198 J. HORNELL ON 



Finally we note that the coast between Bombay and Goa was infested with pirates 

 in Greek times ; overseas merchants dreaded it greatly, as it lay so close to Muziris, 

 one of the chief Malabar ports of that day. The Peripltts states that this city 

 was then at the height of its prosperity and " frequented by ships from Ariake (i.e. 

 Indian ships from Gujarat) and Greek ships" (from Egypt). 



To the above we may add an extract from Pliny ^ where it is said : — 



" To those bound for India it is most convenient to depart from Okelis" (a vil- 

 lage opposite the island of Perim) . ' ' They sail thence with the wind Hippalus in 40 

 days to the nearest emporium of India, Muziris (the modern Cranganore according to 

 Yule and Caldwell),^ which is not a desirable place of call on account of pirates infest- 

 ing the neighbourhood, who hold a place called Nitrias (Mangalore, according to 

 Yule), while it is not well supplied with merchandize for trafhc. Besides, the station 

 for ships is at a great distance from the shore and cargoes have both to be landed and 

 shipped by means of little boats. Another port belonging to the nation is more 

 convenient, Neacyndon which is called Becare. There Pandion used to reign in an 

 inland town called Modura far distant from this emporium. The region from which 

 they convey pepper to Becare in boats formed of single logs, is called Cottonara."^ 



From this time we lose definite sight and knowledge of Graeco-Egyptian trade 

 with India, which collapsed with the decline of Rome in the fourth century and passed 

 again largely into the hands of the Arabs to whom after this we have to look almost 

 entirely for information on Indian external sea-trade till Marco Polo and the other 

 Italian forerunners of the Portuguese appear on the scene. 



The fact that Solomon when he wanted to create a Red Sea fleet of traders had 

 to build the necessary vessels with the aid of artizans brought from Tyre proves that 

 there were no suitable vessels available in 950 B.C. on the Red Sea to act as over- 

 sea cargo carriers and is conclusive evidence that no regular and extensive direct sea- 

 trade with India could have existed prior to this date ; occasional and elaborately pre- 

 pared expeditions sent forth by royal edict for special purposes, and petty trading by 

 means of small craft creeping slowly along the coast and usually selling their cargo at 

 some intermediate trading port to be carried further in another boat (see Periplus, 

 sec. 14), appear to have been the custom in the early centuries of sea-commerce be- 

 tween India and the West ; the importance of this commerce appears to have been 

 early perceived by the Sabaean Arabs, and for centuries before the Greeks en- 

 tered the field, these enterprising and highly civilized people had made their ports 

 the entrepots for Indian and Egyptian commodities. The Greek historian Agathar- 

 chides, the contemporary of Ptolemy Philomentor (i 81-146 B.C.), described Sabaea 

 as owmg her importance and great prosperity in large degree to the monopoly enjoyed 

 of the Indian trade. He states having seen large vessels coming from Potana (Patala) 



i Book VI, Ch. 23 (26). 



2 Caldwell in his Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (Introduction, p. 97) says that Muziris appears to be 

 the Muyiri of Muyiri-kotta, while Neacyndon or Nelkynda seems to be the southern boundary of Kerala proper. 



■5 Burnell considered Cottonara to be the district round Tellicherry, Kolatta-nadu, the finest pepper-producing district 

 in Malabar. Yule conjectures that Becare, which was the seaport of Nelkynda, lay between Kauetti and Quilon in 

 Travancore. 



