INDIAN SHIPPING
Some details are also given regarding the trade-routes. The ships carrying on the Indian trade started from Myos Hormos or Berenika, and sailed down the Red Sea to Mouza (twenty-five miles south of Mokha) and thence to the watering-place Okelis at the straits. They then followed the Arabian coast as far as Kane, passing on the way Eudaimon (Aden), Arabia, once a great mart for Indian traders. From Kane the routes to India diverge, some ships sailing to the Indus and on to Barygaza, and others direct to the ports of Limyrike (Malabar coast). There was also another route to Limyrike, starting from Aromata (Cape Guardafui). In all three voyages the ships made use of the monsoon, then called Hippalos, starting from Egypt in July.
Ptolemy's Geography describes the whole sea coast from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges, and mentions many towns and ports of commercial importance. These are, among others, Syrastra (Surat), Monoglosson (Mangrol) in Guzerat, Ariake (Maharasthra),[1] Soupara, Muziris, Bakarei, Maisolia (Maslipatam), Kounagara (Konarak), and other places. Bishop Caldwell has pointed out that
- ↑ Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. 94.
trade to Malacca. The other vessels employed on the coast of Malabar, as Trapagga and Kotumba, it is not necessary to describe; they have still in the Eastern Ocean germs, trankees, dows, grabs, galivats, praams, junks, champans, etc." (Commerce of the Ancients, vol. ii., p. 521.)
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