Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.54

c11.54

Our traveller now⁵ goes on to describe the Deccan, the seat of the great Āndhra kingdom. Deccan (*Dakkhinābada*⁶) he correctly derives from δάχανος, south. Beyond the Ghauts, the land is wild and desolate, full of tigers, apes, and huge pythons⁷. The principal ports were Ter (Tāgara), Sopāra, Paithān and Kalyān, these being supplied with goods from the central part of India by the great high road running through Daulatabad to Hyderabad. Kalyān and Sopāra, the chief harbours in the days of “the elder Saraganus” (probably Arishṭa Śātakarṇi), had, since the accession of the weak king Sandanes (Sundara Śātakarṇi), been blockaded by the men-of-war from the rival port of Broach, who towed vessels off to their own harbour and made them unload there! Here we have another interesting side-light on contemporary Indian history.