Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c8.s1.24

c8.s1.24

56. They send large ships to these market towns on account of the great quantity of pepper and malabathrum (tamāla-patra, cinnamomum tamala). There are imported here, in the first place, a great quantity of coin; 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 (in Malabar). Besides this there are exported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the Ganges, malabathrum from the places in the interior, transparent stones of all kinds, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise shell; that from Chryse Island (Suvarṇa-dvīpa), and that taken among the islands along the coast of Damirica. They make the voyage to this place in a favourable season who set out from Egypt about the month of July, that is Epiphi.