THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRESwhich ‘abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia and by the
Greeks’. The Periplus reported on Roman trade with Malabar:
They send large ships to the market-towns on account of the great
quantity and bulk of pepper and malabathrum [cinnamon]. There are
imported here, in the first place, a great quantity of coin; topaz, thin
clothing, not much; figured linens, antimony, coral, crude glass, copper,
tin, lead, wine, not much, but as much as at Barygaza [Broach]; realgar
and orpiment; and wheat enough for the sailors, for this is not dealt in
by the merchants there. There is exported pepper, which is produced
in quantity in only one region near these markets, a district called
Cottonora [North Malabar?]. Besides this there are exported great
quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the Ganges,
malabathrum from the places in the interior, transparent stones of all
kinds, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise shell; that from Chryse
Island, and that taken among the islands along the coast of Damirica
[Tamil Nadu]. They make the voyage to this place in favourable season
who set out from Egypt about the month of July, that is Epiphi.^3This provides evidence for a great volume of trade in both directions. It
also indicates that the South Indian ports served as entrepôts for silk from
China, oil from the Gangetic plains which was brought by Indian traders
all the way to the tip of South India, and also for precious stones from
Southeast Asia. But, as far as the Eastern trade was concerned, the
Coromandel coast to the south of present Madras soon eclipsed the
Malabar coast. To the north of Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari) there was
the kingdom of the Pandyas where prisoners were made to dive for
precious pearls in the ocean. Still further north there was a region called
Argaru which was perhaps the early Chola kingdom with its capital,
Uraiyur. The important ports of this coast were Kamara (Karikal), Poduka
(Pondichery) and Sopatma (Supatama) (see Map 5). Many centuries later
European trading factories were put up near these places: the Danes
established Tranquebar near Karikal, the French Pondichery, and the
British opted for Madras which was close to Supatama.
The British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler discovered in 1945 the
remnants of an ancient port near the fishing village Arikamedu about 2
miles south of Pondichery. The great number of Roman items found there
seems to indicate that this was Poduka of the Periplus, called ‘New Town’
(Puducceri) in Tamil. Brick foundations of large halls and terraces were
found, also cisterns and fortifications. Shards of Roman ceramics were
identified as Red Polish Ware which Wheeler tried to trace to Arezzo in Italy
where it was produced between 30 BC and AD 45. The finds of Arikamedu
conjure up the image of a flourishing port just like Kaveripatnam as
described in an epic poem of the Sangam era: