224 



ON THE ANCIENT 



explaining old writings. At times the whole south-eastern 

 part of Asia is called India, and it comprises often Ethiopia 

 in Africa. There is no reason then, why Further-India, 

 especially the Chersonesus Aurea, Malacca, should not he 

 included in the India of the Ancients, and if so, there is no 

 difficulty in ascribing the gold of Ophir to have been found 

 in Malacca. From the nature of the Indian commerce, gold 

 was essentially an import article to India, as it is also now. 



Iron was found in India, and the old Hindus knew the 

 secret of making good steel, the sword-blades of Grujarat 

 especially enjoying a great reputation. 



Though the tin trade goes back to far remote times, India 

 itself is not rich in this metal. It is more abundant in 

 Tenasserim, Malacca and the island of Banca. The Phoeni- 

 cians were the earliest tin merchants, in fact, it is owing to 

 this metal that their commerce became so extended. Neither 

 Egypt nor Babylonia possessed tin mines, the nearest 

 countries to these which possessed tin were Caucasia, India 

 and Spain. If we now find bronze implements in Egyptian 

 tombs, whose age goes back as far as 4000 before Christ, 

 surely one is bound to admit that a widely expended com- 

 mercial intercourse existed already in very distant days. 

 Whether the Greek word for tin kassiteros is derived from 

 the Sanskrit Kastwa, or whether the Hindus got it from the 

 Greeks, is still doubtful. That it was originally not much 

 found in India but in Further-India is immaterial, as it was 

 early known in India, and the fact of the word Kastira, 

 occurring in Panini's Sutras is important. 



Perhaps hardly any country can equal India and Ceylon 

 in the possession of precious stones. Parts of India, foremost 

 Golkonda, have always been considered as mines of gems. 

 From India the ancients received the famous Diamond. 

 Between the 14th and 25th degrees of northern latitude, mostly 

 on the eastern side of the Dekkan and the Amarakantaka 



