Chapter 1. Ancient Indian Commerce

Part 1PDF pages 20–35Writings and Speeches, Vol. 12

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ANCIENT INDIAN COMMERCE

ChapterI—Commercial Relations of India in the Middle East.

Chapter II—Commercial Relations of India in the Middle Ages.

Chapter III—India on the eve of the Crown Government.

[This chapter is numbered as Chapter V in the MS. It seems that Chapters III and IV were lost.]

[The material in this part consists of 3 chapters (originally numbered as I, II and V) on the Ancient Indian Commerce which was a subject of dissertation in fulfilment of the requirement of M.A. examination of Columbia University by Dr. Ambedkar, during 1913—15 who later switched over to a new topic, now known as ‘Administration and Finance of the East India Company’ published in Vol. 6 in this series. A facsimile of his handwriting (during 1913—15) is printed alongside showing Dr. Ambedkar as a Caligraphist to be emulated by younger generation—ed.]

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CHAPTER I COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF INDIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST

†The imperial Romans flashed their sword both in the East and the West with different results. In the East “they conquered the world only to give it to” 1 *(............) in the West however “they either Romanized the races who were at first their subjects *(..........) masters, or left those races to be the willing agents of their own Romanization.” 2. As a result of this Romanization the West is proud of her heritage from the Romans. How this rich heritage was accumulated none has taken pains to inquire into.

Justly may we look to the Romans for their military organization, the elaboration of law and the wonderful discipline of hordes levied before war and discharged after victory. Hemmed in from all sides—the Etruscans pressing in from the north, the Lygurians from the West, the Sabians from the East and the Greeks from the South, the Latins summoned the energy by dispair. Excepting perhaps the women and youngsters of both sexes the entire population was one huge militia ever ready to rally round the red flag at the call of a trumpet. But Rome gathered in energy too voluminous for the space she had and illustrated the principle that concentration causes explosion and expansion. Goaded by the greed of territory or pressed on by the mania of foreign persecution she started first by consuming the entire Italian peninsula. But imperialism conscious or unconscious knows no stop. Rome by sheer prowess of her arms went on in her career of conquest and made war her only noble profession. She knew not that war like competition destroys itself. In one great sweep, she brought an immense territory

†First page of the MS. is missing. The MS. starts from the 2nd page—ed.

* Portion eaten by moth or white-ants is shown by asterisk in brackets—ed. 1 Quoted by Earl of Cromer “Ancient and modern Imperialism”, p. 72.

*Ibid., p.73.

under her control but left the circle of her extensive imperium to shrink back towards the centre when the propelling energy from within had, as it was sure to be, exhausted itself. Beside their military exploits and inhuman gladiatorial feats, the Romans (owed)* credit from the art of road-building and administration; these arts are quite natural and necessary concomittants of imperialism. (Beside these)* there (was)* little of the Roman contribution to civilization that cannot be summed up in the phrase pax Romana.

Underneath the canopy of Roman Imperialism there was a constant and “peaceful in filteration”, (of the East)*. Philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, medicine constitute her bequests. Scholarship incompatible with the practical genius of the Romans, was the trade of the Orientals. The Roman Court was begemmed by the stars from the East. Egypt lays claim to Ptolemy and Plotinus: Porphyry and Iamblichus are the sons of Syria while Dioscorides and Galen were Asiatics. Much of the Roman Civilization was made up by the doings of the Eastern slaves who even conducted the education of the Roman children in the public schools established under the empire. Romans were the lovers of the powerful rather than of the beautiful: “Rome, in herself inartistic, enlaned art and artists for her own purpose. Her barbaric delight in vivid colouring, which for instance, was exhibited in the gold and scarlet decoration on the great column of Trojan, was stimulated by eastern commerce” 1. Even Roman architecture is the product of the oriental slaves. The entire strength of Rome was spent in conquest or if we choose, in the struggle for existence. But after enough of struggle she might have as well utilized the leisure which was hers and availed herself of the varied geniuses brought within her compass by her subject people. Unfortunately Rome never realized or it was too late (that she)* did that “peace hath her victories no less renowned than war” and (her)* militarism pure and simple is thrown in great relief when we notice the (...........)* fact that “although Rome raised a statue to Quiet,

* Portions in bracket are eaten by termites. Words supplied—ed. 1 W. R. Paterson, “ The Nemesis of Nations” , p. 307.

she (...........)* out (...........)* walls” 1. Though Rome had some industries, her productive capacity was miserably low; her consumption overran her production which necessiated continual drain of specie. The Latefundia destroyed her agriculture and (drove)* the farmers to beggary and made Rome entirely dependent for her food on Sicily and Egypt. Owing to the great concentration of landed property the land had ceased to be productive, and there was practically no Italian harvest. She received everything mostly from the East and nothing or little to give in return. “It is in the orient, especially in these countries of old civilization that we must look for industry and riches for technical ability and artistic productions as well as for intelligence and science, even before Constantine made it [Rome] the centre of political power”. 2 Nay “all branches of learning were affected by the spirit of the orient” 3 which “was her superior in extent and precision of its technical knowledge as well as in the inventive genius and ability of its workman”.4 Descending from the productions of industrial arts to those of industry itself, one might also trace the growing influence of the Orient: one might show how the action of the great manufacturing centres of the East gradually transformed the material civilization of Europe ; one might point out how the introduction in Gaul of Exotic patterns and processes changed the old native industry and gave (their)* products a perfection and a popularity hitherto unknown.” 5 From time immemorial upto the Industrial Revolution, the East enjoyed (the)* pre-eminence of being the workshop of the world and it is significant to (note that)* she was busy in producing the wonderful and massive iron columns that attest to the mechanics and technique of the time when chipping a stone and making a hatchet was a superhuman task with the Western neolith.

* Portions in brackets shown by asterisk are eaten by termites. Words supplied—ed.

1 W. R. Patterson, “ The Nemesis of Nations”, p. 334. 2 Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. 2. 3 Ibid, p. 6.

4 Ibid, p. 8.

5 Ibid, p.9.

Thus “the East gave (impe)* tus to the West.” 1 It is in the valley of the Nile, the Euphrates, the Yangtse Kang and the Indus that we first witness the misty dawn of civilization, the beginning of knowledge and progress.” To have caught the light from the East and reflected it with manifold lustre on the West is the only work of Greece and Rome.” 2 Looked at from this angle the dragon of “Dark Ages” seems to be a fictitious creation of the historian. Were there any such Dark ages in Europe ? If so, when was there light ? History does not disclose it. Whatever light or civilization there was, was confined to the Eastern basin of the Mediterranean [being constantly fed by the Orient] barring which the entire continent of Europe was in barbarism till very late : the Curve of European Civilization (leaving aside the sources on which it drew) is constantly rising and what the historian calls Dark ages mark a point of civilization higher than the one reached by preceding centuries. The fiction of the ‘Dark ages’ arose from the fallacy of the thinking of whole of Europe in terms of Rome, but nothing is more false than to think of the whole in terms of a part.

To be true to facts the question of the ‘Dark Ages’ has to be raised (by the) historian of the Orient. It is he who has to answer why this great (fall) after a high crest, why this sudden darkness after the (dawn):

It is lamentable to see that the earliest and most promising civilizations ran into a blind alley and were arrested all of a sudden when progress was most expected of them. Some of these early civilizations died out leaving us their records on bricks and tablets. Others are lingering on in their way and are in the process of rejuvenation.

The civilization of India is one of the oldest but like all of them has come to a dead stop : but it has lived to revive and we may hope never to die again. The contact of the west has shaken the “fixity” and restored her old dynamic power.

* Portions in brackets shown by asterisk are eaten by termites. Words supplied—ed.

1 Brooks Adams, Law of Civilization and decay, p. 2 R. C. Dutt.

Historians often wonder why civilization begins at one particular spot rather than at another. Is it because of the ability of the inhabitants ? Or is it because that providence wills them their civilization ? A short consideration will convince us that both these factors play the second fiddle. The first is played by environment. Given a bountiful environment and chances of conservation, isolation or security from foreign invasion, civilization is bound to sprout forth. India’s geographical position just fitted her to be the Early craddle of civilization. Nature has given her that isolation that has been the envy of many of tribal people who are ever in search of a secure abode to develop their capacity and make the most of nature’s gifts. Severed from China and Tibet on the north by the Himalaya mountains, on the East from Burma and Assam by the Tenasserim and on the west from Afghanistan by the (Karakoram)* (Hindukush)* Ranges the entire peninsula forms a world in miniature in itself—(formed)* by strong natural defences— “the mountains”1 forming “a wall on the North-West and the sea .. a moat on all other sides.”

This “inverted triangle” conserves the most varied and most abundant of natural resources. “Animal life is not only abundant in British India, but it is remarkably varied. The number of kinds of animals inhabiting India and its dependencies is very large, far surpassing, for instance, that of the species found in the whole of Europe, although the superficial area of Europe exceeds that of the Indian empire by about one-half” 2. Equally is her rich diversity of flora and fauna and her climate that makes possible the existance of such varigated animal life. The richness of vegetable life is unbounded. All these factors have from time immemorial combined to bestow upon her the economic self-sufficiency which has been the privilege of a few nations on the face of this planet today.

* Portions in brackets shown by asterisk are eaten by termites. Words supplied—ed.

1 Thompson E. W. “ History of India” , p. 2. 2 Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. I, p. 215.

Given the materials, man can hardly be expected to remain inactive for the economic motive is the strongest and the most dynamic of all. He tries at once to exploit the environment for his well-being and the early inhabitants of India were no exception to the rule. It would be a mistake if we take a modern average Indian as a prototype of his stalwart ancestor. He may resemble him perhaps in features but that’s all. The semblance ends there. The India of antiquity within the span of time in which he held the undisputed possession of the country accomplished much more than could be expected of primitive. We have scanty records of his deeds but what little we have and as will be seen from the following narrative, speaks volumes.

Of the multifarious achievements of the ancient Indians, important as they are, we are not concerned. We have to centre our attention on their economic activity alone. At the outset it would be better to take note of the lampposts or the sources that will help us in our survey. On the nature side there is a lamentable paucity. The Hindoos are loquacious on everything except the economic activity of their life and the reason is not far to see. Education was monopolized by a class of people who were more or less “drones in the hive, gorging at a feast to which they [had] contributed nothing”. The Brahamin or the intellectual caste of India enjoyed “the conspicuous leisure” and “the conspicuous consumption” vicariously ; consequently the economic activity of the ancient Hindoos found no exponents and no mention in the literature which is purely sacerdotal. This also explains why India did not produce any literature on the Science of Economic as such. Hence we are compelled to depend entirely on foreign authorities and their scanty reference to India’s commerce. Before we launch on the subject of commerce we shall do better to take hasty survey of the Economic development of Ancient India. There is no authority on the subject that can take us back to the pre-Buddha times. The Buddha Jatakas—the birth-stories of Buddha—are the earliest source on the subject and contain literary references to the economic organisation of the Indian society which may be supposed to have existed from times very remote from the dates of these Jatakas . . . . . . . . .

I. Agricultural Organization :

Very early we find the ancient Hindoos living a village life : Each village consisted of from 30 to 1000 families. No isolated houses were to be found but they clustered together. Agriculture is known as the highest occupation and the Indian proverb puts the merchantman second to the farmer and the soldier occupies the last place in social gradation. Land was cultivated by the farmer and his families and some times by hired labour. “The traditional feeling was apparently against land transfer”. Yet we see that land was rented out for cultivation. Independent landholder was regarded respectfully but work on the farm of a capitalist was greatly disapproved. There is no evidence to definite say whether or not there was feudalism in village community. There was a great deal of co-operation among villagers for building and repairing roads and tanks and municipal buildings:

“The sovereign claimed an annual tilha on raw produce. This was levied, and in kind amounted to 1/6,1/8,1/10 or 1/12.” “Grain, pulse, and sugarcane were the chief products : vegetables, possibly also fruit and flowers were cultivated. Rice was reckoned as the staple article of food.” Agriculture was a common occupation for even we see the Brahmin figuring as a goatherd and both as a small and large landholder without losing his caste. The love of the ancient Hindoo and for that matter of the modern for agriculture transcends that of the ancient Greek and is just manifested in the worship of the cow.

The Hindoo devotion to the Cow has been an enigma to most of the foreigners and above all has been an efficient lore in the hands of those half-baked theological failures who go to India to conduct their missionary propaganda for blackmailing the Hindoo.

The origin of cow worship is as much economic as that Roman practice of not offering wine to the Gods from unpruned vines. The cow and for that matter all draft animals, is the soul of the farmers. The cow gives birth to oxen which are absolutely

necessary to the cultivation of the farm. If we kill the cow for meat, we jeopardize our agricultural prosperity. With full foresight, the ancient Hindoos tabooed cow-flesh and thus prevented cow killing. But man hardly pays any attention to dry rulings. It must have religious sanction ; hence the grotesque mythology around the cow in old Hindoo religious literature. II. Organization of Labour, Industry and Commerce : Be it said to the credit of the Hindoos that slavery paid a very little role in their economic life. Capture, judicial punishment, voluntary self-degradation and debt were the four principal causes by which individuals become slaves. But there is considerable evidence to show that kindly treatment was the rule and manumission was always possible. Besides few slaves there was a considerable amount of free-labour paid in money or food.

From among the industrial classes the following are mentioned :— (a) The vaddhaki is a genuine term and is an embodiment of a carpenter, ship-builder, cart-maker and an architect. (b) The Kammara is a generic term for a metal craftsman producing “iron implement, from a ploughshare or an axe or for that matter, an iron house, down to a razor, or the finest of needles, capable of floating in water, or again, statues of gold or silver work.”

(c) The Pasanakottaka is a generic term for a mason “not only quarrying and shaping stones . . . . . . but as capable of hallowing a cavity in a crystal, a matter probably of requiring superior tools.”

“A considerable degree of organization characterized all the trading industries. Certain trades were localised in special villages, either suburban and ancillary to the large cities, or themselves forming centres of traffic with surounding villages e.g. the wood-work and metal work industries and pottery . . . . . . . . . . . within the cities trades appear to have been localized in special streets e.g. those of ivory workers and of dyers.” The trades were well regulated and were superintended by one or two headmen who were the chiefs or syndics of municipal and industrial organization of the cities. There were numerous guilds (Seniyo) under the headship of a President (Pramukha) or elder or older man (Jethaka).

Carpenters, smiths, leather workers, painters, and experts in various arts had their grids. Even the sea-men garlandmakers and carvan traders. There was a tendency towards hereditary occupation. But the caste system in all its hiedous rigourousness was not present and even Brahmins were often occupied in low professions.

There was little riverine traffic : it was mostly conducted by the caravans. The industrial centres were connected by good roads which greatly facilitated traffic. The Ramayana refers to a road starting out from Ayodhya the capital of King Dasharatha, known presently as Oudh to Rajagriha the capital of Kekayas in the vicinity of the Himalaya mountains situated on the River Bias, the ancient Vipasa known to the Greeks as the Hypasis passed through Hastinapur (Delhi) the capital of the Kurus. Alexander’s information regarding the roads in ancient India is perhaps the most accurate and the greatest source for the employed surveyors to measure the Indian Roads. We glean from this source that a road ran from Penkelaotis (Pushkalavati) near the modern Attock passed on through Takshila to Patalipura (Pata) after crossing the river Bias. Another road joined Pushkalavathi and Indra-prastha (Delhi) and after connecting Ujjayini (Ujain) descended down the Vindhya range, went into the Deckan through Pratisthana after crossing the Nerbuda and the Tapty. There were the internal highways of traffic and it was carried on by Uday of the Caravans. Early in India the external and internal commerce had assumed such importance that we find mention in the Buddha Jataka a league of caravan leaders. The caravan leader or Sattravaha in Pali headed the caravan on its journey and was looked to “for directions as to halts, waterning, precautions against robbers, and in many cases as to routes, fords, etc.” The journey of the Caravan was mostly by night. Trade in early India was not entirely individualistic. There is enough evidence to show the corporate commercial activity and partnership in Trade were occasional, if not general. There was very little government control of business and that too only so far as it concerned the Royal purchases. The prices of articles of

Royal purchases were fixed by a Royal valuer who would “also assess the merchants for the duty of a twentieth, presumably ad valorem, on each consignment of native merchandise, and of a tenth ad valorem plus a sample, on each consignment imported from overseas Finally, he would have to assess merchants for their specific commutation of the “rajaksaya” viz. one article per month sold to the king at a certain discount”’ Later on however prices came to be fixed: for Manu says that the king on every 5th or 9th day fixed the rates for the purchase and sale of marketable commodities. The introduction of money in India whether it was borrowed or invented at home is a matter of great controversy : but whatever may be said on this, it is true that the use of money in India was early known for “the whole of the Buddhist literature testifies to the fact that the ancient systems of simple barter as well as of reckoning value of cows, or rice measures had for the most part been replaced by the use of metal currency, carrying well understood and generally accepted exchange value”. Currency counted of coins but was not regulated by Royal authority. There was gold coinage for the most part and “all marketable commodities and services had a value expressible in terms of cash”. Banking was not very highly developed—there was no taboo on loaning of money and according to Gautama interest was sought in six different ways.1 With such high type of economic development it is but natural that there should be commercial expansion of colonization by the Early Hindoos. Historians however have been very reluctant to accept the fact : they have either judging the present by the present rule upon the entire Hindoo population as incapable people or have exerted their utmost ingenuity to discount any evidence that antagonises with their preconceived bias. Isolation of India has been a trump card with them and they use it as often as they can. Environmental conditions do delimit the activity 1 The information on the early Economic Organization of India has been borrowed from the article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Researches for 1901, p. 859 by Caroline Foley Rhys Davids M. A.

of a people subject to it but it could be foolish to say with Hirder “that history is geography set in motion.” We might hold to the truth in the statement that geographic conditions have condemned India to her lot and yet condemn the hyperbole in it We may agree, if we like, with Montesquieu when he ascribes the “fixity” of oriental manners, customs and religion to its warm climate. We may believe in Buckle when he holds nature’s overpowering mountains and forests in all their stupefying greatness as are to be found in India responsible for the abnormal workings of imagination and superstition or we may follow the scientific geographer when he asserts that India has been condemned to isolation on account of her geographic location : isolated from China by the Himalaya mountains and from Persia and Afghanistan by the Hindu Kush mountains. She has a long waterfront but the eastern and the western ghats that fringe the coast from within and cut off the call of the ever beaconing sea to maritime activity. All these allegations perhaps have a modicum of truth in them: but it would be a mistake to make strong arguments out of them. Barriers, no matter how strong, are never insuperable to man. He has tried everywhere to control them and has succeeded in his effort.

Hemmed in from all sides, the early Indians burst asunder all impediments natural or otherwise and launched into the Indian ocean at a very early date. The Indian ocean has much in common with the mediterranean. Mr. Zimnurn argues that “land locked on all sides . . . . . . . . . the mediterranean seems in summer as gentle as an inland lake . . . . . . It is in fact double-natured . . . . . . . a lake when the Gods are kind, and the ocean when they are spiteful.” 1 The Indian ocean which is but the enlarged mediterranean sea with its southern coast removed is neither a ocean nor a lake but is according to Ratzel only half an ocean. The inclosed character of its northern part deprives it of the hydrospheric and atmospheric peculiarities of a true ocean 1 The Great Common Wealth, p. 20.

and the winds and currents ran over it in an unorganized way owing to the close by lands. The North-east and Southeast monsoons soon enabled the merchants to drag forth in the mid-ocean instead of hugging to the coast. “From the dawn of history the northern Indian ocean was a thoroughfare. Alexander the Great’s rediscovery of the old sea route to the orient sounds like a modern event in relation to the gray ages behind it. Along this thoroughfare Indian colonists, traders and priests carried the elements of Indian civilization to the easternmost Sunda isles; and oriental wares, sciences and religions moved westward to the margin of Europe and Africa. The Indian ocean produced a civilization of its own, with which it coloured a vast semi-circle of land reaching from Java to Abyssinia, and more faintly, owing to the wider divergence of race, the further stretch from Abyssinia to Mozambique.” 1 The Hindus became the dominant commercial nation of the Indian ocean long before the great development of Arabian sea power, and later shared the trade of the East African coast with the merchants of Oman and Yemen. Today they form a considerable mercantile class in the ports of Mascat, Aden, Zanzibar, Pemba and Natal.” 2 With this preliminary disquisition about the natural resources and the economic development of India we will trace her commercial intercourse from very early times with other countries of ancient civilization.

To begin with Egypt. At the outset it would be better to premise that the evidence of a commercial intercourse between India and other countries at the dim dawn of history is very flimsy and is embedded either in tradition or in articles excavated from early ruins: The evidence however ripens into positiveness with the advance of time.

Situated in the most rarely endowed location in the world the Egyptians were economically independent of the rest of the people—and it is even said that they prided economic self-sufficiency to such an extent that they tabooed foreign intercourse; but this is carrying things too far and though we have no positive records to disprove the statement, the foreign articles found in the process of excavation form a strong proof against it.

1 Ellen Churchill Semple—“ Influences of Geographic Environment”, p. 309. 2 Ibid, p. 268.

It is a matter of great controversy whether or not the Egyptians had direct trade with India. Hypercriticism has ranged on both sides. Herodotus says that Sesostris whom the Gardiner Wilkin son identifies with Ramses II fleeted out a strong fleet and sailed beyond the straits into the Indian ocean conquering all the coastal countries while his land forces carried their sword as far as the Ganges. 1 Long before the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, India had commercial intercourse with her and the port of Philoteras was the emporium of that early trade :

“Whether they (the Egyptians) had a direct communication with India at the same early epoch, or were supplied through Arabia with the merchandise of that country, it is not possible now to determine: but even an indirect trade was capable of opening to them a source of immense of wealth; and that the productions of India did actually reach Egypt we have positive testimony from the tombs of Thebes” 2 and “the productions of India already came to Egypt at the early period of Joseph’s arrival in the country is evident from the spices which the Ishmaclities were carrying to sell there : and the amethysts, hacmatile, lapislazuti, and other objects found at Thebes at the time of the Third Thothmus and succeeding pharaohs argue that the intercourse was constantly kept up.” 3 Culture in all times follows the wake of Commerce. This is more true of ancient times than of the modern. The caravans of the olden times were not only the carriers of wares but also of civilization : they dissiminated and universalized it. This commercial intercourse with India greatly affected the architecture of Egypt so much so that “James Fergusson (History of Architecture I, 142-3) notes that the great monolith at Axum is of Indian inspiration; “the idea Egyptian, but the details Indian. An Indian ninestoried pagoda, translated in Egyptian in the first century of the Christian era !” He notes its likeness to such Indian temples as Bodh-Gaya, and says, it represents “that curious marriage of Indian with Egyptian art which we would 1 cf. William Robertson “Disquisition on India” ,(1812) p. 6. 2 Gardinaer Wilkinson, “ The Ancient Egyptians”, Vol. I. p. 161. 3 Gardiner Wilkinson, “ The Ancient Egyptions”, Vol. I. p. 250.

expect to find in the spot where the two people came in contact, and enlisted architecture to symbolize their commercial union.”1 It will not be out of place to note the relation of the Dravidians, the earliest inhabitants of India though by no means aborigines with the people of western Asia. Mr. Gustav Oppert says, “It is established now, beyond any doubt, through the decipherment of the Cunciform inscription, that the Turanian Empires had advanced to a high degree of culture. This civilization, though tainted with strange materialism proved itself nevertheless able to develop to a high degree of perfection certain branches of arts and science. To these Turanians who differed much among each other in idiom belong also to the Dravidians of India of our days, who in those times occupied Ariana and Persia. In Europe, these Turanians appear to be represented by the Esthonians, and in many places of western and central Asia, they formed the substratum of the population, while they supplied in China the ground work of the civilization of the celestial empire.” These Turanians “had founded empires throughout the old world. The home of the Turanians is assumed to have been the country round Lake Aral. Thence they spread over the greatest part of Asia, reigned there paramount for at least 1500 years.” The Egyptians, the Assyrians the Akkadians, the Sumerians, the Phoenicians are all branches of the same Turanian race. “About 250 years after the Egyptian empire had been established i.e. 2500 B. C, and after the Akkadian dynasty had reigned for a long period in Babylon the Aryans invaded Chaldea, and pressing at the same time on the Kannanites of the Persian Gulf and the Dravidians in Persia, drove the former towards the North-west and the latter to the Southeast to India”. The Aryans when they invaded India met with a stubborn resistance from these Dravidians. For “they did not go beyond the frontiers of the Punjab till the fifteenth century before Christ”. 2 Next in importance and chronology 1 “The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” , Translated and annotated by W.H. Scoff, p. 66-67.

2 cf. Gustav oppent, “On the Ancient Commerce of India” in “The Madras Journal of literature and Science” 1878, pp. 189, 90, 91; for parallels between Malbarian and Egyptian customs cf “Primitive Civilizations” by E. J. Simcox Vol. I. pp. 183, 550, 554, 569, 570, 574, Vol. II. p. 473.

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