The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s8.t2.18

v1.c19.s8.t2.18

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: