HINDU PERIOD
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,[1] 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."[2]
- ↑ Commerce of the Ancients, vol. ii., p. 404.
- ↑ Dr. Vincent makes the following interesting comment in this connection: "The different sorts of vessels constructed in these ports are correspondent to modern accounts; the monoxyla are still in use, not canoes, as they are improperly rendered; but with their foundation formed of a single timber, hollowed, and then raised with tiers of planking till they will contain 100 or 150 men. Vessels of this sort are employed in the intercourse between the two coasts; but the colandiophonta, built for the trade to Malacca, perhaps to China, were exceedingly large and stout, resembling probably those described by Marco Polo and Nicolo di Conti." Varthema likewise mentions vessels of this sort at Tarnasari (Masulipatam) that were of 1000 tons burthen (lib. vi., ch. 12) designed for this very
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