The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.298

v1.c10.298

There was most probably another substance, porcelain, which was to some extent used in the formation of drinking cups and other domestic vessels, for there is little reason to doubt that the Murrhine cups, for which such fabulous prices were paid, were made of oriental porcelain, which, according to the Periplus, was “brought down from the capital of Guzerat, Ozene, ( Ougein ) to the port of Barygāza or Broach”. “All this”, adds Vincent, “seems to confirm the opinion that it was porcelain procurable in India at the time, as it now is ; and that it was brought into Egypt by the ships that went to India”.¹⁴⁴ “Elsewhere,” he says, “the mention of Carmina by Pliny, as the country where the *murrhina* were obtained, favours the supposition of procuring these vessels from India ; for the communication of Carmina with Scinde and Guzerat is almost immediate, and certainly prior to the navigation from Egypt, to that coast. But in Guzerat they were obtained, when the author of the Periplus was employed in that trade ; and their arrival at the market of Broach, from the interior of India, may induce us to suppose that they came into India from the north”.