1847.] Periplus of ike Erythrean Sea, fyc. 25 



travellers of the 9th century state that cotton garments were made in 

 the kingdom of Rami " in so extraordinary a manner that no where 

 else was the like to be seen." The country which is here alluded to is 

 evidently Bengal, from the circumstance of Rhinoceros' horns, Lign Aloe, 

 and skins being mentioned as exports from it, and of shells being used 

 as money. The cotton garments are described as being so fine, that a 

 web might be drawn through a ring of middling size. This is a test 

 which has been used by the Dacca weavers from time immemorial, and 

 there can be no doubt, therefore, that the fabrics here alluded are the 

 Dacca muslins. 



The gold mine mentioned in the text appears from the words xh eTai 

 8« Kal xpv(wpvx ia **pl T °"s roirovs hvai i n which it is described in the ori- 

 ginal, to have been situated not exactly in, but rather in the vicinity of> 

 the province to which the Gangetic mart belonged. The words must 

 be considered as referring not to the alluvial plains of the Gangetic 

 Delta, but to a country in its vicinity ; and they have allusion, in all 

 probability, to a gold mine which formerly existed in the adjacent hilly 

 country of Tipperah. Tavernier in his account of this country remarks ; 

 " there is here a gold mine but the gold is very coarse." He also states 

 that the gold from this mine was exported to China and exchanged 

 there for silver. Tipperah does not produce gold in the present day, 

 but the natives assert that it was obtained in that country in former 

 times, and that the Kookis or hill people were in the habit of bringing 

 it from the interior, and presenting it as tribute to the Rajah. The 

 gold coin called Kaltis, v6[xi<rixa re xp v(T0 ^ » \ey6fxeuos KaAns is supposed by 

 Wilford, to have been the refined gold named Canden, for which India 

 was celebrated in ancient times.* A small fragment or piece of gold of 

 an irregular shape, having either a plain surface, or a few obscure sym- 

 bols marked upon it, constituted the earliest type of a gold coin in 

 India ; specimens of this description of coins have been found in South- 

 ern India and the Sunderbunds.-f As stamped coins, however, were 

 current in India in the tiir.e of Arrian, it is probable that Kaltis was one 

 of them. Stuckius mentions a coin called Kallais which was current in 

 Bengal in his time. Tavernier, speaking of Tipperah, states that the 

 Rajah " makes thin pieces of gold like to the Aspers of Turkey, of 



* As. Researches, Vol. V. p. 269. 



t Journal Asiatic Society, Nov. 1835. No. 47, p. 627. 



