Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.68

c11.68

Of the neighbouring island of Ceylon he knows very little, but like all the writers of his time, he thinks it a vast island projecting far into the ocean. Then comes Masalia, the Masulipatam district, with a great trade in muslins, and Dosarene, the Darśana or holy land of Orissa, with its trade in ivory. After this, our writer becomes very vague. Further on lies the Ganges, with a port at its mouth (probably Tāmralipti) whence come the Benares muslins, Chinese silk, and malobathrum. A most interesting description of the Mongolian hillmen who collect the malobathrum on the Chinese border concludes the *Periplus*. "Every year, on the borders of This (China), assembles a tribe of men with stunted bodies and broad, flat faces. They are timid and peaceful, and almost wild. They are called Besatae (*vishāda*, dullness, stupidity¹). They come with their families bearing baskets of what appear to be thin grape-leaves. They meet in a place halfway between their own land and China, and hold a fair, spreading out the baskets and using them as mats. After this they return to their own land. Then the natives who are on the watch take these mats and pick out the leaves, which they call 'petri' (*patra*, leaves). They then press them into layers and fasten them with fibres taken from the mats. These they make into balls of three sizes whence come the three grades of malobathrum to be had in India.” Here we have a description of the “silent barter” carried on by many shy, wild tribes all over the world, and still practised by the Veddas of Ceylon. The goods to be bought are left in a clearing, and the purchaser takes them, replacing them by their equivalent in value. Pliny says Sinhalese merchants went to this mart¹, and Kosmas Indikopleustes saw a similar system employed in Ethiopia.