HINDU PERIOD
alms 600,000 pieces of money. His ship, however, sprang a leak[1] in mid-ocean, but he is miraculously saved by a kind fairy in a magic ship[2] filled with the seven treasures of gold, silver, pearls, gems, cats'-eyes, diamonds, and coral. The Sussondi-Jātaka (Jāt. iii. 188, no. 360) mentions the voyage of certain merchants of Bharukaccha for the Golden Land,[3] from which, as also from other Jātakas such as the Mahājanaka-Jātaka, it is evident that besides Ceylon, Suvannabhumi or Burma was another commercial objective of traders coasting around India from western sea-ports such as Bharukaccha. Lastly, there are several other Jātakas in which we are told explicitly of a successful, if sporadic, deal in birds between Babylon and Benares, and of horses[4]
- ↑ "When they were come to the high seas, on the seventh day the ship sprang a leak, and they could not bale the water clear."—Ibid.
- ↑ The following contains a full description of the ship: "The deity, well pleased at hearing these words, caused a ship to appear made of the seven things of price; in length it was 800 cubits, 20 fathoms in depth; it had three masts made of sapphire, cordage of gold, silver sails, and of gold also were the oars and the rudders."—Ibid.
- ↑ "At that time certain merchants of Bharukaccha were setting sail for the Golden Land."—Ibid.
- ↑ Jātaka i. 124, or Tandulanali-Jātaka, no. 5, which tells the story of an incompetent valuer declaring five hundred horses worth a measure of rice, which measure of rice in turn he is led to declare worth all Benares, contains a passage of which the following is the English translation: "At that time there arrived from the North Country a horse-dealer with five hundred horses." Similarly, Jātaka ii. 31, Suhanu-Jātaka, no. 158, has the following: "Some horse-dealers from the North Country brought down five hundred horses." Again, Jātaka ii. 287, or Kundaka-Kucchi-Sindhava-Jātaka,
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