The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s7.60

v1.c7.s7.60

If the Romans looked to the East for articles of luxury, the Indians themselves went as merchants and missionaries to the Far East, where tradition had located the ‘golden’ Burma and Sumatra, ‘silver’ Arakan, and ‘copper’ Champa (Indo-China). The Eastern Deccan appears to have entered upon an epoch of great maritime activity during the reign of Puḷumāvi II, an activity which attained great proportions in the reign of Yajña Śrī. Their ship-marked coins picked up on the Coromandel coast appear to commemorate this signal achievement.³ Ptolemy refers to the commerce between the east-coast and ‘golden chryse’, i.e. the Malay peninsula and the Archipelago. The Indian colonization of some of the places in this part of the world may be attributed to this age. Triling, capital of Arakan, Kākula in the Gulf of Siam, and Amarāvatī in Annām may well have been named after the places which bear these names in the Andhra territory.