INTRODUCTION
regarding Indian maritime activity in the Eastern waters and intercourse with China in the latter half of the 7th century. Chinese annals also furnish evidences regarding the maritime intercourse of the Cholas with China, e.g. the Sung-shih.
6. The Musalman (pre-Mogul) Period, extending from the 11th century to the 15th.—The sources of evidence for this, and indeed the whole of the Musalman period, are mostly imbedded in Persian works which have been made accessible to scholars by the monumental History of India by Sir H. Elliot, in eight volumes. For information regarding maritime enterprise and activity in Sindh our authorities are Al-Bilāduri and Chach-nāma, translated in Elliot, vol. i. The early Musalman travellers throw much light upon Indian affairs of this period. Al-Biruni is our authority for the 11th century and Al-Idrisi for the 12th. In the 13th century a very valuable source of information regarding Indian shipping and commerce is furnished by a foreign traveller, the Venetian Marco Polo. Wassaf is our guide in the next century, as well as Tārikh-i-Firozshāhi. In the 15th century we have, in the Chinese account of Mahuan, the most important foreign notice of India after Marco Polo, which relates the exchange of presents between the kings of Bengal and the emperors of China. To the same century also belong the foreign travellers Abd-er-Razzak, Nicolo Conti, and Hiero-
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