The Colas c30.30

c30.30

The list of the products of the Cōḷa country given by Chau Ju-Kua shows that the list of articles imported by China from there remained practically unchanged at the beginning of the thirteenth century. He says:⁷⁶ 'The native products comprise pearls, elephants' tusks, coral, transparent glass, betelnuts, cardamoms, opaque glass, cotton stuffs with coloured silk threads, and cotton stuffs.' The same author notes also that the taxes and imposts of the Cōḷa kingdom were numerous and heavy and that consequently traders rarely went there; the criticism is obviously based on a general comparison with Chinese customs duties and should not be pressed far; for we have much other evidence on the flourishing condition of the foreign trade of South India and on the presence of small settlements of foreign merchants in port-towns. There are in existence accounts of several exchanges of missions between South India and the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, all of which followed the sea-route and were partly commercial and partly diplomatic in character, but as these relate almost exclusively to the period of Pāṇḍyan ascendancy and have little direct connection with the Cōḷa kingdom, they need not be detailed here. For the same reason, the account of Ma'bar given by Marco Polo, very interesting and important in itself, deserves only a passing mention in a study of Cōḷa history.