THIS PRESENTATIONS IS PREPARED FOR BA STUDENTS

1. Indo-Roman Trade
Dr. Virag Sontakke
Assistant Professor
Center for Advanced Studies
Department of A.I.H.C. & Archaeology,
Banaras Hindu University

2. Indo-Roman Trade

4. Introduction
• Indo- Roman trade is very important aspect of ancient Indian History.
• Second urbanisation enhanced trading and communication activity in
India.
• Alexander established contact with India, followed by the establishment of
a Indo-Greco dynasty in north-west India.
• Indo-Roman trade was not accidental but very much a structured outcome
of the political economy and society of the Roman Empire.
• Indo-Roman trade was characterised by great wealth, well organised
system, developed and wide network of transport, trade and market.
• Discovery of Roman gold coins along the ancient Indian trade routes, trade
centres and the market towns confirms the fact that there was a brisk trade
between India and the Roman Empire.

5. Sources
• Periplus on the Erythrean Sea,
• Greek Historians:
• Strabo’s Geography
• Pliny’s the elder Natural History,
• Ptolemy’s Geography (2nd centuries CE)
• Tamil literature (the Sangam anthologies) and
• Archaeological Remains:
a) Excavations Remains
b) Coins
c) Ceramics
d) Art-craft items
e) Inscriptions,

6. Periplus of the Erythrean Sea
• Periplus of the Erythrean Sea is a Greek account of 70 to 80 CE.
• It’s a manual for the Greek navigators who carried trade between Roman
Empire and India through the Red Sea.
• He has given the details of the Port towns, the commodities to be sold or
purchased, from each port on the route.
• Also inland industrial centres and the market towns of Deccan and
peninsular India etc.
• It gives detailed information of India’s maritime trade that was carried
through the western and the eastern coast and gives a list of articles of
import export.
• The Papyrus now kept in the Vienna museum is obviously the trader’s
personal copy, for it mentions various expenditures such as customs
duties, payment to the camel men etc.

7. Pliny the Elder
• Author of Natural History.
• A Roman historian bares the testimony to the vast sums of money sent to
India in payment of the commodities imported from India.
• He had complained to the Roman court about the drain of the Roman
Gold coins.
• He also complains that for the purchase of luxurious articles, Rome pays
every year a million sesterces to India.

8. Nature of the Trade
• Period Between 2nd c BCE to 2nd c CE.
• Trade flourishing during the time of Roman King Augustus (27 BCE-14
BCE)
• About 130 sites of India yielded Roman Gold coins
• Rarely, any roman coins found in North India.
• Indo-Roman trade was carried out on the sea as well on land.
• The seaborne trade was controlled by the Śakas and the Sātavāhanas
• Land-borne trade was monitored by the Kuśāṇas.
• In India, the earliest evidence of this trade is to be found from the
southern Peninsula.

9. Hippalus and
Monsoon
• The journey is 2000 miles (3200 km) across
the open Indian ocean.
• The writer of the Periplus on the Erythrean
Sea credited Hippalus with discovering the
direct route from the Red Sea to India.
• Pliny the Elder, claimed that Hippalus
discovered not the route but
the Mansoon wind also called Hippalus (the
south-west monsoon wind).
• To understand the importance of Hippalus'
discovery we have to know that before
him Greek geographers thought that the
Indian coast stretched from west to east.
• Hippalus was probably the first (in the
west) to recognize the north-south direction
of India's west coast.
• The use of Hippalus direct route greatly
contributed to the prosperity of trade
between the Roma and India.

10. Indo-Roman Trade and Political linkage
• It is believed that to promote foreign trade, Kanīṣka, the Kuṣāṇa ruler
made use of the standard of the Roman gold coins for his own issues.
• The Saka hold the Western part of India (Gujrat, Sourashtra)
• The Satavahana ruled in Deccan (Maharashtra, Aandhra)
• The political tensions between the Śakas and Sātavāhanas did affect this
trade for some time at least.
• In order to overcome this problem, Augustus, the Roman Emperor
encouraged the traders to take the sea route and offered them protection
as well.
• The three Southern Kingdoms Cēra, Pāndya and Cōla had established a
strategic outlet to their ports namely Muziris, Korkai and Kaveri
respectively because of the Roman trade.

11. Trade Routes

12. Trade Route
• Sea trade carried on both
by Indian and by foreign
merchants
• The trade was travel
through Red Sea.
• Part of Egeypt
• Then Mediterranean Sea
• Alexandria was an
important centre.
• Arsinoe
• Berenice
• Myos Hormos

13. Nature of Travel routes
• Cargos shifted from Indian port to Myos Hormos or Berenike through Indian
ocean.
• Cargoes had to be unloaded at Myos Hormos or Berenike and transported on
camels’ back across the desert route to Alexandria.
• From Alexandria they had to be carried beyond by boats to Koptos and finally
to all over Europe.
• It required huge amounts of money for various purposes at several points
between the port and market.
• The object of the highest cost in the enterprise was the vessel itself, which
should necessarily have been of a size large enough to withstand the weather
conditions of the sea and carry heavy cargo.
• A Roman ship, reportedly, had the capacity to carry over 11,000 talents of
merchandises.
• According to Strabo the ships that brought oriental goods from Muziris
amounted to 120 per year on an average.

14. • Around November a Greek ship loaded with
trade goods would leave the harbor of Musiris.
• Much of this capacity was not the trade goods
but provisions for the crew, which including
soldiers, needed in case of pirate attack.

15. Items of
Export and Import

16. According to the Periplus
Periplus gives a list of articles that India exported to Rome
• Spices like
• Black pepper,
• Long pepper
• Dry ginger,
• Nard oil,
• Cardamoms spikenard,
• Costus,
• Bdellium,
• Ivory,
• Agate,
• Carnelian,
• Lyceum,
• Cotton cloth
• Silk cloth,
• Yarn,
• All kinds of wood like
• Sandalwood,
• Teak,
• Black wood and
• Ebony for medical and architectural
purposes,
• Indian birds and animals,
• Pearls,
• Indian herbs used as medicine,
• Brass vessels and many other items
were exported.

17. Export Items
1. Different kinds of herbs,
2. Spices,
3. Indigo,
4. Cotton cloths,
5. Sesame oil,
6. Rice,
7. Wood for furniture and
8. Plant products
9. Pearls,
10.Precious and semi-precious stones like diamonds, onyx, sardonyx, agate,
carnelian, crystal, amethyst, opal, cat’s eye, ruby, turquoise and garnet

18. Barygaza (Barukaccha) The Periplus of the Erythrean
• From Barygaza (Barukaccha) agricultural products were exported.
a) Raw materials
b) Ebony,
c) Teak,
d) Blackwood,
e) Sandal wood,
f) Bamboo,
g) Tusks of ivory
h) Iron
i) Spices like long pepper, malabathrum, and cinnabar
j) Dyes such as indigo and lac,
k) Semi-precious stones like agate, Red jasper, Carnelian, and onyx and
l) Exotic bird are also mentioned by the Periplus.
• Manufactured items included textiles, broader Indian cloth called monakhe, sagmatogenai, garments called
gaunukai (which appear to be Greek corruption of Indian names), mallow cloth and some muslin

19. ebony
spikenard
bdellium
costus
lycium
cinnabar

20. long pepper,
malabathrum
Cinnamon

21. onyx

22. Resource Area
• Teak came from the Satpura range,
• Blackwood from north Konkan and central India and Western Ghats,
• Ebony and sandalwood from the Malabar coast,
• Spices from Kerala
• Aromatics, a major item of export consisted of bdellium from the Tapti basin, Sind
and Kathiawar;
• Semi-precious stones: agate, red jasper and onyx–from the Deccan;
• Muslins and mallow cloth from Ter in Deccan,
• Indigo from western India;
• Spikenard from the Himalayas and also Ujjain?;
• Costus from Kashmir;
• Malabathrum from the southern slopes of the Himalayas and also the north Kanara
district.
• Bharuch being the entrepot for wood from Malabar and Indonesia.

23. Import Items
• Rome wine: it was called Vāruṇi as it
was brought from the sea in specially
designed carriers which were called
Amphorae.
• Copper,
• Tin,
• Lead
• Coral,
• Topaz and
• Waist girdles.
• Dates,
• Glass,
• Tin,
• Antimony,
• Realgar,
• Coral,
• Gold,
• Vessels of silver,
• Singing boys
• Maidens,
• Beads,
• Rings,
• Lamps,

24. Topaz

25. Major
Port/Trade
Sites

26. Costal Centers (East- Coast)
1. Sopatma
2. Podouke
3. Kaviripaddinam or Puhar
4. Puddukottai
5. Pandion Pandya

27. Costal Centers (West
Coast)
1. Barygaza
2. Souppara
3. Kalliena
4. Semulla
5. Palaipatmai
6. Mouziris

28. Hinterland Sites
• Ter
• Pratisthan
• Naneghat
• Junnar
• Nasik
• Bhokardhan
• Kanheri

29. Trade
Centers

30. Arikamedu (Poduke )
• Arikamedu situated 4 km from Pondicherry
(Coromandal coast)
• First excavations conducted in 1954 and
another in 1989-1992 yielded
• The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a
marketplace named Poduke.
• G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly
being Arikamedu
• Warehouse
• Amphorae and Arretine ware
• Numerus beads: shell, bone, gold, stones
• Roman coins
• Structure of merchants and sailors

31. Bharuch
• Bharuch was known as Barygaza.
• It was one of the most important trade center
of the west coast.
• Bharuch exported fragrant ointments and ivory
to Rome.
• Bharuch had trade relations with two inland
cites- ancient Pratiṣṭhāna and Ter.
• The Periplus on the Erythrean Sea informs that
the journey from Bharuch to Paithana would
take twenty days.
• Ter was at a further distance of ten days from
Paithana.
• Both Paithana and Ter were well known for the
export of carnelian, muslin and mallow cloth.
• Ter and Paithana were also a part of the
southern trade routes.

32. Muziris
• Muziris was the 'first emporium of India' for the
Romans, where the ships of the Yavanas arrived in
large numbers and took back pepper, and other
products in exchange of gold.
• Muziris was a Port and Spice City also known as
Murachipattanam.
• Sangam literature describes Roman ships coming to
Muziris laden with gold to be exchanged for pepper.
• According to Pliny, the Elder and the author of
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Muziris could be
reached in 14 days time from the Red Sea ports in
Egyptian coast purely depending on the monsoon
winds.
• The site of Pattanam has yielded a variety of organic
and inorganic categories of archaeological objects
such as wood, plant-fibre, spices, vegetables and
nuts as well as beads and bead-materials, uncut
gem-stones, copper, bronze and iron objects, backed
bricks, roof-tiles and shards of different types of
ceramic including the early Roman

33. Berenice
• Berenice appear to have been important
ancient trading ports.
• Berenice, built by Ptolemy II in 275 BCE and
named after his mother.
• Berenice, the transit port between ancient
Egypt and Rome.
• Excavations at Berenike yielded 7.55 kg of
black pepper (piper nigrum) in a ceramic
container made of Nile silt.
• Shards of common Indian pottery, shards of
Indian Rouletted Ware, a couple of which
having Tamil-Brāhmi characters was found.
• The presence of the teakwood among the
finds there, probably suggests the possibility
of an Indian boat-building centre on the Red
Sea coast.
• It also suggest the presence of Indian
merchants and their ships in the Red Sea.
• A few shards of IRW (16 shards of 3 dishes)
and stamped bowls from Berenike could be
part of the personal belongings probably of
merchants from India.

34. Arsinoe
• The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the
strategic position of Arsinoe to
secure trade with India.
• The course of trade with the east
then seems to have been first
through the harbor of Arsinoe, the
present day Suez.
• The Romans cleared out the canal
from the Nile to harbor center of
Arsinoe on the Red Sea, which had
silted up.
• That represented one of the many
efforts the Roman administration
had to undertake to divert as much
of the trade to the maritime routes
as possible.
• The rising prominence of Myos
Hermos eventually overshadowed
Arsinoe.

35. Myos Hormos
• This port center was established
around the 3rd century BCE.
• It was main trading center in Red Sea.
• The port of Myos Hormos was
connected to the Nile valley and by a
Roman road.
• In 1994, the French
excavations confirms Quseir al-Qadim
is Myos Hormos.
• This port was a hub for trade and was
engaged in trade with India and China.
• Roman obtained luxury items from the
Orient, such as spices, silks and pearls
in exchange for goods such as wines,
fine pottery, glass and textiles.

36. Roman Antiquities
•Evidence of Roman Trade: Archaeological
Context
• Roman Coins
• Amphorae Jars
• Terra Sigillata (Arretine Ware)

37. Amphorae Jars

38. Amphorae Jars

39. Terra Sigillata (Arretine Ware)

40. Terra Sigillata (Arretine Ware)

41. Lamps

42. Roman Coins

43. Roman Coins (Bullae)

46. Bronze image of Poseidon

47. Grey pottery with engravings,
Arikamedu, 1st century CE

48. The Deccan Pass

50. Naneghat Pass

51. Naneghat Pass

52. Naneghat Cave

53. • Epigraphic records from the
excavated sites at Karla, Nasik and
Junnar throw light on the Yavana
donors and their donations to the
Buddhist establishments in western
India.
• Besides, it appears that there were
Yavana artists who may also have
been working here.
• The Persepolitan (Greek) capitals,
surmounted by addorsed lions on the
free standing dhavaja Stambhas (or
the flag pillars) at Karle, presence of
such motif as Triskelion, Sphinxes,
Centaur etc. may be considered as an
indication of the influence of Greek
art.

54. Internal Trade Routes
• The Periplus says that goods were carried by wagon between Paithan and Ter in
the
Deccan and Baruch, a distance of 150 km.
• The inland routes plied the bullock carts and wagons of the traders.
• The major ports lay on the west coast such as Bharuch, Kalyan and Sopara on the
Gujarat and Konkan coast, Nelkunda-Kottayam, and Bakare (Vaikkarai) and
Muciri (Muziris) on the Kerala coast.
• One route originated from Masulipattanam other from Vinukonda (both in Andhra
Pradesh) and these two routes met near the modern city of Hyderabad.
• As this route proceeded northwards, it passed through Ter, Paithana, Devagiri and
the Ajanta ranges.
• It crossed the Western Ghats and reached Kalyana near Mumbai which was the last
destination of this route.
• However, due to the long-drawn conflict between the Sātavāhana ruler
Gautamiputra Sātakarṇi and the Kṣatrapa king Nahāpāna in the 1st century CE, the
trade route was diverted to Bharuch.

55. Ship Transport

56. Ships
• The bulk of the cargo was shipped in Greek and Roman vessels,
which were built with close set mortise and tenon joints and nails.
• Indian ships were made of planks of wood, the planks being stitched
together by means of ropes and were also fastened by wooden
dowels.
• The Periplus refers to foreign vessels called kotumba and trappaga.
• Indian trading vessels called sangara and kolandiphonta.
• Sangadam in Tamil was a double canoe meant only for river traffic.
• Kolandiphonta were large vessels meant for overseas voyages.

57. Ship of mortise and tenon joints and nails

59. Cultural impact

60. Cultural impact of Indo-Roman Trade
1. Cultural Exchange
2. Religious acceptance
3. Donation
4. Caves

61. Yavana donors from Junnar group of caves
Sr.
No.
Name of the
Yavana Donor
Designation
Recorded in the
Inscription
Date of the donation (Circa,
on palaeographic
background)
Donation
1 Chanda A Yavana 60 B.C.E. Gabhadara
2 Irila A Yavana 230 C.E. 2 Podhiyo
(2 cisterns)
3 Chita A Yavana 280 C.E. Bhojanamantapa (A
dining Hall)

62. Yavana donors from Nasik group of caves
Sr.
No.
Name of the
Yavana Donor
Designation
Recorded in the
Inscription
Date of the donation (Circa,
on palaeographic
background)
Donation
1 Indragnidata
along with his
father
Dhammadev and
son
Dhammarakhita
A Yavana 120 C.E. Lena (A Cave), Podhio
(A Cistern),
A Chaityagriha
(congregati-on Hall)
2 Lekhak Damchik
Budhik
A Shaka, writer by
Profession
A water Cistern

63. Yavana donors from Karle group of caves
Sr. No. Name of the
Yavana Donor
Designation
Recorded in the
Inscription
Date of the donation
(Circa, on palaeographic
background)
Donation
1 Sinhadhaya A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar
2 Dhamma A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar
3 Vitasangata A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar
4 Dhammadhaya A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar
5 Chulayakha A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar
6 Yasavadhana A Yavana 50 C.E. Thambho i.e. A Pillar

64. Karle cave

65. Karle Cave

66. Karle

67. Influence of the Greco-Roman art on Indian architecture
• Bedsa: Pillars and pilasters, often described as ‘Persepolitan’
surmounted by spirited sculpture–human and animal.
• Nasik: Persepolitan pillars flanking the arch opening.
• Karle: At entrance, two free standing Pillars with Perseolitan
capitals, surmounted by addorsed lions.
• Bharhut: Bharhut pillar capital with rosette, beads and reels,
flame palmette designs.

68. Decline of Trade
•Trade declined stared from the mid-3rd century CE.
•During the Roman-Persian Wars decline of ware begun.
•The Arabs, won Egypt and controlled many important
trade centres and red sea.
•The beginning of Islamic conquest of Egypt and the fall of
ports such as Alexandria and others subsequently ended
the Indo-Roman trade.

69. Conclusions
• The evidence suggests that in ancient times vibrant trade between India
and the Roman Empire.
• The Greek geographer Strabo, reports that under imperial rule 120 vessels
were sailing from Egypt to India every year.
• A century later, Pliny the Elder, reports that over 50 million sesterces of
Roman bullion were exported annually to India.
• The entire routes from the Red Sea ports to Alexandria, were protected by
the forts, bastions and garrisons of the Roman emperor.
• The wealth made by Indian traders is reflected in the architecture of the
time. Western Maharashtra is full with rock-cut architecture, which were
built from donations made by traders.
• Overall Indo-Roman trade was much favourable to India.

70. Three silver-gilt Roman (piperatoria) or pepper pots from
the Hoxne Hoard of Roman Britain. (Photograph by Mike
Peel (www.mikepeel.net)/CC BY-SA 4.0 )