COMMERCE OF INDIA. 



195 



But it is only in comparatively later times, that the merchants 

 formed a peculiar caste. Manu and Yajnavalkya still allow 

 Brahmans and Kshatriyas to resort to trade, when in 

 distressed circumstances. The word Banij denotes in both 

 codes a merchant, from it is derived the modern expression 

 Banyan. The merchants who attended fairs or markets 

 were called Naigamas, from nigama, fair; and Magadha 

 for commercial traveller seems to point to the travelling 

 propensities of the inhabitants of Magadha (South Behar). 



The Non-aryan inhabitants of the "Western Coast of India 

 were, as we have seen before, seafaring people ; but we have 

 the authority of the Rigveda to show, that also the Aryan 

 Hindus were acquainted with the sea ; for in one hymn the 

 Asvins are praised for having on the immense and bottomless 

 ocean protected and safely conducted to the shore the 

 hundred-oared ship of Bhujyu. , The Ramayana informs us 

 that merchants travelled together in large caravans to the 

 seashore and embarked there for foreign countries. We know 

 of one voyage undertaken by 500 Hindu merchants, who, 

 according to their custom, took with them one Sangharakshita 

 to teach and interpret the law while on the voyage. Commer- 

 cial intercourse by sea took place as well towards the West 

 as towards the East. Even if we were not informed of the 

 Indian trade to the Persian Gulf, Arabia and Africa, such a 

 name as Socotra the Sanskrit Dvipa Sukhatara, the Dioskor- 

 ides of the Greek, would be evidence of it. The Ceylonese 

 traffic was very considerable, thence elephants were exported 

 to Kalinga, and voyages undertaken to the mouth of the 

 Ganges. Plinius informs us that voyages to the Prasians 

 which had formerly lasted twenty days, were afterwards made 

 in six days only. From a harbour near the present Kalinga- 

 patam, vessels crossed in the time of Ptolemy the Bay of 

 Bengal and reached Sada in Arakan, south of the island of 

 Bamri. 



