Sambodhi 1998 Vol 21

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 46

Vol. XXI, 1997
TRADE RELATIONS OF....
41
a wild legend, that these mountains were inhabited by the snake Sankha-Nāga - the modern Mareb, and the royal snake resided in its capital on the sea shore.
The Cultural and Commercial contacts between Dravidian India and Africa existed even long before the arrival of Vasco-Da-Gama (15th Century A. D.) in India. Before Vasco-da-Gama, the sea route between East Africa and South India was familiar to the navigators and merchants of both the continents. Scytax Caryanda, a Greek pilot was the first known mariner to have crossed the Indian Ocean. He sailed on the Indian ocean after crossing the Red sea in 510 B. C. He touched the mouth of the Indus and returned. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the earliest extensive work on navigation in the world was written probably by a Greek of Alexandria in 60 A. D. It mentions the trading centers on the African coast and those of the South India coast as well. In about 7500 words length, it explains the imports into and exports between Damirica (The Tamil Country) Rome, Africa and other countries. Roman gold coins were discovered (A. D. 54-68) in Arikamedu. A hoard of 46 gold coins belonging to Roman kings dating back to B. C. 29 was found in Dharwar district of Karņāțaka. Both confirm the above Periplus statement. The name of the first sailor Scytax Caryanda, is mentioned in the Periplus, though the same was written 200 years after him. In 327–26 B. C. Nearchus, famous pilot of Alexander sailed to the Indus and returned. The Indian merchants were very fond of African ivory, iron and gold. Elmas' udi wrote in 10th century that Sofala was the land of gold. He mentions ivory as principal item of export from the land of zanj the negros of East Africa 34. This ivory was taken to India and China by way of Yemen in Southern Arabia and "were this not the case, there would be an abundance of ivory in the muslim Countries”. For Edrisi, two centuries later, iron was the most valued export of the East African coast 35. The iron of Sefala, he thought was much superior to that of India both in quantity and quality; and the Indians were accustomed to make from it the best swords in the world. Demands for Indian goods came from both the people of Africa in the interior and from the fashionable city-dwellers of the coast. The African people were fond of Indian cloth and Indian beads. The coastal communities desired gold, embroidered silks, copper, Indian spices and some precious stones. The book of Duarte Barbosa says: "Here (Zimbabwe in Rhodesia) in the town of Benaametapa (Mwanamutapa) is the king's most usual abode in a very large building and thence traders carry the inland gold to Sofola and give it