Trade Relations of ancient India:
Around two thousand years ago, Bharat started being known as India by traders from the Roman Empire and the Greek Civilizations. The sea route to India really opened up in the first century BCE with the discovery of the monsoon winds which would allow direct passage across the Indian Ocean and back, thus avoiding the coastal route with its dangerous reefs and pirates. The classic description of these sea routes is a book written in the first century CE, the Periplus of the Erythraean (Red) Sea.
Roman Empire and India
Indo-Roman relations were built on trade. Roman trade in India began with overland caravans and later by direct maritime trade following the conquest of Egypt by Augustus in 30 BCE. Roman trade with India is documented by numerous finds of Roman coins along the Indian coast and by other objects along the overland routes. According to Strabo (II.5.12), not long after Augustus took control of Egypt, while Gallus was Prefect of Egypt (26–24 BCE), up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to modern-day India:
"At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise." — Strabo II.5.12.
Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) who wrote the following about journeys to the Malabar coast: "If the wind called Hippalus is blowing it is possible to arrive in forty days at Muziris.... Travellers set sail from Muziris on their return to Europe, at the beginning of the Egyptian month of Tybia, which is our December, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian month Mechir, the same as our Ides of January; if they do this they can go and return the same year."
Pliny the elder :
Gaius Plinius Secundus, referred to as Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), left probably the most important account of trade between Rome and India, that has survived in Classical literature. According to him, one documented consignment from Muziris port in India to Alexandria consisted of 700 pounds of nard over 4,700 pounds of ivory and almost 790 pounds of textiles. This has been calculated as worth a total value of 131 talents, enough to purchase 2,400 acres of the best farmland in Egypt. With such staggering profits, it is little wonder that the Roman government in Egypt encouraged and profited by the trade and a 25% tax on all goods from India was levied by the Romans at the Red Sea port of Leuce Come.
Pliny repeatedly complained about the staggering amount of money being spent for the imports of luxuries from India. He primarily blamed the women for their obsession with the luxuries from India, and the nobility who offered Indian luxuries as offerings to gods at the largest temples of their respective kingdoms as a display of their wealth and stature in the society.
"India and some other countries take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what percentage of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the Gods or the spirits of the dead?" - Pliny. Historia Naturae, 12.41.84.
Greek Civilization and India:
The Isidore of Charax in his work The Parthian Stations (Ancient Greek: Σταθμοί Παρθικοί) described the trade route between the Levant and India in the 1st century BC. Muziris papyrus which is written in Greek, contains crucial information regarding the cargo of a ship named the Hermapollon that sailed back to Egypt from the Muziris in India. Muziris is also mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as one of the Indian ports that Greek ships were sailing.
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manual written in Greek for navigators who carried trade between Roman Empire and other regions, including ancient India. It gives detailed information about the ports, routes and commodities. Kodungallur in modern day Kerala, was India’s gateway to the civilisations of the world. This bustling trading port for Indian luxuries was known to Greeks, Romans and the rest of the world as Muziris. Ancient Greek and Roman writers also describe the ports of the Arabia Felix, which were used for the Indian trade. The story of Hippalus, the merchant who accompanied Greek scholar Eudoxus on his voyage to India and after whom the congenial winds are named, itself goes back to 110 BC. Some of the Indian ports that Greek merchants were visiting were Muziris, Barygaza, Barbarikon, Minnagara, Ujjain and Ariaca.
Tacola (Τάκωλα) was a place on the west coast of the Aurea Chersonesus, in India extra Gangem, which Ptolemy calls an emporium.
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manual written in Greek for navigators who carried trade between Roman Empire and other regions, including ancient India. It gives detailed information about the ports, routes and commodities.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers also describe the ports of the Arabia Felix, which were used for the Indian trade. The story of Hippalus, the merchant who accompanied Greek scholar Eudoxus on his voyage to India and after whom the congenial winds are named, itself goes back to 110 BC.
Kodungallur in modern day Kerala, was India’s gateway to the civilizations of the world. This bustling trading port for Indian luxuries was known to Greeks, Romans and the rest of the world as Muziris
Export of Natural Perfumes Made in India
Indian fragrances were exported to the kings & nobility of ancient civilizations. Evidence from Achaemenid and Graeco-Roman history establish that Indian perfumes were famous throughout the known world for their complexity and quality.
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