Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India c8.36

c8.36

Now the question arises that in the Mauryan period what were the countries with which India had commercial and cultural relations. We already know that there were trade relations between Balkh and Pāṭaliputra. Other routes also joined Pāṭaliputra with provincial capitals and ports. Indian ports were also great centres for international trade. Tāmralipti on the eastern sea coast and Bharukachchha on the western sea coast carried on trade with Sri Lanka and Suvarṇabhūmi. We do not know how far Indian ships travelled in the Persian Gulf, but there is every possibility that India had trade relations with Babylonia. The *Arthaśāstra* gives *alasandaka* as one of the names for coral which probably came from Alexandria in Egypt, though it is also probable that this word has entered the *Arthaśāstra* at a later date probably in the early centuries of the Christian era. But there is little doubt that Indians had full knowledge of the ports on the Red Sea. Though on account of the Arab merchants who controlled all trade and commerce of the region they did not frequently sail to those ports.²² In this connection Strabo also mentions a strange incident which happened just after the Maurya period. According to him in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes II, the ruler of Egypt, a citizen of Cyzicus named Eudoxus undertook a voyage for the exploration of the Nile. At that very time the guards looking after the coast of the Persian Gulf, brought before the king an Indian sailor whom they had found on a ship in half dead condition. They could not say anything about him or his country as he could not speak any other language but his own. The king was attracted towards that sailor and made arrangements to teach him Greek. After he had progressed in Greek, he informed the king that the ship had started from the Indian sea coast and missing the direction had sailed towards Egypt. All his comrades had died of hunger. On the condition that the king allowed him to return to his country he promised to show the Greeks the way to India. The party which was sent from Egypt to India included Eudoxus of Cyzicus who sailed to Demetria or Barygaza. After some time after completing their voyage successfully the party returned with precious stones and aromatics to Egypt.