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The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s8.t2: 2. Foreign Trade

The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s8.t2

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2. Foreign Trade

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The history of Bengal's foreign trade may be traced back to at least four or five centuries before the birth of Christ. Strabo refers to the “ascent of vessels from the sea by the Ganges to Palibothra,”⁷ and his information is probably derived from Megasthenes’ account. Conversely, a number of Jātaka stories mention merchants and businessmen taking ships at Benares,¹ or lower down at Champā (modern Bhagalpur),² and then either coasting to Ceylon or adventuring many days without sight of land to Suvarṇabhūmi.³ The *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* proves that Bengal maintained an active overseas trade with South India and Ceylon in the first century A.D. The commodities exported are said to have consisted of malabathrum, Gangetic spikenard, pearls, and muslins of the finest sorts. They were all shipped from a ‘market-town’ called Gange (probably the same as Tāmralipti), and carried in vessels described in the *Periplus* as ‘colandia.’⁴

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⁷ Mc.Crindle. *Ancient India* (1901), p. 16.

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¹ Cf. Samudda-vāṇija-Jātaka and Saṅkha-Jātaka (Jātaka, IV. 159, No. 466; 15-17, No. 442).

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² Mahā-janaka-Jātaka (Jātaka, VI. 34, No. 539).

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³ R. K. Mukherji, *A History of Indian Shipping* (1912), pp. 31, 161, etc.; R. C. Majumdar, *Champā*, p. xi

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⁴ *Periplus*, 47. The *Milinda-pañha*, composed about the first century A.D., also refers to the oversea trade between Vaṅga and different parts of the world (CHI. p. 212).

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In later centuries the overseas trade of Bengal seems to have increased both in volume and extent. This is probably the chief reason of the phenomenal growth of Tāmralipti as a port of first-rate importance.⁵ It is hardly necessary to stress the fact that in all periods the city which controlled the mouth of the Ganges was commercially the most important in Eastern India, just as the city which controlled the gates of the Euxine was commercially the most important in Hellas. We can trace a succession of such dominant cities: Tāmralipti down almost to the end of the Hindu period; later, Saptagrāma till the close of the sixteenth century; then Hooghly, and finally Calcutta.

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⁵ The fame of Tāmralipti as an emporium of trade spread all over India and even far outside its boundaries. Hiuen Tsang notes that “wonderful articles of value and gems are collected here in abundance, and therefore the people of the country are in general very rich” (*Beal-Records*, II. 200-201). According to the *Kathā-sarit-sāgara*, Tāmralipti was pre-eminently the home of rich merchants, who carried on overseas trade with such distant countries as Laṅkā (Tawney’s tr. VI. 211) and Suvarṇadvipa (ibid. III. 175), and used to propitiate the sea with jewels and other valuable articles to ensure safe voyages across (ibid. II. 72).

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Taking Tāmralipti as the centre, we find radiating from it three principal routes of overseas trade. The first led in a south-easterly direction past the coast of Arakan to Burma and beyond. Most of the early voyages from Tāmralipti to Suvarṇabhūmi were probably made along this route. But there was a second line of overseas trade with the Malaya Peninsula and the Far East. Ships came along the coast up to Paloura, near modern Chicacole, and then proceeded right across the Bay of Bengal. This was known to Ptolemy in the second century A.D. By the seventh century ships sailed directly from Tāmralipti to the Malay Peninsula. An interesting account of this route is preserved by I-tsing in his biography of Hiuen-ta, who made a direct voyage from Keddah to Tāmralipti.¹

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¹ R. C. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa, I. 7; II. 350; I-tsing. pp. xxv, xxxiv.

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A third line of trade led in a south-westerly direction past the coasts of Kalinga and Coromandel to South India and Ceylon. As already said, use of this route is mentioned in the Jātaka stories and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Pliny also refers to it, adding that whereas in former days the island of Ceylon was thought to be twenty days' sail "from the country of the Prasioi," the distance "came afterwards to be reckoned at a seven days' sail, according to the rate of speed of our ships."² In the early years of the fifth century A.D., the Chinese pilgrim, Fa-hien, embarked at Tāmralipti on board a great merchant vessel and sailed to Ceylon en route to China, the voyage taking "fourteen days and nights." From the itinerary of I-tsing we learn that in the latter part of the seventh century numerous other Chinese pilgrims travelled along the same route in their voyages to and from India.

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² McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 103.

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Besides the sea-routes, there seem to have been a number of land-routes by which Bengal's foreign trade was carried. One of these was the route which connected Puṇḍravardhana with Kāmarūpa. It was along this route that Hiuen Tsang journeyed to the latter kingdom in the seventh century A.D.³ From very ancient times Kāmarūpa was noted for her textiles, sandal and agaru,⁴ and it seems likely that these were taken to the main centres of business in Northern India along this highway of traffic. But Kāmarūpa was not the terminus of this route, for it seems to have extended eastwards to South China through the hills of Assam or Manipur and Upper Burma. This is testified to by the famous report which Chang-kien, the Chinese ambassador to the Yue-chi country, submitted in 126 B.C. When he was in Bactria he was surprised to find silk and bamboo which came from the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Szechwan. On enquiry he was told of the rich and powerful country of India across which the caravans carried these products from southern China to Afghanistan. This route evidently continued in use till the ninth century A.D., and was joined by another from Annam. For the itinerary of Kia Tan (785-805 A.D.) describes the land-route from Tonkin to Kāmarūpa, which crossed the Karatoyā river, passed by Puṇḍravardhana, then ran across the Ganges to Kajaṅgala, and finally reached Magadha.¹

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³ Beal-Records. II. 195.

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⁴ Arthaśāstra, Bk. II. Ch. 11.

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¹ R. C. Majumdar, Champā, pp. xiii ff; BEFEO. iv. 131 ff. 142-43. ² I-tsing, xxxi. ³ EI. ii. 345. ⁴ Periplus. 48. ⁵ E & D. ii. 311-12. ⁶ This was followed by Hiuen Tsang (Beal-Records. ii. 204 ff.) and presumably also by the Pālas, Senas, Cholas and the Eastern Gaṅgas in their military campaigns.

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More celebrated and frequented, however, was the line of trade which led westwards from various points in Bengal and joined the network of highways which converged at Benares. The Kathā-sarit-sāgara mentions merchants travelling from Puṇḍravardhana to Pāṭaliputra. I-tsing, who landed at Tāmralipti in 673 A.D., says that when he left the sea-port, “taking the road which goes straight to the west,” many hundreds of merchants accompanied him in his journey to Bodh-Gayā.² A rock inscription of a chief named Udayamāna, which has been assigned on paleographical grounds to the 8th century A.D., reveals that merchants from such distant places as Ayodhyā used to frequent the port of Tāmralipti for purposes of trade.³ These western routes formed the principal means of communication and also the grand military routes between Bengal and Northern India.

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A third line of overland trade seems to have led through the passes of the Himālayas, past Sikkim and Chumbi Valley, to Tibet and China. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea bears testimony to the fact that as early as the 1st century A.D. “raw silk, silk yarn and silk cloth” came into Bengal from China and were re-exported to “Damirica by way of the river Ganges.”⁴ It is not impossible that much of this stuff came in along this line of trade. In later period this route became the great highway of Buddhist pilgrim-travel between Magadha and Tibet. Towards the end of our period horses in large number appear to have been imported into Bengal along this track. Referring to a town variously named as Karbattan, Kar-pattan or Karambatan, which has not yet been satisfactorily identified, but which was obviously located somewhere at the foot of the Himalayan range, the Ṭabaqāt-i-Nāṣirī says:

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“Every morning in the market of that city, about fifteen hundred horses are sold. All the saddle horses which come into the territory of Lakhnauti are brought from that country. Their roads pass through the ravines of the mountains, as is quite common in that part of the country. Between Kamrup and Tibet there are thirty-five mountain passes through which horses are brought to Lakhnauti.”⁵

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A fourth overland route ran southwards, along the Kaliṅga coast, to the South Indian peninsula.⁶

Cites (5)