196
According to the Periplus, Paithan was an important center of the textile industry. To-day it retains a considerable manufacture of cot- ton and silk. Almost all traces of the ancient city are said to have disappeared.
51. Tagara. — The Sanscrit name had the same form, appear- ing in several records between the 6th and 10th centuries A. D. The place is identified by Fleet with the modern Ter (Thair) (18° 19' N., 76° 9' E. ), being a contraction of Tayara , the g and y being frequently interchanged. It is about 95 miles southeast of Paithan, and agrees substantially with the distance and direction given in the text. From Broach to Paithan the actual distance, by road, is about 240 miles, and from Paithan to Ter 104 miles, being 20 and 9 days’ journey of 12 miles, respectively. There are said to be some very interesting remains of the ancient city.
As pointed out by Campbell, the “merchandise from the regions along the sea-coast” was not from the west coast, but from the Bay of Bengal; and Fleet traces briefly the routes — the first starting at Masulipatam (16° 11’ N. , 81° 8' E. ), and the second from Vinu- konda (T6° 3' N., 79° 44' E. ), joining about 25 miles southeast of Haidarabad, and proceeding through Ter, Paithan, and Daulatabad, to Markinda (in the Ajanta Hills)- Here the main difficulties began, through the Western Ghats, over the 100 miles to Broach.
This was the great highway of the Andhra kingdom, and its natural terminus was at Calliena in Bombay Harbor, as suggested in §52. The obstruction of that port by the Saka power in Gujarat forced the tedious overland extension of the route, through the moun- tains, to Barygaza.
(See J. F. Fleet, Tagara: Ter , in Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- ciety, 1901, pp. 537-552; Sir James Campbell, in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, xvi, 181; H. Cousens, Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report, 1902-3, p. 195; Imperial Gazetteer, II, 82; xxiii, 284.)
51. Country without roads. — Tavernier says of the Dec- can (I, xi) “wheel carriages do not travel, the roads being too much interrupted by high mountains, tanks, and rivers, and there being many narrow and difficult passes. It is with the greatest difficulty that one takes a small cart. I was obliged to take mine to pieces fre- quently in order to pass bad places. There are no wagons, and you only see oxen and pack-horses for the conveyance of men, and for the transport of goods and merchandise. But in default of chariots, you have the convenience of much larger palanquins than in the rest of India; for one is carried much more easily, more quickly, and at less cost. ”
