Indian Shipping/Book 1/Part 2/Chapter 3

The age of the Mauryas, of Chandra Gupta and Asoka, was followed by the age of the Andhras of the South and Kushans of the North, which witnessed an equal development of the foreign trade and intercourse of India. This is apparent not only from the writings of Greek, Roman, and other foreign authors, but also from the numismatic evidences discovered in India itself. With regard to the commerce of the Andhra period (200 b.c. to a.d. 250), R. Sewell, the well-known authority on the early history of Southern India, makes the following general remarks: "The Andhra period seems to have been one of considerable prosperity. There was trade, both overland and by sea, with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, and Egypt, as well as with China and the East. Embassies are said to have been sent from South India to Rome. Indian elephants were used for Syrian warfare. Pliny mentions the vast quantities of specie that found its way every year from Rome to India, and in this he is confirmed by the author of the Periplus. Roman coins have been found in profusion in the Peninsula, ​and especially in the south. In a.d. 68 a number of Jews, fleeing from Roman persecution, seems to have taken refuge among the friendly coast-people of South India, and to have settled in Malabar."^[1] In respect of the same period, Dr. Bhandarkar, also, remarks, "trade and commerce must have been in a flourishing condition during this early period."^[2]

In the north, under the Kushans, there was a great development of the intercourse of India with the West. "During the Kushana period the Roman influence on India was at its height. When the whole of the civilized world, excepting India and China, passed under the sway of the Caesars, and the Empire of Kaniska marched, or almost marched, with that of Hadrian, the ancient isolation of India was infringed upon, and Roman arts and ideas travelled with the stream of Roman gold which flowed into the treasuries of the Rajas in payment for the silks, gems, and spices of the Orient."^[3]

The result of it was the rise of a new school of Indian art, the school of Gāndhāra, which is admitted on all hands to be closely related to the art of the Roman Empire in the Augustan and Antonine periods, and was at its best between a.d. 100-300. Indian coins were also affected like ​Indian art. "Kadphises I., who struck coins in bronze or copper only, imitated, after his conquest of Kabul, the coinage either of Augustus in his later years, or the similar coinage of Tiberius (14 to 38 a.d.). When the Roman gold of the early emperors began to pour into India in payment for the silks, spices, gems, and dye-stuffs of the East, Kadphises II. perceived the advantage of a gold currency, and struck an abundant issue of Orientalized aurei, agreeing in weight with their prototypes, and not much inferior in purity. In Southern India, which during the same period maintained an active maritime trade with the Roman Empire, the local kings did not attempt to copy the imperial aurei, which were themselves imported in large quantities, and used for currency purposes just as English sovereigns are now in many parts of the world."^[4]

Numismatic evidences point unmistakably to the growth of an active Indian commerce with the West, chiefly Rome. They also show that the main centre of this commercial activity was towards the south, in Tamilakam, the land of the Tamils, which figures so largely in the early history of the commerce of India. For we have already seen how, in the ancient days of Solomon, this land supplied the merchandise of his ships and kept up a commercial ​intercourse that has resulted in the incorporation of several Tamil words into the language of the Bible itself. The Roman coins found in Southern India in and near the Coimbatore district and at Madura are more numerous than the finds in the north.^[5] The chief reasons for the dearth of coins in the north are that the export to Rome of which we have mention in classical writers, in exchange for which Roman coins were brought to India, was mostly of products of South India and the Deccan, while the Kushan kings had the Roman coins melted down in a mass and new coins issued from the metal having exactly the weight of the aurei. Besides this significance of these finds of Roman coins, one interesting feature^[6] of the Andhra coins deserves to be carefully noted in this connection, conveying as it does a sure hint at maritime commerce, viz. that on many of these coins found on the east coast is to be detected the device of a two-masted ship, "evidently of large size," the suggestion of which is quite clear.

The stimulus to this Occidental trade of India came from the Roman Empire under Augustus. ​Before that time India carried on her trade chiefly with Egypt; whose king, Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 B.C.), with whom Asoka the Great had intercourse,^[7] founded the city of Alexandria, that afterwards became the principal emporium of trade between East and West. With Alexandria communication was established of two seaports founded on the Egyptian coast, viz. Berenica and Myos Hormos, from which ships sailed to India along the coasts of Arabia and Persia. Strabo^[8] mentions that in his day he saw about 120 ships sailing from Myos Hormos to India. There were of course other overland routes of commerce between India and the West, such as that across Central Asia along the Oxus to the Caspian and the Black Seas, or that through Persia to Asia Minor, or that by way of the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates through Damascus and Palmyra to the Levant. But this caravan traffic was by no means of any great importance, and was further reduced by the Parthian wars. "It was by the sea, and after Claudius by the open sea, that the bulk of merchandise from Indian south-coast ports was carried to the Arabian marts and Alexandria."^[9] The Egyptian Greeks were the principal carriers of this extensive trade in Indian ​commodities that sprang up under the Ptolemies, and as usual this commercial intercourse has left some marks on their language. Thus the Greek names for rice (oryza), ginger (zingiber), and cinnamon (karpion) have a close correspondence with their Tamil equivalents, viz. arisi, inchiver, and karava respectively; and this identity of Greek with Tamil words clearly indicates that it was Greek merchants who conveyed these articles and their names to Europe from the Tamil land. Again, the name Yavana, the name by which these Western merchants were known, which in old Sanskrit poetry is invariably used to denote the Greeks,^[10] is derived from the Greek word Iaones, the name of the Greeks in their own language. The same word also occurs in ancient Tamil poems, and is exclusively applied to the Greeks and Romans. On this point the remarks of the late Mr. Pillay, our authority on Tamil literature, require to be quoted. He says: "The poet Nakkirar addresses the Pandyan prince Nan-Maran in the following words: 'O Mara, whose sword is ever victorious, spend thou thy days in peace and joy, drinking daily out of golden cups, presented by thy handmaids, the cool and fragrant wine brought by the Yavanas in their good ships.'" The Yavanas alluded to by these poets were undoubtedly the Egyptian Greeks, because, as stated ​in the Periplus, it was Greek merchants from Egypt who brought wine, brass, lead, glass, etc., for sale to Muziris and Bakare, and who purchased from these ports pepper, betel, ivory, pearls, and fine muslins.^[11] These Greek traders sailed from Egypt in the month of July and arrived at Muziris in forty days. They stayed on the Malabar coast for about three months and commenced their return voyage from Muziris in December or January.

The activity of this Occidental trade of India breached its height during the earlier days of the Roman Empire, especially the period from Augustus to Nero, the period of Rome's Asiatic conquests which made her a world power controlling the trade routes between the East and the West. Then a great demand arose on the part of the wealthy Romans for the luxuries of the East, which shocked the more sober-minded citizens of Rome. Thus we find Pliny^[12] (about a.d. 77) lamenting and condemning the wasteful extravagance of the richer classes and their reckless expenditure on perfumes, unguents, and personal ornaments, saying that there was "no year in which India did not drain the Roman Empire of a hundred million sesterces,"^[13] sending in return ​wares which were sold for a hundred times their original value, "so dearly do we pay for our luxury and our women." What gave a great impetus to this Roman trade, and increased considerably its volume and variety, was, besides this steady and growing demand, the discovery of the regularity of the monsoons in the Indian Ocean. This discovery was made about the year 47 a.d. by a pilot named Hippalus,^[14] and ships began to sail direct to the port of Muziris (Muyirikolu) in Malabar—a circumstance which added immensely to the security of the cargoes which no longer had to fear the attack of Arabs on caravans crossing the deserts or of pirates on vessels hugging the coast.

The articles of this Roman trade comprised chiefly (1) spices and perfumes, (2) precious stones and pearls, and (3) silks, muslins, and cotton. The consumption of aromatics in Rome was stimulated by religious and funeral customs. Incense was burnt at every worship. At the funeral of Sylla 210 loads of spices were strewn upon the pile. Nero is reported to have burnt at the funeral of Poppoea fully a year's produce of cinnamon and cassia. These spices were supplied to Rome by Arabians, who obtained them from India, famous from time immemorial as the land of aromatics. Pliny^[15] ​refers to the pepper^[16] and ginger of India and the great demand for them in Rome, where they were bought by weight like gold and silver. Besides aromatics and spices, the articles for which there was a great inquiry in Roman markets were precious stones, pearls, and minerals, which have been carefully noticed and described by Pliny^[17] with a skill rivalling that of a modern lapidary. The most highly prized of these stones was the beryl, found in India in only one place, namely Padiyur in the Coimbatore district, or at most in two, Vaniyambadi in the Salem district being said to also possess a mine; and these beryls were believed to be the best and purest in the world. And it is in the neighbourhood of these mines that the largest number of Roman coins has been found. Thirdly, the demand ​on India in Rome was also for silk, muslin, and cotton, which were sold at fabulously high prices. In the reign of Aurelian, silk was worth fully its weight in gold. Tiberius Caesar had to pass a law forbidding transparent silk as an indecent dress. Mr. Vincent A. Smith has thus summarized the information regarding the Roman trade with Southern India: "Tamil land had the good fortune to possess three precious commodities not procurable elsewhere, namely pepper, pearls, and beryls. Pepper fetched an enormous price in the markets of Europe. . . . The pearl-fishery of the Southern Sea, which still is productive and valuable, had been worked for untold ages, and always attracted a crowd of foreign merchants. The mines of Padiyur in the Coimbatore district were almost the only source known to the ancient world from which good beryls could be obtained, and few gems were more esteemed by both Indians and Romans. The Tamil states maintained powerful navies, and were visited freely by ships from both east and west, which brought merchants of various places eager to buy the pearls, pepper, beryls, and other choice commodities of India, and to pay for them with the gold, silver, and art ware of Europe."^[18]

Numismatic evidences bring to light the fact that the Indian trade with Rome was most active ​during the period of eighty years from Augustus to Nero (a.d. 68); for the largest number of coins^[19] discovered in Southern India refers to this period. As already noticed, the locale of these discoveries points also to the conclusion that the things which India exported comprised mostly spices and precious stones. In the long interval between Nero and Caracalla (a.d. 217) there must have been a decline of this trade, considering the very small number of coins discovered which belong to this period, and the finds have been mostly in cotton-growing districts, so that the conclusion is irresistible that the trade with Rome in such luxuries as spices, perfumes, and precious stones must have ceased after the death of Nero, and only a limited trade in necessaries, such as cotton fabrics, continued. This fact is almost in keeping with, and indeed explained by, the rise of a new era in social manners in Rome at this period under Vespasian, when, to use the words of Merivale, "the simpler habits of the Plebeians and the Provincials prevailed over the reckless luxury and dissipation in which the highest classes had so long ​indulged." The trade with Rome was at a low ebb from the days of Caracalla, when Rome was a prey to confusion, both internal and external, and her inhabitants could hardly think of spending large sums of money on spices, perfumes, and ornaments. There have been accordingly but few finds of coins belonging to this period, while the discoveries in the north are larger than in Southern or Western India. The Occidental trade revived again, though slightly, under the Byzantine emperors. The localities of the coins discovered suggest the conclusion that precious stones, cottons, and muslins were not in much request in Rome, but that an export trade was brisk in pepper and spices shipped from the southern ports both on the east and west. And so the fact need not surprise us that when Alaric spared Rome in a.d. 408 he demanded and obtained as part of the ransom 3,000 pounds of pepper.^[20] The most interesting discoveries of this period are the finds at Madura, comprising two classes of Roman coins, the copper issues of the regular Roman coinage, and small copper coins locally minted for daily use; and the suggestion has been made that Roman commercial agents took up their residence in some of the capitals and marts of South India for trade purposes at a time when the Roman Empire was being overrun by barbarians. Vincent Smith is ​also of the same opinion, and remarks^[21]: "There is good reason to believe that considerable colonies of Roman subjects engaged in trade were settled in Southern India during the first two centuries of our era, and that European soldiers, described as powerful Yavanas, and dumb Mlecchas (barbarians) clad in complete armour, acted as bodyguards to Tamil kings, while the beautiful large ships of the Yavanas lay off Muziris (Cranganore) to receive the cargoes of pepper paid for by Roman gold." More interesting and conclusive is the evidence derived from the Tamil literature which may be adduced here in the words of Mr. Pillay again^[22]: "Roman soldiers were enlisted in the service of the Pandyas and other Tamil kings." "During the reign of the Pandya Aryappadai-Kadantha-Nedunj-Cheliyan, Roman soldiers were employed to guard the gates of the fort of Madura."^[23] A poet of this period describes a Tamil king's tent on a battlefield as follows: "A tent with double walls of canvas firmly held by iron chains, guarded by powerful Yavanas, whose stern looks strike terror into every beholder, and whose long and loose coats are fastened at the waist by means of belts, while dumb Mlecchas, clad in complete armour, who could express themselves only by ​gestures, kept close watch throughout the night in the outer chamber, constantly moving round the inner apartment, which was lighted by a handsome lamp."^[24] It is evident from this description that Yavana and other Mlechchhas or foreigners were employed as bodyguards by ancient Tamil kings. Mr. Vincent Smith further says: "It is even stated, and no doubt truly, that a temple dedicated to Augustus existed at Muziris. Another foreign (Yavana) colony was settled at Kaviripaddanam, or Pukar, a busy port situated on the eastern coast at the mouth of the northern branch of the Kaviri (Cauveri) river. Both town and harbour disappeared long since, and now lie buried under vast mounds of sand. The poems tell of the importation of Yavana wines, lamps, and vases, and their testimony is confirmed by the discovery in the Nilgiri megalithic tombs of numerous bronze vessels similar to those known to have been produced in Europe during the early centuries of the Christian era, and by statements of the Periplus."

We have now dealt with the numismatic evidences that point unmistakably to the trade of India with Rome. But the fact of this Roman intercourse is further very satisfactorily established by the various references^[25] we find in the native ​literature of India, in the ancient Sanskrit and Pali works, to Romaka or the city of Rome. Thus the Mahābhārata speaks of the Romaka or Romans coming to the Emperor Yudhisthira with precious presents on the occasion of the Rājasūya Yajña at Indraprastha or Delhi.^[26] In the five famous astronomical works named Paitāmaha, Vāśishtha,^[27] Sūryya,^[28] Paulisa, and Romaka Siddhāntas, some of which were compiled in the 3rd or 2nd century a.d., Romaka is often mentioned as a Mahāpuri, Pattana, or Visaya, i.e. a great city, state, or dominion. Varāhamihira, who flourished about a.d. 505, also mentions Romaka in his well-known works Pañcha-Siddhāntika and Vrihat-Sańhitā. In a passage^[29] in the former work he says that while there is sunrise at Lankā there is midnight at Romaka, and in the 16th chapter of the Vrihat-Sańhitā he speaks of the Romaka^[30] or Romans standing under the influence of chandra or the moon. Lastly, in the Pali Pitaka Romaka is mentioned the Romaka-Jātaka, which describes a sham priest killing a pigeon to eat it ​contrary to Buddhist practices, evidently to show the contrast of a Buddhist ascetic with a Roman ascetic.

Besides these evidences from ancient Indian works regarding the intercourse with Rome, there are also evidences from foreign works bearing on the subject. We have already referred to the enumeration and description of the vegetable and mineral products which India sent abroad, by Pliny, who calls India "the sole mother of precious stones," "the great producer of the most costly gems." Even as far back as 177 b.c., Agatharcides, who was President of the Alexandrian Library, and is mentioned with respect by Strabo, Pliny, and Diodorus, describes Sabaea (Yemen) as being the centre of commerce between Asia and Europe, and very wealthy because of the monopoly of the Indian trade. He also saw large ships coming from the Indus and Patala. But the more important works in this connection are undoubtedly the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (a.d. 100) and Ptolemy's Geography (a.d. 140). The Periplus, a sort of marine guide-book, is the record of an experienced sailor who navigated the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and resided for many years at Barygaza-Bharoach. According to the Periplus, Bharoach was the principal distributing centre of Western India, from which the merchandise brought from abroad was ​carried to the inland countries. Paithan, situated at twenty days' journey to the south of Barygaza, and Tagara, ten days' east of Pithan (modern Dharur in the Nizam's territory), were two inland towns of great commercial importance, of which the former sent into Bharoach for export waggons containing large quantities of onyx stones, and the latter ordinary cottons, muslins, mallow-coloured cottons, and other articles of local production. The other seaport towns mentioned in the Periplus are Souppara (modern Supara, near Bassein), Kalliena (modern Kalyan), a place by the way "of great commercial importance, since a good many of the donors whose names are inscribed in the caves at Kanhiri and some mentioned in the caves at Junnar were merchants residing in Kalyan,"^[31] Semulla (identified with Chembur by some and Chaul by others), Mandagora (modern Mandad), Palaipatamai (probably Pal near Mahad), Melizeigara (modern Jayagad), and others. To the south three great emporia are mentioned, viz. Tyndis, Muziris, and Nelkynda, from which were exported pepper, spices, pearl, ivory, fine silks, and precious stones, such as diamonds, rubies, and amethysts. It may also be mentioned that the Periplus noticed large Hindu ships off East African, Arabian, and Persian ports ​and Hindu settlements on the north coast of Socotra. In fact, as pointed out by Dr. Vincent, "in the age of the Periplus, the merchants of the country round Barygaza traded to Arabia for gums and incense, to the coast of Africa for gold, and to Malabar and Ceylon for pepper and cinnamon,^[32] and thus completed the navigation of the entire Indian Ocean." The Periplus also throws some light on the shipping of the period. According to it, the inhabitants of the Coromandel coast traded in vessels of their own with those of Malabar, and at all seasons there was a number of native ships to be found in the harbour of Muziris. Three marts are mentioned on the Coromandel coast in which "are found the native vessels which make coasting voyages to Limurike—the monoxyla of the largest sort, called sangara, and others styled colandiophonta, which are vessels of great bulk and adapted to the voyages made to the Ganges and the Golden Chersonese."^[33] ​Some details are also given regarding the trade-routes. The ships carrying on the Indian trade started from Myos Hormos or Berenika, and sailed down the Red Sea to Mouza (twenty-five miles south of Mokha) and thence to the watering-place Okelis at the straits. They then followed the Arabian coast as far as Kane, passing on the way Eudaimon (Aden), Arabia, once a great mart for Indian traders. From Kane the routes to India diverge, some ships sailing to the Indus and on to Barygaza, and others direct to the ports of Limyrike (Malabar coast). There was also another route to Limyrike, starting from Aromata (Cape Guardafui). In all three voyages the ships made use of the monsoon, then called Hippalos, starting from Egypt in July.

Ptolemy's Geography describes the whole sea coast from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges, and mentions many towns and ports of commercial importance. These are, among others, Syrastra (Surat), Monoglosson (Mangrol) in Guzerat, Ariake (Maharasthra),^[34] Soupara, Muziris, Bakarei, Maisolia (Maslipatam), Kounagara (Konarak), and other places. Bishop Caldwell has pointed out that ​in these three works, viz. Pliny's Natural History, the Periplus, and Ptolemy's Geography, is to be found the largest stock of primitive Dravidian words contained in any written documents of ancient times.

More interesting and reliable information regarding some of these South Indian ports is supplied by the Tamil literature of the times, in which are contained descriptions of their magnitude and magnificence which cannot fail to bring home to our minds the throbbing international life pervading entire Tamilakam. Thus Muchiri, an important seaport near the mouth of the Periyar, is described by a Tamil poet as follows: "The thriving town of Muchiri, where the beautiful large ships of the Yavanas, bringing gold, come splashing the white foam on the waters of the Periyar which belongs to the Cherala, and return laden with pepper."^[35] "Fish is bartered for paddy, which is brought in baskets to the houses," says another poet: "sacks of pepper are brought from the houses to the market; the gold received from ships, in exchange for articles sold, is brought to shore in barges at Muchiri, where the music of the surging sea never ceases, and where Kudduvan (the Chera King) presents to visitors the rare products of the seas and mountains."^[36] The description given of Kaviripaddinam (the Kamara ​of the Periplus and Khaberis of Ptolemy) or Pukar are equally important and inspiring. It was built on the northern bank of the Kaviri river, then a broad and deep stream into which heavily laden ships entered from the sea without slacking sail. The town was divided into two parts, one of which, Maruvar-Pakkam, adjoined the sea-coast. Near the beach in Maruvar-Pakkam were raised platforms and godowns and warehouses where the goods landed from ships were stored. Here the goods were stamped with the Tiger Stamp (the emblem of the Chola kings) after payment of customs duty, and passed on to merchants' warehouses.^[37] Close by were the settlements of the Yavana merchants, where many attractive articles were always exposed for sale. Here were also the quarters of foreign traders who had come from beyond the seas and who spoke various tongues. Vendors of fragrant pastes and powders, of flowers and incense, tailors who worked on silk, wool, or cotton, traders in sandal, aghil, coral, pearl, gold, and precious stones, grain merchants, washermen, dealers in fish and salts, butchers, blacksmiths, braziers, carpenters, coppersmiths, painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, cobblers, and toymakers—all had their habitation in Maruvar-Pakkam.^[38] Another account thus describes the ​markets of Kaviripaddinam: "Horses were brought from distant lands beyond the seas; pepper was brought in ships; gold and precious stones came from the northern mountains; sandal and aghil came from the mountains towards the west; pearls from the Southern seas, and coral from the Eastern seas. The produce of the regions watered by the Ganges; all that is grown on the banks of the Kaviri; articles of food from Elam or Ceylon and the manufacturers of Kalakam" (in Burma) were brought to the markets of Kaviripaddinam.^[39] What is again worth noting is the fact that in these Chola ports there were lighthouses built of brick and mortar which exhibited blazing lights at night to guide ships to ports. It is also said that the palace of the Chola king in the city of Kaviripaddinam was built by "skilled artisans from Magadha, mechanics from Maradam, smiths from Avanti, carpenters from Yavana, and the cleverest workmen in the Tamil land."^[40]

It may be noted in passing that in the period we are considering, India also maintained a sort of political connection with Rome, besides the commercial. Strabo^[41] mentions that a mission or an embassy was sent to Augustus Caesar in 20 B.C. by ​the Indian king Pandion. It is now settled beyond doubt that Pandion was the king of the Pandyas of the south, who were then the only people in India that perceived the advantages of a European alliance that was first entered into in the days of the Mauryan emperors of Northern India. Strabo also mentions the name of Zarmano-Khegas, i.e. one of the Germanae, still called Sarmanes by the Hindus, as one of the ambassadors from Porus, king of 600 kings, to Augustus, who burnt himself at Athens; his epitaph was, "Here rests Khegas or Khegan the Jogue, an Indian from Barugaza (or Bhroach), who rendered himself immortal according to the custom of his country."^[42] The embassies to Augustus are also alluded to by Dion Cassius,^[43] by Florus,^[44] and Orosius.^[45] Dion Cassius^[46] (A.D. 180) also speaks of Trajan receiving many embassies from Indians. With regard to this embassy Mr. Vincent A. Smith remarks: "The Indian embassy which offered its congratulations to Trajan after his arrival in Rome in 99 A.D. probably was dispatched by Kadphises II. to announce his conquest of North-Western India."^[47] ​Eusebius Pampheli^[48] speaks of Indian ambassadors bringing presents to Constantine the Great; and Ammianus Marcellinus^[49] of embassies sent by Indians to the Emperor Julian in 361 A.D.

The explanation of this intercourse of India with Rome is to be found in the fact that "from the time of Mark Antony to the time of Justinian, i.e. from B.C. 30 to A.D. 550, their political importance as allies against the Parthians and Sassanians, and their commercial importance as controllers of one of the main trade routes between the East and the West, made the friendship of the Kusans or Sakas, who held the Indus Valley and Baktria, a matter of the highest importance to Rome."^[50] How close was the friendship is shown in A.D. 60 by the Roman general Corbulo escorting the Hyrcanian ambassadors up the Indus and through the territories of the Kushans or Indo-Scythians on their return from their embassy to Rome.^[51] This close connection between India and the Roman Empire during the period of the Kushans also explains the mass of accurate information regarding the Indus valley and Bactria which Ptolemy in the 1st century A.D., and the author of the Periplus had been able to record, while it also accounts for the special value ​of the gifts which the Periplus notices were set apart for the rulers of Sindh. One other result of this long-continued alliance was, as has been already indicated, the gaining by the Kushan and other rulers of the Peshawar and the Punjab of a knowledge of Roman coinage and astronomy.

After Pliny, Ptolemy, and the Periplus, the next important foreign notice of Indian commerce is that of Cosmas Indicopleustes (A.D. 535), which, though of a later date, may be most conveniently considered here. His Christian Topography furnishes some interesting particulars respecting Ceylon and the Malabar coast, included in which he preserves for us also a few Tamil words. He speaks of Mala or Malabar as the chief seat of the pepper trade, and mentions the five pepper marts of Poudopatana, Nalopatana, Salopatana, Mangarouth, and Parti, and also other ports farther northward on the western coast, such as Kallyan and Surat. He describes Ceylon under the name of Serendip as the place where "were imported the silk of Sinae-Roman China and the precious spices of the Eastern countries, and which were conveyed thence to all parts of India and to other countries." He then considers Ceylon^[52] as the centre of commerce between China and the Gulf of Persia and the Red Sea. It was also "a great resort of ships from all ​parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia, and in like manner it dispatches many of its own to foreign ports." He is the first Western author who "fully asserts the intercourse by sea between India and China,"^[53] and alludes to the Eastern trade of India, of which we now must give an account.