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by sea to Babylon. J. KENNEDY1, who worked on this subject concluded that maritime commerce between India and Babylon flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., especially in the 6th century. B.C. Writing on India's ancient trade, Jackson has observed that the Buddhist Jatakas and some of the Sanskrit law-books too tell us that ships from Bhroach and Sopārā traded with Babylon from the eighth to the sixth century B.C.2
The Supparaka Jātaka3 says that a band of travellers sailed from the port of Bharukachchha and passed through six seas, under the leadership of a skilled mariner. The seas, thus mentioned, are Khuramala, Aggimāla, Dadhimāla, Nilakusamāla, Nalamāla, and Balabhāmukha. These seas have been identified with the Persian gulf, the Arabian coast, Nubia on the North-East corner of Africa, the canal joining the Red sea and the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean and some portion of the Mediterranean. If this identification is correct it can be established that Indians possessed the knowledge of a sea-route from the West coast to the Mediterranean.4
In the Digha Nikaya, there is an explicit reference to ships sailing out of sight of land. Certain Indian commodities, e.g., rice, peacocks and sandal-wood, were known to the Greeks and others with their Indian names in the fifth century B.C. It follows that they were imported from the west coast of India into Babylon directly by sea.5
India's trade relations with Persia during this period are known. Ayala is said to have loaded his boats (Vahana) with goods and journeyed from Ujjeņi to Pārasaula (Persia); he earned plenty of wealth there and anchored at Beņnāyaḍa. Persia was used to export various commodities, such as Sankha, phopphala, chandana, agaru, mañjiṭṭha, silver, gold, jems, pearls, and corals. Trade relations between India and Persia were normal because Gandhara (Northern Punjab) became a part
1. JRAS 1898.
2. A History or Indian Shipping, p. 90. Quoted by R.K. MOOKERJI. 3. Ja, IV. 135-143.
4. JBORS, VI, 195.
5.
6. Uttara. Ti, 3, p. 64.
A History of Indian Shipping, p, S8.
