A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.34

c18.34

By the ninth century A.D. the countries of southern Asia had developed an extensive maritime commerce which brought great prosperity. The T'ang empire in China, Śri Vijaya under the powerful line of the Śailendras, and the Abbasid Khalifat at Baghdad were the chief states outside India that flourished on this trade. Owing to political troubles China became unsafe for foreigners in the latter part of the ninth century, but Chinese ships regularly called at the ports of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra to buy foreign goods. This was the beginning of Chinese navigation of the high seas. From the twelfth to the fifteenth century, Chinese sea-going junks were frequent visitors to the west coast of India. Siraf, on the eastern coast of the Persian Gulf, was the chief emporium in the west and the rich merchants of that city feasted the numerous merchants from China, Java, Malaya, and India who visited their city—every Indian insisting on having a separate plate exclusively reserved for him!