The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s4.33

c7.s4.33

After the author of the Periplus no authority can be mentioned until Cosmas, a Greek merchant of the sixth century, who described India, though it is very doubtful if he had visited it himself.⁷ He speaks of Calliana as a place of great trade, and states that the return cargoes from there to Ceylon consisted of native brass, sesamum, wood, and articles of clothing.⁸ He also speaks of a king of Calliana, and of there being a bishop's see and a Christian community at Kalyán subject to the Persian metropolitan. In these respects Kalyán was not different from the other considerable ports of India, most of which were frequented by Persian traders.⁹ The conjecture has been made, though the evidence is certainly weak, that the Buddhist priest Fa Hian at the end of the fourth century and Hiuen Tsiang in the seventh century both visited the Buddhist caves of Kanheri, and that the latter on his return embarked at Kalyán or Bánkot.¹⁰