~India is almost located centrally between the east and the west of Asia. It lies in the southern part of the Asian continent.
~The oceanic routes which link Europe in the West with the East Asian countries give an important strategically central location to India which helped establish oceanic trade links with the other countries in the past.
~The Deccan Peninsula which extends into the Indian Ocean has helped India in maintaining close relations with Africa, West Asia and Europe from its western coast and East Asia and Southeast Asia from its eastern coast.
~The Indian Ocean is named after India because India occupies an important strategic position in the ocean.
~India had trade relations with other parts of the world through land routes which were used long before the oceanic routes were used.
~Its mountain passes provided land routes to various travellers during the ancient and mediaeval times.
~The land and sea routes made the existence of trade and cultural exchanges of India possible with the other countries. While the Indian decimal number system travelled far and wide, India was influenced by Greek architecture and sculpture during the ancient period and the West Asian style of architecture since the early mediaeval period.
