Aaa
which were established over the centuries between East and West 1 .
During the pre-Christian era, the perlpla , military expedi¬ tions and embassies in the direction of India were no more than voyages of exploration and discovery. Under the Roman Empire,’ once the routes were open and curiosity satisfied, dealings be¬ tween East and West were entirely dominated by trade.
I. DISCOVERIES IN THE PRE-CHRISTIAN ERA
Scylax of Caryanda (519 B.C.). - Scylax of Caryanda in Caria was
ordered by Darius to reconnoitre the marine route which links the mouths of the Indus to Egypt. Setting out from Kaspatyrus (Kasyapapura, modern Multan near Attock), the explorer descended the Indus as far as the Arabian Sea, ran along the coasts of Hak-
ran and southern Arabia and, entering the Gulf of Aden, went up
the Red Sea to Arsinoe in the Gulf of Suez . The periplus lasted for thirty months, and the length of its duration is enough to prove that the navigator, travelling with a head wind, knew no¬ thing of the vayB of the monsoon.
Alexander the Great (331-324 B.C.). - Hot in pursuit of Bessup
after his victory at Gaugamela (331 B.C.), the. Macedonian conquer¬ or made use during his march of the great 'twisting artery which linked the Caspian Gates to the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush, passing through Herat (Haraiva or Alexandria-in-Aria), Faraz (Phra- da or Prophthasia), Dranglana, the southern shore of Lake Hamun, the right bank of the River Helmand (Haetvmant, Setumant, Etyman- der, Hermandrus), Kandahar (Harahuvati or Alexandria-ln-Arachosla), Parvan (Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus or in the Paropamlsadae) 5 . The bematlsts Diognetus and Bseton, who accompanied Alexander on his expedition, surveyed the route and. carefully measured the distances .
The revolt in Aria had orevented Alexander from returning to Bactria via the most direct route linking the Caspian Gates to the Jaxartes which passed through Bactria (Zariaspa) and termi¬ nated at Khojend (Alexandria-Eschate) on the Syr Darya. Notwith¬ standing, this route was also explored by his surveyors 5 .
Now lord of Bactria and Sogdiana after a campaign lasting two years (329-328 B.C.), Alexander set out to conquer IndiaJ
Early Relations I
to his mind 'the region which extends eastwards from the Indus'*.
He took the old highway of India connecting Bactra to Taxila ac¬ ross the Hindu Kush. Setting out from Bactra at the beginning of the year 327, in ten days he crossed the Afghan massif and, by way of Bamlyan, reached the southern slopes where his # settle¬ ment, Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus, present-day ParvSn, was locat¬ ed. By three or four stages, he arrived at Lampaka where he con¬ centrated his troops in Nlcaea, a temporary encampment to be found between the villages of Mandrawar and Chabar-bagh. The majority of his Macedonian forces, led by Perdiccas and Hephaestion, des¬ cended the south bank of the Kophen (Kubha, today the Kabul River), reprovisioned in Nagarahara (Jelalabad), occupied PUskarivatl (Peucalaotis, ^modern Charsadda) and reached the Indus between
Udabhanda (Und) and ^b. Alexander, who had been fighting in
the upper valleys of the Kunar (KhoSs), Swat (Suvastu, Suastos) and BunSr, then rejoined his lieutenants; the Macedonian army, at last regrouped, crossed the Indus by a pontoon-bridge and made peaceably for Taxila where it was welcomed by the local king 0m- phis (Ambhl). In Taxila began the great artery which is still used today by the Trunk Road: pointing in the direction of the south-east, it reached Mathura on the right bank of the Yamuna, where it communicated respectively with the west coast via UJjayl- nl and Bharukaccha and the east coast through KausambI, Patallputra and Tamrallptl. Alexander, halted at the Hydaspes by the resis¬ tance of King Porus (Paurava), turned directly east, and, arm; in hand, crossed the great tributaries of the Indus: the Jhelua (Vitasti, Hydaspes), Chenab (Asiknl, Candrabhaga, Aceslnes) anc' Ravi (Parusnl, Iravatl, Hydraotes), and finally reached the Beat (Vipae, Vlpasa, Hyphasis) where his troops mutinied. The route taken by Alexander as far as the Beas, with indications of the distances, was also noted by the professional surveyors 7 . All the topographical works carried out on Alexander's orders ant whose starting-point was the Caspian Gates were collected and pub¬ lished, before the establishment of the Parthian domination ol Iran, in the AsiatiJcoI stathmol by a certain Amyntas, who hat
followed Alexander on his expedition .
The order to retreat was given in November 326 and the Mace¬ donian army, reinforced by a fleet of 800 to 1,000 ships, descend¬ ed the Hydaspes and the Indus to the delta of Patalene, whlcl
106 Buddhist Studies Review 5, 2 (1988)
Alexander explored for six months (January to July 325). The return to Suslana was made by three routes.
Craterus, who had not gone as far as the delta 9 , left. In July .325, the right bank of the Indus off Sklkarpore, crossed the Hulls Pass, Quetta and Kandahar, and skirted the south bank of the Helmand and Lake Hamun; then, through the desert of Dasht-
i-Lut and Natretabad, he reached Galashklrd inf 'Carmania, where > Alexander had preceded him 10 .
In the meantime Alexander, at the head of some ten thousand
men, had left Pa tala in September 325 and set out along the Makran
coast, to Gedrosla. Then turning northwards, in December 325,
he reached Galashklrd in Carmania where Craterus and Nearchus
were not long in.Joining him.
Hearchus, at the head of a fleet of one thousand units con¬ centrated in the Indus Delta, had been ordered to delay his depar¬ ture until the arrival of the monsoon from the north-east which breaks in October: clear proof that at that time the movement
of the eteslan winds was well known 11 * However, the hostility
of the local populace forced the admiral to weigh anchor on 21 September 325. He skirted the Orelte and Makran coasts and, after eighty, days of eventful voyaging, in December of the same year, reached the mouth of the Anamls (Mlnab), in fertile Harmosla,.- near Hormuz. Nearchus, having placed his fleet in safety, went Inland to Galashklrd and rejoined Alexander and Craterus who anxi¬ ously awaited him 12 . The reunion was an occasion for Joyful fes¬ tivities and a new Alexandria was founded. The fleet then sailed up the [[[Persian]]]Gulf and the Pasltlgrls and reached Suslana where, in the spring of 324, it was joined by the land army.
The seieucids (312-64 B.C.). - After his victorious return from
Babylonia, Seleucus I Nicator (312-280) set out to reconquer the eastern satrapies which had broken away from the Alexandrian em¬ pire. and his armies again travelled the routes of Iran and Bac- tria. The operations begun in 305 by the Diadochus [Alexander*s successor] against the Indian empire of Candragupta once again drew Seleucus onto the ancient Indian route linking Bactra to Taxlla, and his momentum took him to the banks of the Yamuna, possibly as far as Mathura: we know that this campaign ende<)
Early Relations I
in a compromise in the terms of which* in exchange for five; hund-i^/ red war-elephants, Seleucus ceded-the possession of India and the greater part of Afghanistan to his rival . Seleucus 9 inter¬ est then turned to the neighbouring countries of the Caspian SeaVj the strategic and commercial Importance of which did not escape him. Deodamas, the commander of Seleucus and Antlochus, identi- fled the course of the Jaxsrtes, which until*'then had been confus¬ ed with the Don 14 ! Patrocles, governor of the nor i thern p^yj|.i»cea and a geographer of great authority, explored the Caaplgn.; Si* but, on the basis of misinterpreted local records. waa .led to. claim that not only the Ochus (Tejend) but al,o the Oxu, and Jax»r- tea, tributaries of the Aral Sea, flowed lnjto. the Caspian, the surface of which, according to Patrocles, equalled that of •*.*>,.
Black Sea 15 . The geographer discovered, or rediscovered
Black Sea 15 . The geographer discovered, or rediscovered..SubseW^^ quent * to Artobulos, the southern. Indian tredie^routet^ at ‘ time the Oxus, which was easily navigable,' servej,^ a considerable .amount of merchandise from Indie -,tn the [Caspian] Sea'>. from there It rapidly-reached the coast^ofJArMiiifis^^P^ (Azerbaijan), there' to ascend the Cyrus (Kour) t vteschV^*T!*piwjs lu,j^^ ^ side and redescend to the Black Sea 16 . Plpaliy. it the maritime route skirted the coast of Cedrosla - and, • «f .t,r| explored by S^ylax and Nearchus, was occasionally uoed'hiy^the^;^;/^
ships of the Diadochus.- Seleucus -. transportediMroB-L’tka'^ta^^feff-^
Delta to the mouth of the Euphrates, some Indian »picms>fo^V^«^^ the Journey proved fatal .... •" F 1
Antiochus I Soter (280-261), the son of Seleucus^ himself ^ ; ^
re-explored eastern Iran and built and fortified, under the name ^
of Antioch, Alexandria-in Margiana (Mcrv) and A1 exa nd r la -Esc hat c (Khojend (now Leninabad)) 18 .* ;
During the same period, the Mediterranean world was aqklng remarkable progress in its knowledge of India as a result of the detailed and exact information supplied to it by its ambassadors •* f
who had been sent by the Diadochus to. the Mauryan court. Mega- * ’
sthenes and Deimachus had both been sent as ambassadors to Patall- putra, Megasthenez to Candragupta (313-289) and Deimachus to his |
son Bindusara Amitragbata (289-264), and they have left us records |
of their Journeys 19 . In fact Megasthenes. who was attached to f
the person of Sibyrtius, the satrap of Arachosla, visited Candra- punt *.*) 20 several rimes and wrof c the T nd i k a which for centuries
Buddhist Studies Review 5, 2 (1988)
remained the best, not to say the only source of information on
India. His description of Pataliputra, reproduced in Arrian's
Indike , is remarkably accurate, t as is proved by recent excava¬ tions; moreover, the precise details supplied by Megasthenes
on the Indian nation, its manners, institutions and castes agree
with the majority of the more authoritative indications supplied
by the tfautaIya-Arthaiastra , a summary of the Indian institu¬ tions whose author, or one of several,- vas possibly CSnakya, also known as Visnugupta, a minister and counsellor of Candragupta.
What is more, Megasthenes, on behalf of Seleucus, reconnoit¬ red and measured in schoeni the Royal Highway or basilike hodos - in Sanskrit rajavlthl - which crossed India from west to east, linking the Hydaspes to the mouths of the Ganges. Pliny kept
the topographical record compiled by Megasthenes and added to it corrections supplied later by other bematists: 'From the Hypa- sis to the River Sydrus, 169,000 paces; from there to the River lomanes, as much (a few copies add 5 miles); from there to the
Ganges, 112.5 miles; from there to Rhodapha, 569 miles (others
evaluate this distance at 325 miles); from there to the town of Calllnlpaza, 167.5 miles (according to others, 165 miles); from there to the confluence of the lomanes and the Ganges, *625 miles (a great many add 13;5 miles); from there to the town of Pallboth-
ra, 425 miles; from there to the mouth of the Ganges, 637.5
miles . As far as we know, the towns of Rhodapha and Calllnlpaza have yet to be identified; conversely, there is no cifficulty in recognising the Beas in the Hypasis, the Sutlej in the Sydrus, the Yamuna (Jumna) in the lomanes, Prayaga in the confluence of the lomanes and Ganges, and Pataliputra or Patna in Palibothra. Already by the time of the Mauryas, a great communication artery connected Taxila to Tamralipti, present-day Tamluk on the east coast, by way of Mathura, KauSambI and Pataliputra. Ptolemy 11 Philadelphus (285-247), whose reign partly coincided with that of ASoka, was represented at the Mauryan court by an ambassador with the name of Dionysius 25 ; as for the Indian emperor, it is known in which circumstances and for what purpose he sent his messengers of the Dharraa to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and Cyrenai- ca 26 .
The secession of the satrapy of Bactrla in 250 B.C., shortly followed by the revolt of Parythene in 249 , was the first blow
to- Seleucld supremacy in Asia. Relations which had been maintain¬ ed until then with the Indian empire became desultory: the pro^- gressive weakening of the Magadhan kingdoms under the last Kauryas and the §unga usurpers made them, moreover, less desirable. The attempt begun between 247 and 246 by Seleucus II Callinicus to reconquer eastern Iran failed due to the coalition of the Parthiap llridates and the Bactrlan Dlodotus II 27 . The operation* carried out In Bactrla, from 207 to 206, by Antlochu* III the Great proved fruitless! vanquishing the Parthian Artaban, he forced hi* way across the Arlus (Herl-rud) and blockaded Buthydeaus of Hagnptla i„ his stronghold at Zarlaspa (Charjui); however, after two years of investment, the Eplgonus eventually treated with hi* rival and raised the siege in order to return to Syria by taking the route through the Hi“hdu Kush - Bactra, Bamlyan and Parvan - then
the tracks in Arschosla and Caraania which had previously been
used by Craterus
The defeats inflicted by the Romans on Antiochus III, at Thermopylae (191), Corycus and hagnesia-under-Slpylos (190), toi¬ led the knell for Seleucid power in Asia. The Parthian rulers
profited from this to consolidate their kingdom and enlarge it at the expense of Syria, henceforth cut off from all contact with India. In 138 Mithridates I defied Demetrius II Nicator and took him prisoner; in 128 his son Phraates II killed Antiochus VII Sidetes in combat. When Syria was annexed by Pompey to the Repub¬ lican States (64 B.C.), the Arsacid Parthians continued to oppose any extension of the new Roman province to the east; in 53 B.C. the Suren of Orodes 1 bested the legions of the triumvir Crassus
at Carrhae (Harran); more than twenty thousand Roman soldiers
perished on the battlefield, ten thousand prisoners were taken in captivity to Merv, and the head of Crassus was transported to Artaxata and cast at the feet of King Orodes and his son Pacor- , us during a performance of the Bacchantes by Euripides. From
51 to 38, the Parthian armies commanded by Osaces and Pacorus invaded Roman Syria up to three times, finally to be repulsed at Gindarus (Jindaris in northern Syria) by General Ventidius Bassus. However, when (Mark) Antony, in the year 36 B.C., pro¬ ceeded to the Euphrates under the pretext of revenging the affront meted out to the corpse of Crassus seventeen years previously, Phraates IV, the son and successor of Orodes, inflicted a bloody
defeat on him at the battle of Phraata (Takht-1-Sulemeln) in Atro-
patene .
The incessant wars kept up by the Parthians at the end of the pre-Christian era against Seleucid Syria and the Roman Repub¬ lic considerably slowed trade overland between India and the Medi¬ terranean West; however, the growing progress of Alexandrian navigation under the Ptolemies of Egypt maintained contact between the two continents.
The Ptolemies (323-30 B.C.). - Under the first Lagidae, Ptolemy I Soter (323-285), Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246) and Ptolemy III Euergetes, Graeco-Egyptian ships attached to the port of Alex¬ andria still went no further than to explore the Red Sea and re¬ connoitre the Arabian coast as far as Bab-al Mandeh and the shores of the Somalis to the west of Cape Guardaful, initiating exchanges with the Sabaean Arabs of the Yemen and the local Ethiopians. However Euergetes, whose victory over the Seleucids briefly gave him possession of Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Suaiana, sent ships to re-explore the [[[Persian]]] Gulf, from the Euphrates to India. Without leaving the Gulf, however, this fleet sailed before the wind in the*direction of A1 Qatar then skirted the 'Pirate Coast' as far as Cape Maketa, modern Ras Masandan 3 ^.
In the reign of Ptolemy VIII, known as Euergetes.il Physcon (145-116), coastguards on the [[[Persian]]] Gulf discovered a half¬ dead stranger on a shipwrecked boat. He was taught G^eek and, when he could speak it, the shipwrecked man explained that he had set out from India but, having gone astray and seen all his companions perish from hunger, he had been cast onto the Egyptian coast. He agreed, should the king intend to send an expedition to India, to act as guide. Euergetes II immediately equipped a ship, the command of which he entrusted to a certain Euxodus, who had come from Cyzicus to Alexandria as a theoros and spondo - phorus of the Choreian games. Euxodus therefore left with rich gifts for India from where he soon returned with a full lading of perfumes and precious gems, which Euergetes quickly acquired for himself. Some time later. Queen Cleopatra, the sister and widow of the king, sent Eudoxus back to India with greater resour¬ ces; while returning, the explorer was carried off by the monsoon to the south of Cape Guardaful and stranded in Ethiopia. He col¬
lected valuable information of a geographic and linguistic nature
on that country and acquired a fragment of prow engraved with
the effigy of a horse: the ship from which that piece of wreckage
came had probably belonged to navigators from the West who had •
ventured too far beyond the Lixus (Oued Draa on the southern fron¬
tier of Morocco). Back in Egypt, Eudoxus was once again frustrat¬
ed of his gains and Ptolemy IX Lathyrus, the son of Cleopatra,
seized his cargo. Nonetheless, the explorer wanted to return
to India, this time on his own account and by circumnavigating
Africa to the vest: setting out from Alexandria, he called at
Dicaerchia (Puteoli) in Italy, Massllla (Marseilles) in Gaul and
Gades (Cadiz) in Spain; from there he sailed * before the wind
out to sea, the Cape to his south. Wrecked on the coast which
he hugged too closmly, he built a pentecontor out of the remains
of his ship and continued on his way until a point where he en¬
countered peoples who obviously spoke the same language as the
one whose^vocabulary he had recorded on his previous voyage.
He believed himself to be south of Cape Guardaful when in reality he was in Moiocco. Wishing to obtain some larger ships before sailing »on for India, he abandoned the expedition and vent back. The ventures of Eudoxus, first narrated by the geographer Posido¬ nius (born c. 135 B.C.), were repeated by Strabo 31 who criticises them point by point and rejects the whole story as 'A tale in the style of Antiphanes'. Nevertheless, our geographers gladly give some credit to the peregrinations of Eudoxus while remarking that the record does not supply any precise details on India, the object of the voyage, and that his vague definitionof it lacks
accuracy.
Under Ptolemy XII Auletus (80-51), Greek adventurers set foot on the island of Socotra, formerly called dvlpa Sukhadara 'the Happiness-bearing Island', but to which they gave the name of Dioscorides. Socotra, located on the route to India off Cape Syagrus (Ras Partak), was still too far from the departure bases and the new colonists Immediately ffell under the domination of the Arabs of the Hadhramaut 32 . At the time of the Perlplus of the Erythraean Sea , that is about the first century of. £he Chris¬ tian era, the island was still Inhabited by Arabs, Indians and Greeks. Thrusting their reconnoitres further along the Arabian coast, the Graeco-Alexandrian navigators learned that Acila, pre-
Buddhist Studies Review 5, 2 (1988)
sent day Ras as-Hadd, situated at the eastern extreme of southern Arabia, constituted an important emporium of thd" Sabaean Scenltes and that it was an embarkation-point for India 33 ; nevertheless, the hostility of the local inhabitants prevented foreigners from U6ing this port.
II. TRADE UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE*
Relative peace in the East. The constitution of the Roman Empire and the policy of peace initiated in the East initiated by Augus¬ tus had most favourable results on the development of large- scale trade. The incessant hostilities which had formerly oppos¬ ed the Parthlans to the Romans lessened and long periods of peace, often continuing for several decades, cleared the way to Iran and India for merchants and navigators. After the victory of Actiura (30 B.C.), Augustus became closer to the Parthian King Phraates IV (37-2 B.C.) and gave him his youngest son to kq.ep
as a hostage; in exchauge, Phraates formally returned the eagles and standards of Crassus' legions to the Romans (20 B.C.). Phra¬ ates, wishing to demonstrate his confidence in Augustus, had his four sons educated in Rome. The king of the Persians was to die of poison through tue manoeuvres of his own wife Husa, a clave of Italian origin, and of his son Phraates. The latter mounted the throne in the year 2 B.C. where he remained until 9 A. C, without Rome raising any objections. When Phraates was overthrown by a palace revolution, Augustus, at the request of the Iranian nobility, sent to Persia the eldest son of Phraates IV who assumed the crown in the year 9 under the name of Vonones I (9-il A.C.) However, the Roman education the young prince
had received displeased his compatriots who exiled him to Syria and replaced him by a nobleman of Hyrcanian origin, Artaban III, who ruled from the years II to 43. The new sovereign was on generally friendly terms with Augustus and Tiberius. The Roman emperors had understood that Iran, over de-centralised and sapped by dynastic quarrels, did not constitute any danger and there was no point in dealing with it except defensively: Persia occu¬ pied a key position on the great routes of communication and could at will stop or favour intercontinental trade. Prom the military point of view. Imperial objectives were strictly limited
to the maintenance of the Roman protectorate over Armenia and the occupation of the strongholds in Mesopotamia.
Under Tiberius (14-37), Germanicus, who was named as comman ¬ dant of the eastern province, established a cllent-atate-of Rome* in Armenia (17), without provoking any reaction from the Persians. However, in 36 Vitellus, the governor of Syria, found it desirable to depose Artaban Ill and replace him on the throne of Seleucela with a rival, Tiridates III. The event ended in the triumph of Artaban, who returned victoriously to the capital, and Seleu- ceia was lost to the Hellenic cause.
Under Nero (54-68). the Parthian King Vologeses I (51-78) won Armenia from the ^Romans and installed his brother Tiridates there. Vanquished by General Domitius Corbulo, he nevertheless obtained an honourable peace in the terms of which his brother would continue to govern Armenia but receive his crown from the hands of Nero. The ceremony took place in the year 66 at Rome, to which the emperor proceeded with great pomp. He was planning, in agreement with the Parthians, to make an expedition to the Caucasus and the heart of Asia when death put an end to his pro¬ ject .
Some fifty years later, Trajan (97-117), wanting to seise Armenia from the hands of Osroes or Khosrau (107-130), disembark¬ ed at Antioch and, in the course of two campaigns (115-114), took Ctesiphon and conquered the major part of the Parthian em¬ pire. f However, while he was exploring the 'Erythraean Sea', near the [[[Persian]]) Gulf, the country rebelled. Once the revolt was quelled Trajan, having returned to Ctesiphon, placed the diadem on the head of Parthamaspates, the son of Osroes. Illness prevented him from consolidating his conquests and he died in < August 117 on * "the way home, at Sellnus in Clcllla. However, in 123 his successor Hadrian (117-138) concluded peace with Per¬ sia and the boundary of the Roman Empire was, once again, extend¬ ed to the Euphrates. Hostilities recommenced when Vologeses CXI (148-191) set his brother Pacorus on the throne of Armenia. Emperor Lucius Verus, co-regent of Marcus Aurelius, .-led the war for four years (162-165) with great success: vanquisher at Euro- poe, he rated the palace of Ctesiphon and burnt Seleucela. It would have been worse for the Persian kingdoms had. It nqt been
for a plague which decimated the Roman legions and forced them to retreat before they could spread throughout the empire. Again in 197, Septimus Severus (193-211) marched against Vologeses
IV (191-208) who threatened the stronghold of Nisibis in Mesopo¬ tamia; Babylonia was conquered and Ctesiphon laid waste. The Persians were not long in recovering: the last Arsacid, Artaban
V (213-227), despite the intrigues of his rival Vologeses, was able to inflict crushing defeats (217-218) on the emperor Macri- nus and impose heavy war tributes on him. Finally, in 226, the Parthian empire of the Arsacids collapsed under the attack of the Percian Ardashir who inaugurated the Sassanld dynasty in Iran. The new kingdom was to endure until 651 and present a more formidable threat to the decadent Roman Empire than the Parthians«
Eviction of the Arab danger . - From the beginnings of the Roman Empire, the caravan towns located on the border of Parthian and Roman power, such as Damascus, Palmyra, Petra, etc., enjoyed a period of Increased prosperity. However, the safety of commer¬ cial trade was threatened by the Himyarite and Sabaean Arabs who ransomed the caravans and controlled navigation on the coasts of the Hejaz, Aslr, Yemen, Hadhramaut and Oman. Augustus resol¬ ved to make them see reason. A Roman expedition organised with the concurrence of the Egyptians, Jews and Nabataean Arabs from Petra was entrusted to Aelius Callus. Setting out from Cleopat- ris in the Gulf of Suez in the year 25 B.C., it crossed the Red Sea, disembarked at El Ha ira, pushed across the Nejd and Aslr as far as the frontiers of the Yemerv and Hadhramaut. Aelius Callus, launched In pursuit of an elusive enemy, wandered in the desert for more than six months and ended by relmbarklng
at Acre in order to regain the west shore of the Red Sea at Myos
Hormos . In about the year 1, Isodorus of Charax, commissioned by Augustus and with the authorisation of the Parthians, explored both shores of the (Persian] Gulf, and this reconnaissance proba¬ bly led to a raid on Arabia Felix (the Yemen] as well as the sack of Aden *by Caesar* 35 .
Freed from the threat made on their expeditions by the pilla¬ ging Arabs, the Graeco-Alexandrian merchants, financed by Roman money, intensified trade between the West and the East, a trade
which was hardly interrupted by the hostilities which broke out at regular intervals between Rome and Ctesiphon. Goods were transported by land and sea, and the length of the regular routes was accurately reconnoitred and described in numerous works plac¬ ed at the disposal of travellers, such as for example the Ceogra-*
phica of Strabo, the Stathmoi Parthikoi by Isodorus of Charax,
the Periplus of the Inner Sea by Menippus of Pergamum, the Peri- plus of the Erythraean Sea by an anonymous pilot, etc.
The Silk Road . - Internal trade was carried out along the Silk Road 36 , reconnoitred in the first century by agents of the Graeco- Syrian Maes Titianus. The information they collected was publish¬ ed in about the*year 100 A.C. by the geographer Karinus of Tyre
and reproduced a century later in the Ceographia of Claudius Ptolemaeus (128-170 A.C.) 37 . The Silk Road, linking the 30*
and 105* meridians, started at Antioch, the capital of Roman Asia,, and . ended in Lc-yang, the capital of China; the route was divided into two parts of basically equal length: the western section, from the Euphrates crossing to the Stone Tower, and the ea'stern section from the Stone Tower to China.
Starting at Antioch on the Orontes, the Silk Road crossed the Euphrates at Heirapolis (Menbij) and entered the Parthian kingdom. From there it crossed Ecbatana (Hamadan), Rhagae (Rayy, near modern Tehran), the Caspian Gates, Hecatorapylos (Charhud) and Antioch in Margiana (Merv). Then, entering the Kusana king¬ dom, it intersected the important communication junt tJlon of Bac- tra (Skt. Bahli), the capital of Bactria (Skt. Tukharasthana) and, continuing eastward, reached, at the foot^of the Komedai mountains, the Stone Tower (GR. Lithinos Pyrgos, Skt. Kabhanda), present-day Tas Kurgan in the Pamirs. It was there that the Levantine merchants exchanged their goods for bales of silk from China.
On 118 eastern section, which was particularly frequented by Serindlan and Chinese caravans, the Silk Road reached Kasgar (Skt. Khasa) where it subdivided into two tracks which ran re¬ spectively through the south and north parts of Chinese Turkestan.
The southern route, the oldest to be used, crossed Yarkand (Arghan), Khotan (Kustana),.Niya and Miran, eventually to reach the Serindlan kingdom of Lou-lan, later Shan-shan t in the region
Buddhist Studies Review 5, 2 (1988)
of Lop-Nor 30 .
The northern track, skirting the Tarim Basin to the north,
passed through U<5 Turfan (Hecyuka), Aksu (Bharuka), Ku6a (Kuci),
Kara&ar (Agni), Turfan, Hami, the Jade Gate and finally Tunhuang,
where it rejoined the southern route
The Silk Road then entered China proper, continuing through Chiu-ch' tian, Chang-yeh, Ch'ang-an (present-day Sian or Xian) and ended at the Han capital Lo-yang (modern Luo-yang).
At Bactra the SJ.lk Road was Intersected perpendicularly by another artery linking the capital of Turkestan with Sogdiana to the north and India to the south.
Leaving Bactra, the route to Sogdiana crossed the Oxus (Vak- su), passed through the Iron Gates and reached Samarkand (Mara- canda), the capital of Sogdiana (Sail). Describing a huge arc circling Ferghana, it crossed the Jaxartes, passed through Ta$- kent and, traversing the Land of a Thousand Streams, reached the town of Aksu through the T*ien-shan massif 40 .
The old Indian highway 41 which also began in Bactra ran south to the high peaks of the Hindu Kush and, through the passes of Kara-Kotal (2,840 'a.), Dandan Shikan (2,690 a.),'Ak Robat (3,215 m.), Shibar (2,985 m.), as well as the valleys of Ghorbadd and Kabul, arrived at the Indus which it crossed in order to reach Taxila. The main halting-places on the Bactra-Taxila section, which was some 700 km long, were: Bamiyan (Persian Bamlkan), Klpilt (Begram), Nagarahara (Jelalabad), Puskaravatl (Charsadda), Udabhanda (Und on the Indus) and, finally., /Taksadila 42 . The ancient highway diverged considerably from the modern Trunk Road which, starting in Mazar-e-Sharif or Khanabad,. passes through Bamiyan (or Salang), Kabul, Peshawar and Attock, ending at Rawal¬ pindi. In TaksaSila, the Indian highway curved south, reaching Mathura , on the right bank of the Yamuna, a tributary of the Gan¬ ges. Mathura communicated with the west coast via UjjaylnX and Bharukaccha, and with the east coast through KaudfnbX, Patallput- ra and Tamraliptl. A transverse track linked Ujjayinl, the chief town of Avanti, with Kaudambr, the Vatsa capital.
To the east of the old Bactra-Taxila artery, the obligatory route for any expedition of importance, began the mountainous tracks which connected India more closely with Kasgaria and Kho-
tan. We will describe only three of them here :
1. The Chitral trail mounting the course of the Kunar and communicating with Chinese Turkestan through the Baroghil Pass and the Vakhjir Pass.
2. The Gilgit route across the great Himalaya and Karakorum mountains (6,000 km. as the crow flies). Starting out from Srin¬ agar in Kadmlr, it traversed Bandipur, the Rajingan Pass (3,590 m.), Gurez, the Burzll Pass (4,188 m.), Godhai, Astor, Bunji, Gil¬ git, Mlsgar, the Kilik Pass (4,750 m.). Mintaka, Tas Kurgan (3,210 m.), the Ullong Pabst Pass (4,230 m.), finally ending in KaSgar (1,300 m.) 44 .
3. The route via Leh, also beginning in Srinagar*and linking the capital of Kadmlr with the southern Tarim Basin. Crossing Leh in Little Tibet, it traversed the high passes of the Ladakh Range, the Karakorum and Kun-lun mountains, rejoining Chinese Turkestan between Yarkand and Khotan. Since it reached altitudes of 6,000 m., it was oily practicable in summer.
The Silk Road and the secondary tracks did not serve exclu¬ sively for the transport of merchandise but were used also, as were the maritime routes at the same time, by the Chinese and Indian ambassadors tc reach their diplomatic posts. In 138’ B.C., the Han emperor Wu-ti sent his envoy Chang Ch*len to the* Greater YUeh-chih of Sogdiana and Bactria in order to conclude an alliance with them against the Hsiung-nu 45 . In 97 A.C., the Chinese general Pan Ch*ao, who had just pacified Serindla, sent his lieutenant Kan Ying to open relations with the Arsacid Parth- ians and the Roman Empire of Nerva; however, overawed by the length of the route, he only partly accomplished his mission and turned back in Parthia without going as far as Ta-ch*in 46 .
The Indians and*Scythians, of whom we know only the name, spontan¬ eously sent anbasssadors to Augustus to seek his friendship and that of the Roman people. One of these ambassadors sent by Pan- dion or Porus presented the emperor with rich gifts, and an Indian sophist who was included, Zarmanochegas or Zarmanus of Bargosa (Bharukaccha), repeating the spectacle presented earlier by Cala- nus to Alexander, burnt himself in Athens in 21 B.C. 47 . In the j reign of Claudius, between 41 and 54, a freedman having been carried by the monsoon to Taprobane, the king of Ceylon sent
Utt Buddhist Studies Review 5, 2 (1988)
to Claudius In return an embassy led by a certain Rachlas (rajan?) who .supplied Pliny with Information on the great island* 8 . In the year 99 an embassy from the king of India, doubtless Wima Kadphlses, arrived in Rome at the moment when Trajan was return¬ ing after his brilliant victory over the Dacae. Seated with the senators, the Indian envoys witnessed the emperor's triumph. At the end of the reign of Hadrian (117-138), the kings of the
Bactrians - undoubtedly the Kusana sovereigns of the North-West
- sent him legates to seek his friendship . In 138, during his accession, Antionius Pius (138-161) :also received Indians, Bactrians and Hyrcanians who came, once again, to offer an alli¬ ance 50 . Finally, between the years 218 and 222, the Babylonian historian Bardesanes was able to confer, at Emesa in Syria, with Dandaois, an envoy sent on an embassy to the emperor Elagabulus 5 *.
(To be concluded)
- This article was originally published under the title of ‘Les premieres
relations entre l'Inde et 1'Occldent' in La Nouvolle Clio, V, 1-4 (1953), Melanges Albert Carnoy, pp.83-118. Translated from the French by Sara Boin- Webb with most grateful apprec ation to the Council of tho Buddhist Society, London, for generous financial aid.
NOTES
1 The most valuable information is provided by the Greek and Roman geographers
and naturalists. Main sources are the Geographies of Strabo (65 B.C.-20 A.C.),
Naturalis Historia , XXXVII libri , by Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.C.), De Chorogra -
phia, III libri , by Pomponius Mela (post 44 A.C.), Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea by an unknown author of disputed date (end of the first century?). Ceogra-
phia of Ptolemy (c. 100-179 A.C.), Historia Rctnana of Dio Cassius (post 229
A.C.) etc.
Among the long lists of surveys, noteworthy arc H.G. Rawlinson, Intercourse between India and the Western World ... to the Tall of Ranc , 2nd ed , Cambridge 1926; E.H. Warm! ngton. Commerce between the Reman Empire and. India, Cambridge 1928; M. Cary and E. Warmington. The Ancient Explorers , Cambridge 1929; and, more recently, J. Filllozat, 'Les ^changes ue l'Inde et de I'Empire romain aux premiers slides de l'6re chr6tienne', Revue historique , Jan-Mar 1949, PP.1-29.
7 Herodotus, IV 44; cf. Ill, 102.
For details of the itinerary followed by Alexander in Asia see W.W. Tarn, Alexander the Great, 2 vol., Cambridge 1948.
Ed, Since this essay was first published many of the place names, particularly
Indian ones, have changed, but wc have not tried to update them all as this
would add further to the already long lists. Also a vast literature has grown
up around many of the topics discussed by Lamotte but space precludes the
insertion of all the relevant additions to the bibliography. However, the
following two items warrant mention by virtue of their incorporating major
themes featured in the author's own work:’
Jean U. Sedlar India and the Greek World . A Study in the Transmission of Culture, Totowa, New Jersey 1980.
Irene M. Franck and David M. Brownstone The Silk Road . A History. New York , 1986.
See also, of course, the updated bibliography in E. Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism , translated from the French by Sara Boln-Webb, Publications de L'ln- stitut Orientaliste de Louvain 36, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988.
(Notes fallow)
4 Strabo, XI, 8, 9; XV, 2, 0; Pliny, VI, 61.
5 Strabo, XI, 8, 9; Pliny, VI, 45.
6 Arrian, IncUAe, II, l: T& 61 dnd xoG *MoG «pdc /». xoGxo pot lexw ij x&p 7><56r yij.
7 Strabo, XV, I, 26-28; XV, 2, 8; Pliny, VI, 62.
8 Strabo, XV, 2,8,; XV, 1,11; Athenaeus, XI, 102, 500 d; XII, 39, 529 e; II, 74, 67 a; X, 59, 442 b; XII, 9, 514 f; Aelianus, De Nature Animalium, XVII, 17; V, 14.
9 Arrian, Anabasis, VI, 15, 7.
Arrian, Anabasis , VI, 3; Strabo, XV, 2, 11.
Early Relatione 1
29 For historical details, see C. Huart and L. Delaporte, L'lran Antique ,
Paris, 1943, pp.322 ff; R. Ghirshman, L'Jran dee Origines a f Islam, Paris
1951, pp.917 ff, 220 ff.
Pliny, IX, 6; cf. XII, 76.
31 Scrabo, II, 3, *-5.
32 Pliny, VI, 153; Periplus, 30; Cosnas Indicopleustes, III, 169 b.
33 Pliny, VI, 15K
34 Strabo, XVI, 4* 22-23; XVII, l, 54; Pliny, VI. 160-2; Dig Cassius, UII, •' 29; Virgil, Aeneid , VIII, 705.
35 Isodorus of Charax, LXXX ff; Periplus, 26.
36 On the Silk Road, see A. Hermann, Die alten 5eidenstrasse zvischen China
und Syrien, Ouellen und Forsch. z. alten Cesch. u. Geogr. , Berlin 1910, ‘Die
Seidenstrassen von China nach dem rdmischen Reich', Mitt . Cecg* Ces.,, Vienna
1915, p.472; 'Die alten chinesischen Karten von Zentralaslen und Westasien',
in Festschrift fur Fr. flirt/., Berlin 1920, p.185; Das Land der Seide und Tibet
im licht der An tike, I, Leipzig 1938; H. Luders, Wei t ere Beitrage zur* Ce-
schichte und Ceoyraphie vaa Ostturkistan, Sitz. Pr. Akad. d. Viss., Berlin 1930, p.17; P. Pelliot, La flaute Asie, and, as an appendix, 'Explorations et Voyages dans la Haute Asie', Paris 1931; R. Grousset, etc., I*Asie Orientate des Origines au XVe siecle, Paris 1949, p.198; l'Empire des Steppes, Paris 19- 39, p.78.
37 Ptolemy, Geographia, I, 11, 5-7, 12.
3 ® The southern track was especially reconnoitred between 1900 and 1915 by Sir Aurel Stein, who gave an account of his work in the book by Sir John Cam¬ ming, Revealing India's Past , London 1939, p#152.
The northern route was the object of several academic expeditions, among
which should be mentioned the French Pelliot-Vaillant mission (1906-B), the
German expeditions to Turfin (1902-14), the geographical survey by Sven Hedin
Buddhist Studies Review, 6, 1 (1989)
peased by the absence of animosity*.. [ incompleteJ.
- ^e finds a knowledgeable companion* who is always
of good conduct in this world and surmounts all obstacles,
let him go with him* his mind receptive and alert.
- V e ' does not find a well-experienced companion, who
is always of good conduct in this world, like a king departing from his lost kingdom, let him go alone and not commit any faults.
15. And if* while going, you do not find a companion who
Is your equal, (continue firmly on your) way alone: a
fool is not companionship.
alone is better; a fool (is not) companionship.
Go alone and do not commit faults, have few desires, like an elephant in the forest.
This varga is also called bhedavarga in the present Ms although its title is given here as drohavarga ,
(Translated by Sara Boin-Webb fiom the French of N.P. Chakravarti)
EARLY RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND THE WEST
Etienne Lamotte
Conclusion
The maritime routes. - Under the last Lagidae, the metropolis of Alexandria, once so flourishing, was declining fast. The terrible reprisals taken on the populace by P.toleray Euergetes II (145-116) after his return to Egypt had practically entirely exterminated the Alexandrian element in which were perpetuated, in opposition to the uneducated locals and indlscplincd mercena¬ ries, the traditions and customs of ancient Greece. The magistra- ture no longer functioned, laws and rules were no longer applied and,- in all this anarchy, the prosperity of the town was no more than a memory. The situation improved rapidly when Egypt became a Roman province after the battle of Actium'(31 B.C.): assisted by three army corps and nine cohorts, the legate and administra¬ tors sent to Egypt >y Augustus reorganised' the policing and re¬ established local raagistratures. Alexandria soon recovered its activities: ’What today contributes most to its prosperity/
noted Strabo at the beginning of the Christian era, ’is that it is the only locality in Egypt yhich is equally well placed both for maritime trade, because of the excellent lay-out of its port, and for inland trade due to the ease with which all the goods sent down the Nile reach it, which causes it to be the greatest entrepot in the whole world.* Its commercial relations with India and Troglodytica (western Africa) have developed fur¬ ther. Since the most precious merchandise first reaches Egypt from tho~e two countries, there to be distributed throughout the world, Egypt exacts double cues (entry and exit dues) there* from, the heavier the more valuable are the goods, without count¬ ing the advantages inherent in any monopoly since Alexandria is, as it were, the only entrepot for such merchandise and it alone can supply other countries . On the west coast of the Red Sea, particularly at Myos Hormos and Berenice, other ports had been fitted up where ships sailing up or down the Persian Gulf could find a sure haven 53 . After the expeditions organized
Buddhist Studies Review 6, 1 (1989)
by Augustus against the pillaging Arabs of the Yemen and Hadhra- maut (25 and 1 B.C.), the way was free and, having gone up the Kile to Syene (Assuan) in the company of the prefect Aellus, Strabo was able to ascertain that 120 vessels left Myos Homos annually for India whereas, under the Ptolemies, few merchants had risked such a voyage 54 . The Alexandrian fleets generally called at the west coast of India, not caring to venture further east; nevertheless, certain merchants, though as yet very few, having touched land in India, hugged her coastline as far as the Ganges Delta 55 .
Progress in navigation made under the Empire consisted in the fact, that pilots, forsaking cabotage which they had practised until then, dared to risk the open sea by trusting in the move¬ ment of the monsoon. In addition to the old route from Aden to the Indus Delta along the coasts of Arabia and Makran, three new sea-ways were rapidly reconnoitred and used in the first century, of the Christian era: Aden - Barbarlcon or Aden - Bary- gaaa, Aden - the ports of Konkan, and finally, Aden - the Malabar coast.
1. The earlier cabotage seems still to have been customery at the beginning of the Empire. The fleets carefully hugged the coastline of the Indian Ocean which had already been explored from east to west by Scylax of Caryanda under thV Acbaemenlds, as well as by Nearchus under Alexander. Setting sail from Myos Hormos, the ships went down the Persian Gulf, at Aden skirted Arabia Felix, ran along the free Coast of Incense (Hadhramaut) to its easternmost point (Acila, present-day Ras-el-Hadd), sailed up the Gulf of Oman to the tip of Cape Maketa (Ras Masandan), regained the Makran coast which they followed to the mouth of the Indus, there*to drop anchor at Barbarlcon (Skt. Patala, modern Bahadipur), an important trading-post on the central arm of the Delta. 'Northward and inland,* says the Periplus , 'there is the “ctropolis of Scythia, Hinnigara, governed by Parthlans who, pressurised by internal dissensions, pursue each other; the ships remain at anchor in Barbarlcon, but ail the merchandise goes up the river to the capital' 56 . In fact, Indo^-Scythia Included the Pahlava and ^aka-Pahlava kingdoms respectively of Seletan and the Sindh which were unified in the reign of the Parthian sovereign Gondophares (c. 19-45 A.C.) but* on the death of the
king, fragmented into a series of independent satrapies which were forever in dispute: the western Punjab ruled by Abdagases, Arachosia and the Sindh reigned over successively by Orthagnes and Pacores, and the other territories governed by Sasas, Sapadena and Satavastra. This confused situation, which in no way impeded the activities of the ports or the movement of trade, continued until approximately the year 65 A.C., the probable date of the conquest of Indo-Scythia by the great Kusana king Kujula Kadphi-
Although at the time the maritime route was mainly used by ,
Graeco-Alexandrian navigators, the Indians in turn occasionally
attempted one or two expeditions westward. Nicolaus of Damascus
(c.64. B.C. - 4 4 A.C.), whose evidence is recorded by Strabo and
Dio Cassius 5 ^, narrates how, while at Antioch in Syria, tie met
an embassy which the Indians had sent to Caesar Augustus. The
deputies, whom the hazards of the Journey had reduced ' to three*
in number, bore a letter in Greek from King Porus or Pandion,
in which the sovereign declared that, while being lord and master
of 600 kings, he nonetheless set great store by the friendship
of Caesar. He offered to give him free passage through his lands
to go wherever he wished, even to assist him personally in any .
honest and Just enterprise. In addition to the letter were *
young man both of whose arms were amputated but who could draw
a bow with his feet, a serpent two cubits in length, a giant
tortoise and a partridge larger than a vulture. This walking
circus was accompanied by the gyranosophist philosopher Zarmanoche-
gas or Zarmanus, a native of Bargosa (Bharukaccha, present-day
Broach); repeating the exploit of Calanus, he burnt himself
in Athens after having laughingly climbed his own pyre. On his
tomb the following inscription was engraved: 'Here'lies Zarmano-
chegas, an Indian from Bargosa, who died a voluntary death, faith¬
ful to the custom of his fathers.*
This account, which is full of anachronisms and contradictions, is probably a pastiche invented to transfer to the name of Augus¬ tus the Indian adventures of Alexander, the vanquisher of Porus, who was interested in exotic philosophies and magic. However, the legend enables us to infer the possibility, if not the fre¬ quency, of Indian expeditions to the West at the time of Augustus.
Buddhist Studies Review 6, l (1989)
2. It was in the early years of the reign of Tiberius (14-
37 A.C.), it is believed, that Hippalus, a particularly intrepid
Creek pilot, - iJli robur et aes triplex , Horace supposedly decla¬
red! - forsook in- and off-shore navigation in order to sail
before the wind on the high seas, making use on his. outward voyage
of the south-west monsoon (May to October) and, for the return,
the north-east monsoon (November to March). First skirting the
coastline of southern Arabia ro the tip of Cape Syagros (Ras
Fartak), he then headed for the open sea in a straight line in
the direction of India, landing either at Barbaricon on the Indus
Delta in Indo-Scythla, or at Barygaza (Bharukaccha) at the mouth
of the Narbada. In memory of that exploit, repeated by numerous
emulators, the name of Hippalus was given to the south-west mon¬
soon, to a cape on the African coast, as well as to part of the
Arabian Sea. Seemingly Hippalus is wrongly attributed with the
discovery, or at least rediscovery, of the monsoon. Already
by the time of Nearchus, as we saw above, the movement of the
etesian winds was fully known to the Greeks and from then on
never ceased regulating coastal navigation. However, Hippalus
used it, not for coastal sailing, but for an excursion on the
high seas. It is audacity rather than a knowledge of the winds
that was Hippalus* merit. This fact io clear from a paragraph
in the Perlplus of the Erythraean Sea : 'All the coastal naviga¬
tion from Kane (on the southern Arabian coast) and Arabia Felix (Aden) was made by earlier navigators by means of cabotage in small ships. But Hippalus, a pilot, having reconnoitred the situation of the (Indian) ports and the configuration of the (Arabian) Sea, was the first to discover sailing on the open sea. It is from him that... the Libonotus (south-west wind) which blows on the Indian Ocean, seems to have received its name (of Hippalus). Since then and until now, navigators set out directly (to the open sea), some leaving from Kane, others sailing from the Coast of Incense. Those who sail towards Limyrice (Mala¬ bar coast) tack for most of the time; while those who make for Barygaza (Broach on the Gulf of Cambay) or Scythia (Sindh) hug (the Arabian coastline) for no more than three days and, finding a wind faourable to their course, reach the high seas and sail in the open to the aforesaid ports' 58 .
The northern route discovered by Hippalus seems, at least at
the beginning of the Empire, to have been the most used. It led directly from Aden to Barbaricon (1,470 miles) or Barygaza (1,700 miles). Barbaricon, a great trading centre which served North-West India, was easy of access; conversely, entering Bary- xgaza was highly dangerous: navigators coming from the open sea risked running aground . on the sandy dunes of t v e F.irinos (Rann and the Gulf of Kutch) or breaking up on the reefs of the Barake promontory (Dvaraka, present-day Dwarka) at the eastern point of Sur.astrene (Saurastra or the Kathiawar peninsula) 59 . Those who were forced to sail that route therefore had to turn about and take to the high seas along the southern coast of Surastrene where local fishermen piloted them across the Gulf of Cambay to the port, of Barygaza, at the mouth of the river Lamniaos (Nar¬ bada in Sanskrit) 60 . At the time of the Perlplus, that is. towards the end of the first century A.C., this major port formed part of the possessions of King Manbanus who ruled over Aberia (Halva) and Aparanta in northern Konkan. This Manbanus in the Perlplus has been identified by A.M. Boyer with the rajan ksaharata ksatta-
Iranian, 'Protector of the People'. He struck coins of silver, nickel and copper bearing on the obverse the head of the satrap to the right, with traces of Greek characters and, on the reverse, the symbols of the thunderbolt and arrow with Indian legends in Brahml and KharosthI script 61 . His name appears on eight Buddhist inscriptions discovered in the caves at Karli, Nasik and Junnar, commemorating the generosity of his son-in-law Usvada- ta and his minister Ayama towards the Community of monks Two of them bear the dates 41 , 42 , 45 and 46, probably to be
interpreted as the Saka era: 119, 120, 123 and 124 A.C. Although the Perlplus locates his capital at Minnigara in Aryake, probably Junnar, the Jaina legend makes him king of Bharukaccha and sup¬ plies details of the skirmishes of Nahavahana (- Nahapana) with his powerful neighbour, King Salavahana (- Satavahana) of Pai- han 63 . In about the year 124 in fact. Nahapana was overthrown
by a Satavahana king of the Deccan, Gautamlputra Sri SStakarni, who was then in the eighteenth year of his reign . At the time of the Perlplus , the kingdom of NahapSna abounded in wheat, rice, sesame oil, butter, and cotton which served to make coarse fabrics; pasturages were .numerous, the inhabitants taller than average
Buddhist Studies Review 6, 1 (1989)
and black-skinned 65 . Barygaza (Bharukaccha) was linked with
the North West by a great artery, the main halting-places of
which were Ozene (Ujjayini) in Avanti, Modura (MathurS) in Sura-
sena country, Taxila (Tak$a6ila) in the western Punjab and, final¬
ly, Proklais (Puskarava 1 1) the capital of Gandhara. Proklais
supplied extract of spikenard oil to Kaspapyrus (Multan) and
in the Paropnmisadae, coitus, an aromatic Indian plant, and rub¬
ber; Ozene exported onyx stones, porcelain, linen textile and
coarse fabrics in quantity 66 . Barygaza also communicated via
rough tracks with the interior markets of Dakhinabades (Daksina-
patha or the Deccan), the most important of which were Paithana
(Pratisthana) and Tagara (Ter), respectively situated twenty
and thirty days by foot from Barygaza. Paithana supplied onyx,
and Tagara, textiles and cotton goods. All this merchandise
was taken by cart to Barygaza where it accumulated on the quays.
The Graeco-Alexandrian merchants exchanged it for articles from
the Vest: metals, glassware, gold and silver work, cheap perfumes,
boy-musicians, girIs destined to prostitution and especially 'gold
and silver denarii, more highly valued on the exchange markex
than the local coinage' 67 .
3. At the time of the Periplus , the ports and markers in the Bombay region were the object of protectionlst' measures and, consequently, avoided by foreign traders. It appears from the Indian sources that the port of Surparaka and the market of KalyS- na played a major part in maritime traffic and local trade, but the Poripius advises against them: 'Beyond Barygaza are situated local emporia of little importance, in this order: Suppara (Sur¬ paraka, modern Sopara) and Calliena (Kalyana, present-day Calli- ani); the latter town, at the time of Saragenes the Elder, was a regular market but, when Sandanes captured it, its activity was heavily curtailed and the Greek ships which venture to those places (are seized) and taken under escort to Barygaza' 6 ®, It was therefore not without reason that, half a century later, Ptolemy the geographer designated the towns of Konkan by the name of Towns of the Andres Poiratai 69 , that is, of the piratical Andhras, from the name of the Andhra or Satavahana sovereigns who then ruled over the region. However, one of the versions of the legend of Saint Thomas claims that the apostle first reach¬ ed India in the neighbourhood of Jaygarh in southern Konkan;
a papyrus by O^yrhynchus 70 records a meeting In the sane place between the local inhabitants and Greek navigators; finally and in particular, the inscriptions rediscovered in the caves at Nasik. Junnar and Karli mention among the generous benefactors of the Buddhist Community several Vavanas who, at least In part, were Greeks (Iones) 71 . #
4, However, the extreme south of the peninsula supplied tra¬ ders with even more coveted goods: pearls from the Culf of Hanaar, beryl from the mines of Coimbatore and pepper from the Malabar coast. The Romans were informed of all these riches by four Sinhalese ambassadors who went to Rome during the reign of Claudi¬ us (41-54 A.C.). An affranchised slave of Annius Plocamus, a
'tax-farmer' of the imperial treasury at the Red Sea, was carried away by* the winds 4 when he was turning the Cape of Aden and, after sailing for fifteen days, was cast onto the coast of Taprobane (Sri Lanka) near Hippuri. Made welcome by the king of the country, at that time BhStikibhaya 72 . the freedman learned Sinhalese and was able to answer the questions put to him by the locals on Italy and the Romans. The king of Taprobane, wishing to estab¬ lish friendly relations with Emperor Claudius, sent an embassy to Rome under the leadership of a certain Rachias, doubtless an anonymous rajan. Once they had reached their destination, the envoys provided the Romans in general and Pliny in particular with all kinds of information concerning the island of Ceylon and Sinhalese trade with the Seres (Chinese) beyond the Himalaya mountains 7 ^. *
Doubtless attracted by the lure of fabulous gains, an unknown navigator, even more audacious than Hippalus, attempted to reach the Malabar coast by setting sail from Aden and following an arc bent northwards, some 2,000 miles in length. This exploit which, it is believed, took place around the year 50 of the Chris¬ tian era, opened up a fourth sea-route towards India. The Periplus alludes to ft when it speaks of hardy intrepid navigators who, setting out from Kane or the Coast of Incense, 'steer towards Limyrice (Malabar coast) by tacking for most of the time* .and Pliny states that in order to use that route, the most advantage¬ ous departure point is Ocelis (Celia near Aden) and that from there one sails with the Hippalus wind for forty days as far as Huziris, present-day Cranganorc, the foremost market of India
According to the evidence of Pliny the Elder, the Periplus and Claudius Ptolemy, the ports of southern India were the scene of intensive trade during the second half of the first century and the whole of the second century of the Christian era. Here we shall mention only those whose Tamil name is easily recognis¬ able through their Greek and Latin transcription.
In the Cera region, on the Malabar coast:
Tondi: Krjoo^iQov 0 f t hc Pcriplus (Nos 53, 54) and of Ptolemy
MuciRi: the Muziris of Pliny (VI, 104), Mottos 0 f t h e p er ipi us (Nos 53, 54) and of Ptolemy (VII, 1, 8), *a port packed with Greek ships from Ariake* where long pepper (pippall, Greek )
was purchased with gold. The Peutinger rabies (Ch.XII), publish¬ ed in about the year 226 A.C., mention a temple of Augustus there.
Karuvur: Koqovq<i, , the royal town of A'i^/Moo; (Ptolemy, VII, 1, 86 ).
In the kingdom of the Pandyas, on the west and east coasts of Cape Comorin:
Nelcynda and Bacare noted by Pliny (VI, 105), the Periplus (Nos 55, -58) and Ptolemy (VII, 1, 8 and 9), the Tamil name of which as well as the exact location are unknown, perhaps Kotayara and Pokarad.
Kumari: Ko/iap, Kopunct 0 f the Periplus (Nos 58, 59), of Pto¬
lemy (VII, 1, 9), Cape Comorin.
KoRkei: pearl fisheries of the hotyn (Periplus, No.59; Ptolemy, (VII, 1, 10), the town of King Uuv6hu*.
In the Cola kingdom, on the Coromandel coast *(Colamandala): KSvirlpattiNam: the Cabirus of Pliny (VI, 94), Kuuaon of the Per - plus No.60), of Ptolemy (VII, 94), the great emporium of
the iVi*iyy«i (Colas) at the mouth of the Kaveri.
URandei: 9 (te0ovQ*i 0 f Ptolemy (VII, I, 91), capital of the (Co —
sovereign), today buried beneath the sands.
Pushing their reconnaissances further east, a small number of Greeks, doubtless making use of local embarkation points, risked venturing into the Gulf of Bengal. Among the Indian mar¬ kets and ports on the east coast where the navigators from Limyr- ice and the north put in, the Pcriplus records in this order: Camara (Kaviripatt INara ), Poduce (Pondicherry?) and Sopatraa (Mad-
ras?) 76 . Small coasters there served the ports of Limyrice, sangaras assembled by joining up large 'piraguas' (barques made from a single piece of timber], and kolandias (from the Skt. kola, 'raft'), vessels of the high seas, sailing from the Ganges Delta or the Chrysl Chersonesos, the ancient El Dorado correspon¬ ding to the Suvarnabhumi of the Indians and which may vaguely be located in Malaysia or part of Burma. ' It was, according to the Periplus, these local ships which the Greeks used to recon¬ noitre the island of Taprobane or Ceylon, Maisolia (Masulipatam) or Andhra country between the mouth of the Kistna and the Godava¬ ri, Dosarene (Da£arna)* or the region of Tosall in Orissa, and doubtless also Burma and Malaysia
penetration inland . - In the first century of the Christian era
