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44 THEMES IN NDIAN H ISTORY Source 9 6.3 Trade in the subcontinent and beyond The Malabar coast From the sixth century BCE , land and river routes criss-crossed the subcontinent and extended in (present-day Kerala) various directions – overland into Central Asia and Here is an excerpt fPeriplus beyond, and overseas, from ports that dotted the of the Erythraean Sea , coastline – extending across the Arabian Sea to East composed by an anonymous and North Africa and West Asia, and through the Greek sailor (first centCE): Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia and China. Rulers They (i.e. traders from often attempted to control these routes, possibly by abroad) send large ships to offering protection for a price. Those who traversed these routes included these market-towns on peddlers who probably travelled on foot and account of the great quantity merchants who travelled with caravans of bullock and bulk of pepper and malabathrum (possibly carts and pack-animals. Also, there were seafarers, cinnamon, produced in these whose ventures were risky but highly profitable. regions). There are imported Successful merchants, designated as masattuvan in Tamil and setthis and satthavahas in Prakrit, here, in the first place, a great quantity of coin; topaz … could become enormously rich. A wide range of antimony (a mineral used as goods were carried from one place to another – salt, a colouring substance), coral, grain, cloth, metal ores and finished products, crude glass, copper, tin, lead stone, timber, medicinal plants, to name a few. … There is exported pepper, Spices, especially pepper, were in high demand in which is produced in quantity the Roman Empire, as were textiles and medicinal in only one region near these plants, and these were all transported across the markets … Besides this there Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean. are exported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk 6.4 Coins and kings To some extent, exchanges were facilitated by the cloth, … transparent stones of all kinds, diamonds and introduction of coinage. Punch-marked coins made sapphires, and tortoise shell. of silver and copper (c. sixth century BCE onwards) were amongst the earliest to be minted and used. Archaeological evidence of a These have been recovered from excavations at a bead-making industry, using precious and semi-precious number of sites throughout the subcontinent. stones, has been found in Numismatists have studied these and other coins to reconstruct possible commercial networks. Kodumanal (Tamil Nadu). It is Attempts made to identify the symbols on punch- likely that local traders broughmarked coins with specific ruling dynasties, the stones mentioned in the Periplus from sites such as including the Mauryas, suggest that these were these to the coastal ports. issued by kings. It is also likely that merchants, bankers and townspeople issued some of these coins. ➲ Why did the author The first coins to bear the names and images of compile this list? rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks, who established control over the north-western part of the subcontinent c. second century BCE. “Periplus” is a Greek word The kushanas, however, issued the largest hoards meaning sailing around and “Erythraean” was the Greek of gold coins first gold coins c. first centCE. These were virtually identical in weight with those issued name for the Red Sea. Reprint 2026-27