Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c15.77

c15.77

**Sea-borne Trade.** There is some evidence as to the sea-borne foreign trade of those days, though it is scanty. We read of Prince Mahājanaka sailing from Champā for Suvaṇṇabhūmi [*Ib.* vi, 34 f.], of Mahinda from Pāṭaliputra to Tāmalitti and thence to Ceylon [*Vin.* iii, 388 (*Samantapāsādika*)]. A whole village of defaulting wood-wrights is described as escaping at night down the Ganges in a "mighty ship" from Benares out to the sea [*Jāt.* IV, 159]. An accomplished helmsman brings safe by ships "passengers for India from off the sea to Benares by river" [*Ib.* ii, 112]. We read of traders coasting round India from Bhārukachchha to Suvaṇṇabhūmi [*Ib.* iii, 188], touching at a port of Ceylon on the way [*Ib.* ii, 127 ff.]. The cargo of a newly-arrived ship attracts a hundred merchants to buy it up [*Ib.*, i, 122]. The ships of the times were large enough to accommodate "hundreds" of passengers. We read of 500 traders on board ill-fated ships [*Ib.* 128; v, 75], and of 700 under the safe pilotage of Suppāraka [*Ib.*, iv, 138, ff] [*Hindu Civilization*, pp. 302-304].