Indian Epigraphy c14.14

c14.14

The same story is told by what we know about Indian trade with Indochina and Indonesia, vaguely called Suvarṇabhūmi or ‘the Land of Gold’ in Indian literature. Thus the Jātaka stories show how the people of Bengal, Bihar and Eastern U.P. came down to the port of Tāmralipti in the present Midnapur District in South-West Bengal, whence they sailed for the eastern islands. The Periplus and Ptolemey’s Geography refer to the city of Gaṅgā near the principal mouth of the river of that name as the main port on the Bengal coast. There were similar ports in the Puri-Ganjam region of the Kaliṅga country as well as in the region about the mouths of the Kṛṣṇā and the Godāvarī. The Greek sources speak of certain ports in the coast lands of the Tamil and Kannaḍa-speaking areas. Bhṛgukaccha (modern Broach or Bharuch) and Sūrpāraka (modern Sopara in the Thana District) were the most famous ports in the coastal area of Western India.¹ There is some indication that all these ports had trade relations with the lands beyond the Bay of Bengal.