Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.77

c11.77

*Frankincense*. True frankincense, the product of five species of the genus *Boswellia*, comes from the Hadhramaut country, and is imported to India and China, the port of export being Dafār (sometimes supposed to be the Sapphara Metropolis of Ptolemy). Its Arabian origin is indicated by its name *olibanum* (al-luban). There are, however, several gums used in India instead of incense. Among these, *bdellium* (Pliny, xii. 19) was one of the commonest. It is a gum resembling myrrh, and the product of several species of the *Balsamodendron*. It grows chiefly on the slopes of the Hindu Kush, and was exported from Barbarikon and Barygaza. It was worth three denarii a pound. Storax, or Benzoin, the gum of trees of the genus Styracaceae, is the modern Indian ud or incense. It was apparently not common in India, being one of the imports mentioned in the Periplus. Myrrh was the gum of another tree of the genus Balsamodendron. Its Sanskrit name is vola, whence the modern Indian bol. Pliny, XII. 35, gives a long account of the collection of the gum (stactē). The best sort fetched 40 denarii per pound. Some of the Acacias produce fragrant gums, used for the adulteration of incense, and employed for similar purposes.