Tamralipti
Also called: Tamluk · Topic: Economy of Early India: Agriculture, Trade, Guilds, Coinage · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Tamralipti was the main ancient port of Bengal. It stood on the Rupnarayan river, close to the sea. The town is now called Tamluk and lies in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal. Ships sailed from Tamralipti to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Goods from the Ganga plains also left India through this port. Tamralipti was eastern India's main link to the trade of the Bay of Bengal.
Example
Faxian was a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited India in the early 5th century CE, in Gupta times. On his way home, he boarded a ship at Tamralipti and sailed to Sri Lanka. From there he went on towards China.
Don't confuse with
- Sopara: Sopara was a western port near Mumbai that traded with West Asia and the Mediterranean. Tamralipti was an eastern port on the Bay of Bengal that traded with Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
Related concepts
- Trade routes
- Uttarapatha
- Dakshinapatha
- Indian Ocean trade
- Hippalus
- Indo-Roman trade
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
- Pliny's Natural History
- Ptolemy's Geography
- Muziris