The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s4.19

c7.s4.19

The identification of all these places is an interesting study for those who are well acquainted with the district, and there are certain resemblances of names which will probably strike every reader; but the speculations made by different geographers are almost endless, and the means of ascertaining the real situation of the places mentioned are so small, owing to Ptolemy's mistake of making the coast from Broach to the Ganges run almost due east, and to no manuscript of the Periplus being known to exist, that it seems useless to go deep into the subject. Except Kalyán the places mentioned in the Periplus are all given as country ports frequented only by the natives.⁶ From Barugaza (Broach) and Ariaka to the coast of Africa were exported corn, rice, butter, oil of sesame, coarse and fine cotton goods, and cane-honey (sugar). And ships with these cargoes sometimes went on from the African to the Arabian ports.⁷ Whether this African trade was in the hands of Arabs or of the natives of India is doubtful, but all writers are agreed that the traffic from the west coast of India to the Red Sea was mainly in the hands of the Arabs.⁸ The trade of the ancient Egyptians with India is to be looked on as previous to history and a matter only of speculation.⁹ The Greeks from Egypt may occasionally have gone across the Indian Ocean, but in general they contented themselves with getting Indian goods from the