval warfare centered on long, narrow vessels powered by banks of oarsmen designed to ram and sink enemy vessels or come alongside the enemy vessel so its occupants could be attacked hand-to-hand. Naval warfare continued in this vein through the Middle Ages until the cannon became commonplace and capable of being reloaded enough to be reused in the same battle; the Chola Dynasty of medieval India was known as one of the greatest naval powers of its time from 300 BC to 1279 AD. The Chola Navy, Chola kadarpadai comprised the naval forces of the Chola Empire along with several other Naval-arms of the country.
The Chola navy played a vital role in the expansion of the Chola Tamil kingdom, including the conquest of the Sri Lanka islands, Sri Vijaya, the spread of Hinduism, Tamil architecture and Tamil culture to Southeast Asia and in curbing the piracy in Southeast Asia in 900 CE. In ancient China, large naval battles were known since the Qin dynasty, employing the war junk during the Han dynasty. However, China's first official standing navy was not established until the Southern Song dynasty in the 12th century, a time when gunpowder was a revolutionary new application to warfare. Nusantaran thalassocracies made extensive use of naval power and technologies; this enabled the seafaring Malay people to attack as far as the coast of Tanganyika and Mozambique with 1000 boats and attempted to take the citadel of Qanbaloh, about 7,000 km to their West, in 945-946 AD. In 1350 AD Majapahit launched its largest military expedition, the invasion of Pasai, with 400 large jong and innumerable smaller vessels.
The second largest military expedition, invasion of Singapura in 1398, Majapahit deployed 300 jong with no less than 200,000 men. The mass and deck space required to carry a large number of cannon made oar-based propulsion impossible, ships came to rely on sails. Warships were designed to carry increasing numbers of cannon and naval tactics evolved to bring a ship's firepower to bear in a broadside, with ships-of-the-line arranged in a line of battle; the development of large capacity, sail-powered ships carrying cannon led to a rapid expansion of European navies the Spanish and Portuguese navies which dominated in the 16th and early 17th centuries, helped propel the age of exploration and colonialism. The repulsion of the Spanish Armada by the English fleet revolutionized naval warfare by the succe
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