A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.66

c12.66

The author of the Periplus (c. A.D. 75) gives the most valuable information about this trade between India and the Roman Empire. He mentions the ports of Naura (Cannanore), Tyndis—the Toṇḍi of the poems, identified with Ponnāni—and Muziris (Muśiri, Cranganore), and Nelcynda very near Koṭṭayam, as of leading importance on the west coast. Muziris abounded in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia and by the Greeks. Nelcynda was part of the Pāndyan kingdom. Bacare (Porakad) was another port on the same coast. On the nature of the trade, the words of the author are worth citing: ‘They send large ships to these market towns on account of the great quantity and bulk of pepper and malabathrum (to be had there). There are imported here, in the first place, a great quantity of coins; topaz, thin clothing, not much; figured linens, antimony, coral, crude glass, copper, tin, lead; wine, not much, but as much as at Barygaza; realgar and orpiment, and wheat enough for the sailors, for this is not dealt in by the merchants there. There is exported pepper, which is produced in quantity in only one region near these markets, a district called Cottonara. Besides this there are exported large quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the Ganges, malabathrum from the places in the interior, transparent stones of all kinds (principally beryls of the Coimbatore district for which there was a constant demand in Rome), diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise shell; that from Chryse Island and that taken among the islands along the coast of Damirica.’ This trade increased in volume after Hippalus, an Egyptian pilot, showed the possibility of large ships sailing with the monsoon straight across the ocean instead of small vessels hugging the coast and exposing themselves to many risks. Other ports of South India mentioned by the author in order are: Balita (Varkalai), a village by the shore with a fine harbour; Comari, a fine harbour and a sacred place of pilgrimage; Colchi (Korkai) where were the pearl fisheries of the Pāndyan kingdom worked by condemned criminals; Camara (Kāvēri-paṭṭinam), Poduca (Pondicherry) and Sopatma (Markāṇam). There were three types of craft used on the east coast: ships of the country coasting along the shore; other large vessels made of single logs bound together, called sangara, and those which made the voyage to Chryse and to the Ganges which were called Colandia and were very large. He mentions Argaru (Uraiyūr) as the place to which were sent all the pearls gathered on the coast and from which were exported muslins called Argaritic. About the ports on the east coast he adds: ‘There are imported into these places everything made in Damirica, and the greatest part of what is brought at any time from Egypt comes here.’ He notes further that a great quantity of muslins was made in the region of Masalia (Andhra country), and that ivory was a special product of the country further north, Dosarene (i.e., Daśārṇa, Orissa).