Indo-Roman trade

Topic: Economy of Early India: Agriculture, Trade, Guilds, Coinage · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Indo-Roman trade was the sea trade across the Arabian Sea between Indian ports, mainly in the south, and the Roman Empire around the early centuries CE. India sent pepper, textiles, medicinal plants, gems, pearls and ivory to Rome. Rome paid mostly in metal and coin.

It matters because it shows that India was part of a world trading network over 2,000 years ago. It also shows that trade can cross political borders: Rome never ruled south India, yet Roman coins are found there in large hoards (stores of buried coins).

Explanation

Background: routes and the monsoon

• Land routes fed the sea routes. From the 6th century BCE, roads and rivers linked villages, towns and ports.
• Uttarapatha (the "northern road") ran from the northwest, through the Ganga plains, to eastern India.
• Dakshinapatha (the "southern road") began at Kaushambi, near modern Prayagraj, crossed the Vindhyas, and went into the Deccan and the south.

• Side roads branched off both highways and ran down to the coastal ports.

• How the Roman world reached India: ships came through Egypt and the Red Sea, then crossed the Arabian Sea.

• The monsoon changed everything. The Greeks called the southwest monsoon Hippalus, after a sailor said to be the first to sail straight from the Gulf of Aden to the Indian peninsula [3].
• Before: ships hugged the coast. The trips were slow, and every local middleman took a share of the profit.
• After: ships sailed directly from Cana to the Malabar coast, where black pepper grew.
• Result: spice prices inside the Roman Empire fell by more than half [3]. With fewer middlemen and cheaper pepper, much more of it was traded.

What was traded

• What Rome especially wanted: pepper, textiles and medicinal plants.
• Malabar exports listed in the Periplus:
• pepper
• malabathrum (a leaf spice, possibly cinnamon)
• fine pearls and ivory
• silk cloth
• transparent stones, diamonds and sapphires

• tortoise shell

• Malabar imports listed in the Periplus:

• a great quantity of coin
• topaz, antimony and coral
• crude glass

• copper, tin and lead

• Satavahana–Roman trade:

• Out: spices, textiles, sandalwood, ivory and gold-plated pearls.

• In: glass and perfumed ointments.

• Key point: India sent out plants, gems and cloth, and Rome sent back metal and, above all, money. India earned more than it spent (a trade surplus). This is why Roman coins pile up in India, while Indian coins do not pile up in Italy.

How it worked: traders, crafts and ports

• Three kinds of traders, each with a different level of risk:
• Peddlers walked and carried goods on their own backs.
• Caravans were groups of bullock carts and pack animals that travelled together for safety.

• Seafarers took the highest risk for the highest profit. A lost ship meant losing everything, while a safe voyage could make a fortune.

• Words for a rich merchant: masattuvan in Tamil; setthi and satthavaha in Prakrit.

• Inland crafts supplied the ports. Kodumanal (Tamil Nadu) had a bead-making industry whose beads most likely went to the ports for export.
• Goods were made for the Roman market. At settlements like Arikamedu, textiles were made to Roman specification (to the design Roman buyers wanted), and local workers even made copies of Roman items [3].
• The state protected trade for a price. Rulers guarded the routes and taxed the traffic, so trade paid for the state and the state kept trade safe.
• Main ports:
• Muziris (also called Cranganore) on the Malabar coast. This was the pepper port of the Periplus [3].
• Kaveripattinam, also called Puhar or Poompuhar. This was the Chola port at the mouth of the Kaveri.
• Arikamedu, a site on the Coromandel (east) coast with Roman material.
• Masulipatnam on the Andhra coast, facing the Bay of Bengal.

Results

• Roman coin hoards spread across south India.
• Trading towns grew and some were walled for defence. Gottiprolu is an example [4].
• Rulers showed off their sea power. Satavahana coins show two-masted ships, a sign that kings were proud of sea trade and the wealth it brought.
• Production, transport and export became one chain. This meant south Indian villages were not closed, self-sufficient units.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: The trade peaked around the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE. The Periplus dates to c. 1st century CE, and the Arretine pottery found at Indian sites dates to c. 30 BCE – 30 CE [3].
• Regions and powers: The Malabar (west) and Coromandel (east) coasts of south India, along with the Satavahanas in the Deccan and the Cholas, whose port was Puhar. Roman goods came via Egypt and the Red Sea.
• Texts:
• Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:
  • It was written by an anonymous Greek sailor, c. 1st century CE.
  • Periplus means "sailing around": it is a guide to the coast, port by port.
  • Erythraean means the Red Sea.
  • It names the ports Muziris (Cranganore), Colchi (Korkai), Poduca and Sopatma [3].

• Silappadikaram (Tamil epic) names roads from Kanchipuram to Poompuhar and from Kanchipuram to Kanyakumari. This proves that the land routes and sea routes were linked.

• Archaeology:

• Arikamedu (near Puducherry) was a Roman trading settlement.
  • Finds include Roman pottery, beads, intaglios (gems with a carved design used as seals), lamps, glass and coins.
  • The finds show people lived there continuously, not just for a short time [3].
  • The classic ASI report on the site is An Indo-Roman Trading Station on the East Coast of India, in Ancient India Vol. 2 [2].
• Arretine ware is a red, polished Roman pottery.
  • It was made in factory-style workshops at Arretium (modern Arezzo), c. 30 BCE – 30 CE [3].
  • Because it was made over such a short period, it helps archaeologists date the Indian layers where it is found.
• Roman coin hoards have been found across south India.
• Kodumanal (Tamil Nadu) was a bead-making centre that supplied the ports.
• Satavahana coins show two-masted ships.
• Gottiprolu (Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh):
  • ASI Excavation Branch VI, Bengaluru identified it as an early historic trade centre [4].
  • It sits on a distributary (a side branch) of the Swarnamukhi river.
  • Its main find is a baked-brick enclosure wall more than 75 m long and 3.40 m wide, possibly with a moat around the settlement.
  • Pottery from the early centuries CE was also found there [4].

Don't confuse with

• Muziris vs Arikamedu: Muziris was the pepper port on the west (Malabar) coast, named in the Periplus. Arikamedu is an east-coast site near Puducherry, known mainly from excavation.
• Hippalus (wind) vs Hippalus (sailor): In exams, Hippalus is the Greek name for the southwest monsoon. The name comes from a sailor said to have first used this wind to sail direct from the Gulf of Aden [3].
• Periplus vs Silappadikaram: The Periplus is a Greek sailor's guide to the ports. The Silappadikaram is a Tamil epic that names inland roads leading to the ports.
• Gottiprolu vs Arikamedu: Gottiprolu (Andhra Pradesh) is a walled early historic trade town with a Pallava-period Vishnu image (c. 8th century CE) [4]. Arikamedu (near Puducherry) is famous for Roman pottery, glass and coins [3].

Prelims Hooks

• The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was written by an anonymous Greek sailor, c. 1st century CE. Erythraean = Red Sea.
• The coin trap: the Periplus lists coin as an import into India from Rome, not an export. Pepper and malabathrum were exports.
• Arikamedu is near Puducherry. The ASI report on it is titled An Indo-Roman Trading Station on the East Coast of India [2].
• Arretine ware was made at Arretium (Arezzo), c. 30 BCE – 30 CE [3].
• Hippalus = the southwest monsoon. Direct sailing cut Roman spice prices by more than half [3].
• Satavahana coins show two-masted ships. Kodumanal (Tamil Nadu) was a bead-making centre. Masattuvan is the Tamil word for a rich merchant.

Mains Points

• Trade does not need conquest. Rome never ruled south India, yet Roman coin hoards spread across the peninsula, and Arikamedu has Roman pottery and glass [3]. India's early "global" links went far beyond its political borders, and India ran a trade surplus, earning more than it spent.
• New knowledge changed how trade worked.
• Understanding the monsoon (Hippalus) replaced coast-hugging with open-sea sailing.
• This removed middlemen and halved spice prices in Rome [3], so much more pepper was traded.

• The Malabar ports such as Muziris became very important as a result.

• One connected economy. Several pieces of evidence show that making, moving and selling goods were linked in one chain:

• beads made at Kodumanal
• cloth made to Roman specification at Arikamedu [3]
• the road-to-port routes in the Silappadikaram
• walled trade towns like Gottiprolu [4]

This argues against the idea that early Indian villages were closed, self-sufficient units. It also shows that rulers and merchants worked as partners: kings protected the routes, and merchants paid for that protection through taxes.

Related concepts

• Trade routes
• Uttarapatha
• Dakshinapatha
• Indian Ocean trade
• Hippalus
• Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
• Pliny's Natural History
• Ptolemy's Geography
• Muziris
• Arikamedu

Read more

• Trade routes, ports and Indo-Roman commerce