The Colas c30.27

c30.27

The rise into importance of the Arab trade in horses which flourished for many centuries on a large scale must be traced to the period of the growth and expansion of Cōḷa dominion in Southern India. The important role of cavalry in the Cōḷa army and the armies of other powers opposed to them is clearly brought out by the inscriptions. There are also frequent references in them to *kudiraic-ceṭṭis*,⁷³ dealers in horses, who no doubt imported horses from abroad, particularly Arabia and perhaps Pegu, and distributed them among the princes and nobles in the land. As these *Ceṭṭis* are often said to come from *malai-nāḍu*,⁷⁴ it is reasonable to infer that Arabia supplied the bulk of the horses imported into South India. The extensive trade described by Marco Polo and Wassaf in the beginning of the fourteenth century could not have sprung up suddenly, and its beginnings must be traced to Cōḷa times if not to an earlier period.