The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.28

c22.28

The above description of the natural resources and industries of our period can enable us to complete the list of the articles of export. Cotton yarn and cloth, both rough and fine, muslins, hides, mats, indigo, incense, perfumes, betel nuts, coconuts, sandal and teak wood, sesame oil, and ivory must have been the principal articles available for export; most of these have also been actually enumerated among the articles of export by the Periplus, Al Idrisi, Marco Polo, and Ibn Batuta. Bharoch used to export a number of products from northern India as well in the time of the Periplus, and the same probably continued to be the case, at least to some extent, in our period too. Diamonds were available for export, but it is not known whether the Rāṣṭrakūṭas had put any embargo on the trade in that commodity. From some of the later writers like Tavernier, (26) we learn that some of the kings of later days would not permit the export of the bigger diamonds; it is not impossible that the same restriction may have been imposed by the governments of our period.