INDIAN SHIPPING
is mentioned as the likely place of Sītā's concealment, which is generally interpreted to be no other country than China; a third passage[1] refers to the Yavana Dvīpa and Suvarṇa Dvīpa, which are usually identified with the islands of Java and Sumatra of the Malaya Archipelago; while the fourth passage alludes to the Lohita Sāgara or the
- ↑ The passages alluded to are:—
यत्नवन्तो यवद्वीपं सप्तराज्योपशोभितम्।
सुवर्णरूप्यकद्वीपं सुवर्णकरमण्डितम्॥ ***ततो रक्तजलं भीमं लोहितं नाम सागरम्।Ptolemy adopted the Sanskrit name of the island of Java and mentioned its Greek equivalent, while modern writers like Humboldt call it the Barley Island. Alberuni also has remarked that the Hindus call the islands of the Malay Archipelago by the general name of Suvarna Island, which has been interpreted by the renowned French antiquarian Reinaud to mean the islands of Java and Sumatra. (Journal Asiatique, tome iv., IVe Série, p. 265.)
show that China was the prime producer of silk: "The manufacture of silk amongst the Chinese claims a high antiquity, native authorities tracing it as a national industry for a period of five thousand years. From China the looms of Persia and of Tyre were supplied with raw silk, and through these states the Greeks and the Romans obtained the envied luxury of silk tissues. The introduction of silkworm eggs into Europe was due to two missionaries who brought them concealed in a bamboo to Byzantium. The food also of the silkworm, the white mulberry (Morus alba), is of Chinese origin." (Growth and Vicissitude of Commerce, by J. Yeats, LL.D., F.G.S., F.S.S., etc.) The same author, in his Technical History of Commerce, p. 149, says: "Fabrics of silk and cotton are of Oriental origin. For 600 years after its introduction from China (A.D. 552), silk cultivation was isolated within the Byzantine Empire. The rearing of the worms and the weaving of the silk was practised in Sicily during the 12th and in Italy during the 13th century, whence it was subsequently introduced into France and Spain."
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