Ptolemy's Geography
Topic: Economy of Early India: Agriculture, Trade, Guilds, Coinage · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Geography is a Greek work written in c. 2nd century CE by Claudius Ptolemy, a scholar of Alexandria in Egypt. It lists thousands of places, including many Indian towns, ports, rivers and mountains. It gives each place a position in latitude and longitude. Many of the positions are wrong. Even so, historians use the book to identify ancient towns and ports and to map trade routes.
Example
Ptolemy names ports on the south Indian coast, including Muziris on the Malabar coast and Poduke. Poduke is generally identified with Arikamedu, near Puducherry.
Don't confuse with
- Ptolemy, the Greek general and his family, the Ptolemaic kings who ruled Egypt after Alexander. Claudius Ptolemy was a later scholar. He was not a king.
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: a sailor's practical guide to ports and goods. Ptolemy's work is a list of places with map positions.
Related concepts
- Trade routes
- Uttarapatha
- Dakshinapatha
- Indian Ocean trade
- Hippalus
- Indo-Roman trade
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
- Pliny's Natural History
- Muziris
- Arikamedu