CONTENTSPrefaceIntroduction1.Circulation of Spices in the Early Historical Period2.Spice Routes after the Decline of Roman Empire till 1453 CE3.Opening of the New Spice Route and the Portuguese in Kerala4.The Dutch, the English and their Trade in the New Spice Route5.The French, the Danes, Ostenders and the Spice Trade6.Exclusive Claim over the Right of Navigation in the Spice Route7.A Study of Shipbuilding on the Malabar Coast8.Life on Board the Ships that Plied the Spice Routes9.European Merchant Financiers and the New Spice Route10.Middle-men, Producers on the Malabar Coast andTrade in the Spice Route11.Spice Routes and Cultural Diffusion12.ConclusionList of spices and their local namesBibliography

PREFACE

To my knowledge, no work dealing exclusively with Kerala and its spice routes has been written till date. While perusing the available articles and books, it became quite evident that there is plenty of room for discussing the many facets of the spice trail that connected several countries. For instance, the decision of the Europeans to move to Moluccas and other spice producing areas of the Southeast Asian regions was taken after relishing the spices made available in the Malabar coast for the West. The spice routes themselves brought several nationalities together which left vestiges of different cultures in Kerala and vice-versa. So cultural interactions between various countries linked by the spice routes can also be highlighted in the study of the history of the spice routes. A systematic research of the role played by Kerala or the Malabar coast in the multifaceted development of spice routes from the early historical period will be highly enriching and beneficial to the present and future generations. Anyone interested in tracing the roots of their culture will be fascinated by the spice route saga and its impact on civilizations. Similarly, tourists enthralled by the lure and lore of Kerala will find a work dwelling on the numerous events that unfolded through the spice route journey greatly interesting. Therefore, a humble and unpretentious attempt is made here to trace various aspects of the history of spice routes.

INTRODUCTION

When delving into the fascinating story of spice routes, which dates back many millennia, it seemed highly relevant to explain some of the terms used in this book. Since spice route has its origins in the ancient times when different civilizations, kings and emperors ruled the world, readers not conversant with history could be at a loss with names of the cities, provinces and countries of a bygone era. This book is an attempt to retrace the lost world of spice trading cities in Malabar or the present-day Kerala - once a much sought-after spice destination, connected to the rest of the world through an amazing network of land and sea routes.Today, Kerala denotes the geographical segment formed as one of the federal states of Indian Union. Nestling between the Arabian Sea in the west and the majestic Western Ghats to the east, it has an area that stretches to 38,863 square kilometres (1.18% of Indias landmass). Networked by an incredible array of 44 rivers, the state is also blessed with a long, beautiful coastline that runs some 580km in length. The highlands of Kerala slope down from the Western Ghats (the Sahyadri) which rise to an average height of 900 m, with a number of peaks well over 1800 m in height. It is 18650 sq km in area and accounts for 48 per cent of the total land area of Kerala. Spices are cultivated chiefly in the highlands. The midland of Kerala, located between the mountains and the lowlands, is made up of undulating hills and valleys with an area of 16200 sq km, which constitutes 40 per cent of the total extent of land in the state. The lowland or coastal region is spread over 4000 sq km. It consists of numerous shallow lagoons, river deltas, backwaters and beaches of the Arabian Sea. Apart from the rivers, there are other means of water transportation, like the lakes and backwater lagoons. Cardamom is produced on a large scale in the hills, widely known as Cardamom Hills. The central point of these hills encompassing 2,800km of mountainous terrain with deep valleys is about 952N 7709E. Munnar, one of the world-renowned tourist destinations is located here. Periyar, Mullayar and Pamba rivers pass through these areas. The region known as Cardamom Hills also comprises Idukki Dam and the Mullaperiyar Dam. It is adjacent to the Anaimalai Hills to the northwest, the Palani Hills to the northeast and the Agasthyamalai Hills to the south as far as the Ariankavu Pass (at c. 9 N). Pepper and coffee are also cultivated in the Cardamom Hills.The terms Malabar, Malabar coast and Kerala are indiscriminately used in this work to indicate the same. In fact, the first two names are used in most of the historical writings to mean almost the same geographical area. So, when mention is made of Malabar here, it has no connotation in this work to the erstwhile British Malabar, which was a district of the Madras Presidency under the British.The two independent princely states of Travancore and Cochin joined with the Union of India after India gained independence in 1947 and merged to form Travancore-Cochin on 1 July 1949. The political unit of Travancore-Cochin was recognised as a state on 1 January 1950. Subsequently, the state of Kerala was formed on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act, after uniting the former British Malabar and the taluks of Kasargode and South Kanara with Travancore-Cochin and by excluding four southern taluks which were merged with Tamil Nadu. Kerala shares its border with the state of Karnataka in the north and the rest of it borders with Tamil Nadu and is divided into 14 districts for administrative purposes. The modern writers make use of the English term spices to denote only edible and mostly culinary aromatics, flavourings and tinctures.[footnoteRef:2] Originally, the word was taken from the Latin word species, which just meant type or kind. This probably gave way to the English term specie as reserved for cash in kind that is coinage. According to the Roman usage, species received a specific meaning that signified the type or kind of article on which import duty was imposed as indicated in the Alexandria Manifest, a fifth century tariff of Justinians reign listing the goods liable to be taxed in the port of Alexandria.[footnoteRef:3] They included different varieties of cinnamon and cassia, ginger, white pepper, long pepper, two types of cardamom, asafoetida and so on. Nutmeg, mace, cloves, turmeric and black pepper were absent from this list, probably because they were items not to be taxed. [2: John Keay, The Spice Route: a History, Berkeley, 2006, p.20.] [3: Keay, op.cit, p.21, species pertinentes ad vectigal species subject to duty.]

There are differences of opinion regarding the use of spices in Europe. It is argued by some economic historians that spices, especially pepper, were used for the preservation of meat in Europe. According to economic history, the farming communities of Europe down the seventeenth century at least, suffered from a chronic shortage of winter feed for cattle. Large number of beasts had to be slaughtered every autumn and the meat preserved for winter consumption by being salted or pickled.... Apart from salt, the preservative spices were all produced in tropical countries: pepper... cinnamon... nutmeg and mace... [and] the most valuable preservative spice [of all] - cloves.[footnoteRef:4] [4: J.H. Parry, Europe and a Wider World, London, Hutchinson, 1949, p.36; Keay, op.cit, p.27.]

Food scientists, on the other hand, affirm that spices have very few properties for preservation, which is effected by the generous application of salt. Of course, the addition of spices may improve the taste of meat.[footnoteRef:5] [5: John Keay, op.cit, pp.27-28.]

Spice Route/s in this book includes both waterways and land routes along which spices were taken to different destinations through the centuries. They varied from time to time and were not exclusively set apart for spices. The means of transportation too differed from period to period. In the early historical period, spices were transported partly through waterways and partly through land by using different kinds of pack animals. The Silk Route/s and the Incense Route/s also served as major conduits for the circulation of spices. As there were directions of diverse nature through the centuries, the expression spice routes may be more appropriate than spice route to convey the meaning. However, both have been used indiscriminately here. We can describe the concept of spice route against the backdrop of the ancient silk route, which connected a large number of countries for several centuries and functioned as a major conduit for the circulation of commodities, cultures and ideologies. In this way, the spice route or spice routes, is a set of other routes which has been serving as an international and intercontinental means of communication. In fact, this nomenclature has not been in vogue and has not received the attention it deserves from scholars. If China was the focal point of the supply of silk and the name Silk Route was attributed to it on account of this principal item of commodity traded in, the geo-political segment known as Malabar currently called Kerala was the most sought-after place in the world for spices and so the route that connected Malabar with the East and West is named Spice Route/s.[footnoteRef:6] [6: John Keay, op.cit, passim.]

The spice route to central Europe could be considered to start from the Indonesian Banda Islands, the provenance of nutmeg and mace. The route initially covered a distance of 30,000 km, but after the discovery of the direct sea route by Vasco da Gama, it got shortened to just 16,000 km.[footnoteRef:7] Being in the same vessel, without any disembarkation or loading and unloading in-between, the consignment of spices reached the European ports much faster. Another point to be borne in mind is that since there were several routes through the centuries we cannot think of a single spice route and hence should speak of spice routes.[footnoteRef:8] Although named the spice route, even elephants and exotic animals like rhinoceros, saplings of pepper and other plants were transported along these routes. Scores of countries too were linked with Malabar through this route. It served as a major transit for trade and commerce, technology, culture, ideology and religion. [7: John Keay, op.cit, p.8.] [8: John Keay, op.cit, p.xiii.]

Spices from the Malabar coast were taken to Antioch, Alexandria and other places through the ancient silk route/s. The Seleucid (323 BCE - 30 BCE), Ptolemaic (305 BCE to 30 BCE), Parthian (247 BC - 224 CE), Aksumite (100 CE - 940 CE) and the Sasanian (224 - 651 CE) Empires promoted trade in spices. The Ptolemies of Egypt and the Roman Emperors, chiefly till the fall of the Empire to the Goths, got the spices transported from the Malabar coast to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and further on to Rome on the River Po via Red Sea regions through waterways and by land, then over the desert and again by waterways through the Nile. With the rise of Constantinople as the headquarters of the Eastern Roman Empire, a further diversion is noticed in the route through which spices from the Malabar coast found their way. It was the development of a new passage along the Persian Gulf via the Levant and then to Eastern Mediterranean and finally to Constantinople. Simultaneously, the incense route too was used for transporting spices from the Malabar coast.The incense trade route or the incense road comprised a network of major ancient land and sea routes linking the Mediterranean world with Eastern and Southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levant and Egypt through eastern Africa and Arabia to India and beyond. It flourished roughly between the 7th century BCE and the 2nd century CE. The incense route served as a channel for trade in commodities like Arabian frankincense, myrrh, Indian spices and so on.Trade in spices via the Red Sea regions was further developed by the Mamluks of Egypt. It was brought under the monopoly of the Sultan of Egypt. So, the route along the Red Sea to Cairo and Alexandria received unprecedented boost. The merchants from Venice and Genoa established their factories (warehouses) in these ports, especially in Cairo. When Constantinople fell to the Turks, the Europeans began to work hard for an alternative route connecting the ports of the Atlantic with those of the Malabar coast. In this race, the Portuguese turned out victorious and diverted the flow of spices via the Cape of Good Hope directly to Lisbon, entirely through sea route. Since 1511, mace, nutmeg, cloves and other spices from the Southeast Asian Regions began to be shipped to the Malabar coast to supplement the cargo of spices obtained from here. Though the Portuguese did not succeed in completely stopping the flow of spices via Red Sea, especially after the thirties of the sixteenth century, the subsequent contending Companies like the English, the Dutch, the Danes and the French intensified the use of the route via Cape of Good Hope so much that the Europeans first thought of this as the spice route par excellence. In fact, in any discussions on spice route, the discussants talked only of this route. This state of affairs continued till the opening of the Suez Canal on 17 November 1869, construction of which began on 25 April 1859 with an outlay of $100 million.From the west, spices found its way to China and from there to adjacent countries as well through the silk route. Marco Polo may be considered the earliest informant for the Europeans to speak of Japan (Cipangu) among the 7,450 other islands including Spice Islands situated in the Eastern Sea of China. During his stay in the court of the Mongol rulers, he obtained information about Japan, known to the Chinese by the name of Jipan-ku and corrupted into Cipango or Zipango. He also mentions about the voyage of the Chinese vessels to this region and the huge profit derived by the merchants trading there. Ibn Batuta too has written about the Far East including Japan. Tom Pires, the former apothecary of Prince Afonso, the son of King John II of Portugal during his two and a half year stay in Portuguese Malacca from 1512 wrote the famous work Suma Oriental, that makes a mention of Japan.[footnoteRef:9] [9: Tom Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tom Pires: An account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan , written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, New Delhi, AES reprint, 1990, vol 1, p.131]

By now, the Portuguese controlled Ambon in the Moluccass (Spice Islands), which was the chief spice market in the Far East in 1512. Although Jorge Alvarez reached the shores of southern China as early as 1513, the Portuguese traders landed in Japan only in 1543. Slowly, they obtained first hand information about the spice trade. The Portuguese who came in search of Christians and Spices brought Japan into the larger ambit of spice trade for the first time though it was connected to the silk route via China and had access to the spices available in the neighbouring spice-producing islands, especially the Spice Islands. In 1557, the Portuguese obtained a permanent and official base from China in Amacau or Macau which facilitated stronger commercial relations with Japan. Thus by the middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese became the masters of the spice route from Lisbon to the east of the Molucca. They practically enjoyed a commercial monopoly on transactions carried out between India and southeast Asia as well as along the routes linking southeast Asia to China and Japan. Initially, fine Chinese silk highly appreciated by the Daimios and Samurais was exchanged for Japanese silver. Gradually the Portuguese rulers granted business voyages (Viagens) to the cities of Macao, Cochin, Malacca and also for the Monastery of Incarnation in Madrid.[footnoteRef:10] Whoever purchased the right of voyages paid the stipulated amount and sent the ships to Japan for trade. The buyer was free to go to any part of East Asia including Japan. There was yet another practice of granting voyages to some prospective bridegrooms who were willing to marry the daughters of Portuguese nobility sent to India. This was a device to replace dowry with right for voyages. They were allowed to fit out vessels to Southeast Asia and the Far East to conduct trade and gain fabulous profit. While leaving Cochin for Japan the merchants collected pepper and other commodities and loaded them on their vessels. They further took other kinds of spices from the Far East for Japan. The ships involved in the voyages of this nature stopped in Macau to catch the appropriate wind to set sail to Japan. The merchants sold spices and other commodities in Japan in return for large volumes of silver. The ships that were involved in this trade were usually known as naus da prata (silver ships meaning ships that were carrying silver). They waited in Japan for the wind favourable for the return voyage. Silver from Japan was essential for the Portuguese to exchange for the commodities from China. [10: Joel Serro, ed., Dicionario de Histria de Portugal, Lisboa, 1992, vol.3, p.358]

Though some of the ships in the Dutch armada (1597-1601) reached Japan, effective commercial contact with them was established by the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) only in 1609. The English too started trading relations with Japan from 1613. Thus spice route was extended to Japan and areas lying in the Pacific, beyond and east of China during the sixteenth century itself. The commercial relations between Japan and the West through the oceanic Spice Route continued till Tokugawa Schogunate passed the Act of Seclusion in 1636 forbidding interchange with Western Europe, but not with East Asia. The Portuguese merchants from Macau found it extremely difficult to continue trade with Nagasaki. The Japanese authorities issued orders in 1639 prohibiting once and for all commercial relations between Macau and Japan since the vessels from Macau used to carry missionaries to Japan. Under the Tokugawa Shoguns (1600-1868) Japan developed social and economic changes.Apart from the overseas routes through which spices were transported there were other relatively short coasting voyages for the circulation of spices. The Gujarati merchants shipped the spices from the Malabar coast to Gujarat through the Arabian Sea. When Vasco da Gama came to Calicut, he found Gujarati merchants there. In fact, the Zamorin in 1500 assigned a few Gujarati merchants to get the Portuguese factor and his assistants acquainted with the dynamics of spice trade in Calicut. Similarly, there were also Chettis or traders from Tamil Nadu trading in spices in Calicut at the time of the arrival of the pioneering mariners under Vasco da Gama. The Indian merchants took spices from the Malabar coast to other destinations through maritime trade routes. Cinnamon from Srilanka was brought to the Malabar coast by sea.The overseas spice routes through the different periods connected a number of countries with the Malabar coast. UNESCO has identified several countries linked through the spice routes which include:Afghanistan, Beirut, Burma, China, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mozambique, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Spain, Srilanka, Syria, Turkey, UK and Yemen. We can add a few more like Belgium, Hungary, Japan, Luxemburg, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Thailand. The European merchant financiers, especially the Fuggers of Germany, who took up the sale of spices to various regions of Europe, had set up their factories in many parts of Belgium and the Scandinavian countries for storing and disposing of the consignments. The extant warehouses of the Fuggers in Bruges, Bergen (Denmark) and such others, with their typical architectural style, speak of the connection established by the spice routes.There are many historical evidences that suggest there were land routes within the subcontinent of India through which spices were transported from Malabar to the Coromandel coast either for local consumption or for export to overseas destinations of some European merchants like the Danes. Pepper and a few other spices available in the Malabar coast were transported to the Eastern coast through land routes crossing the Western Ghats. Communication between these two regions was made possible through twenty to twenty four routes across the Western Ghats, including two in Travancore, three in Kayamkulam, two in Kundara, six in Tekkenkur, two in Vadakkumkur, three in and behind the lands of Cochin, two in the domains of the Zamorin and two in the countries of the Kolathiri Raja. The passes across the Ghats were Perambadi Gap to Coorg, the Peria and Thamarassery Gaps to Wynadu and Mysore, and the Bodinayakkanur, Kambam, Aryankavu and Aramboli Gaps in the Travancore region. The most important pass of all was the Palghat Gap, about 20 miles wide and not more than 970 feet high. The bulk of the overland trade from the Malabar coast to the eastern coast took place through this Gap.There was a flourishing pepper export to the eastern coast, which disturbed the Europeans engaged in trade in spices, as they were bent on keeping monopoly over it. Though the Portuguese and the Dutch tried their best to stop it under monopolistic treaties, they did not succeed on account of social, economic and military reasons. The pattars or Tamil Brahmins enjoyed several commercial privileges, which constituted the most important sociological factor. The rulers on the Malabar coast granted certain privileges to them. The most important among them were the exemption from customs duties for the commodities carried by them and the free boarding and lodging in choultries or temples. The pattars were exempted from paying tax for the loads they carried on their backs. They were, on the other hand, bound to pay only half the usual tax for the loads they carried on their heads. So, every pattar used to carry two loads. Therefore, a host of pattars were engaged in transporting spices from the Malabar coast to the eastern coast taking advantage of these privileges. Sometimes, they employed pack-oxen for the same. In 1519, Hector Rodrigues, the Portuguese Captain at Quilon seized 5,000 bullock-loads of pepper being carried to the East Coast from the region of Quilon.The merchants asserted that the consignment belonged to the pattars who had been given special privileges by the kings. Large number of pattars from Tinnelvelly, Tanjore and Coimbatore settled in the Malabar coast giving rise to agraharas or villages dominated by them. Their main habitat was Palghat. Thus one can sum up a spice route as passing from the spice producing areas of Malabar through the Ghats to the eastern coast. Pepper occupied a very important place among the spices exported from the Malabar coast even during the reign of the Ptolemies of Egypt. The Europeans were curious to know how black and white pepper was made available on the Malabar coast for the European markets. A native of Genoa by the name of Jeronimo de Santo Estevam wrote from Tripoli to Joham Jacome Mayer in Beirut on 1 September 1499 about the method of cultivating pepper and the preparation of black and white pepper. He explained the details based on the experience he had in Calicut and tried to dispel the misunderstanding among the Europeans that pepper would not grow in Europe because peppercorns were burnt and then sent to Europe. He asserted that pepper saplings, not peppercorns, were planted by the side of a tree for the pepper plants to creep on. The sapling cut at the root is planted at the bottom side of trees like mango or jack or others on which pepper plant creeps up. After one or two years, peppercorns like grapes, will be ready in bunches. Black pepper is obtained when the corn is plucked while it is green and dried under the sun for five to six days. When dried, it looks like burnt corn. White pepper is made ready when the corns are allowed to ripen thoroughly and are covered with red pulp. The corns, after removing the pulp, are dried under the sun for a few days.[footnoteRef:11]He also wrote about the cultivation of ginger in Malabar.[footnoteRef:12] [11: Francisco Maria Esteves Pereira, ed., Marco Paulo-Carta de Jeronimo de Santo Estevam, Lisboa, 1922, fol.96v.] [12: R.H. Major, ed., Account of the Journey of Hieronimo di Santo Stephano... in India in the Fifteenth Century being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India, London, 1857, pp.4-5.]

The importance of pepper and its demand can be gauged from the ransom offered to Alaric I, the King of the Visigoths (395 - 410 CE) who sacked Rome in 410 CE and paved the way for the definitive fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first blockade of Rome was in September, 408 CE. The Roman Senate entreated for peace. After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 3000 pounds of pepper among other items like 5000 pounds of gold, 30000 pounds of silver, 4000 silken tunics, 3000 hides dyed scarlet and 40000 freed Gothic slaves. This shows that the taste of pepper had spread over barbarian Europe from Rome.[footnoteRef:13] [13: Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers, London, Pelican Books, 1955, p.148.]

Another instance that showcases the demand for pepper is related to the wedding of a Portuguese Princess with a prince from Spain. The proposed dowry of Dona Isabella of Portugal for her marriage with Charles V of Spain consisted of 30,000 quintals of pepper. The Fuggers, the German merchant financiers taking part in the sale of pepper who imported pepper into Lisbon from the Malabar coast for the European markets, were asked to deliver the consignment.The volume of pepper carried in the ships setting sail from the Malabar coast to Portugal fetched fabulous amounts. A Spanish ship loaded with pepper from Malabar and heading towards Lisbon in 1592 was captured by Frobishers ships off the Azores in the Atlantic. The pepper in the ship alone was worth 102,000/.[footnoteRef:14] Being aware of the great drain of wealth from Rome to the Malabar coast, Pliny tried to dissuade the Roman citizens from the use of pepper. He wrote in his Natural History, xii, 14 in a derogative manner: [14: Wheeler, op.cit, pp.148-49.]

It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that, in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? And who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfaction of a greedy appetite?[footnoteRef:15] [15: Quoted by Wheeler, op.cit, p.148.]

International rivalries broke out when Spain too entered in the race for spices. Spain despatched Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, across the Atlantic to discover a shorter route to the sources of spices in the East. He landed up in America. The intervention of Ecclesiastical authorities was sought to diffuse the tension arising from the competition to find a route to the sources of spices. Mediation of Pope Alexander VI, the treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494) and its ratification on 2 July 1494, and the subsequent treaty of Zaragoza (22 April 1529) regarding the division of the areas outside Europe between Portugal and Spain are milestones in the conflicts concerning the right to explore areas producing spices. The European powers which traded in spices with the Malabar coast gradually started colonial exploitation and became colonial masters. The spice producing countries of the East, where the Europeans struggled hard to get a foothold, constituted the first world before the industrial revolution. The diligent merchant took to the distant Indies to satiate his hunger, as Horace (65 BCE 8 BCE) wrote.[footnoteRef:16] After a long period of colonial exploitation, almost all these colonies were converted into the third world or developing countries through the process of the development of underdevelopment. [16: Impiger extremos currit mercator ad Indos per mare puperiem fugiens. Horace, Ep.I.1.45. Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65 BCE 27 November 8 BCE), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintillian regarded his Odes as the only Latin lyrics worth reading.]

Spices were also produced in South East Asian Regions, especially in Sumatra, Java and Moluccas known as Spice Islands, as well as Malaya and Borneo. The Europeans moved to these areas to supplement what they obtained from the Malabar coast. Similarly, mace and nutmeg, both products of the same tree, were cultivated in Banda Islands, a group of 10 small volcanic islands in eastern Indonesia. Prior to 1511, no European seems to have known the source of these two items. The Portuguese arrived at Banda Islands in 1511 by accident through a shipwreck. The Spanish and the English entrepreneurs followed them. But the Dutch stuck on to these Islands, trading in these items. The local smugglers passed nutmeg and clove saplings to a Frenchman called Pierre Poivre who established spice farms in Mauritius and Runion. Cinnamon was produced in Srilanka and this was reputed to be better than the ones found on the Malabar coast. Pepper was cultivated in the humid climate of the Malabar coast, especially in the highlands and also in the midlands. It should be borne in mind that pepper is not a forest product, but a produce of intense and market-oriented cultivation. Sometimes, the area where pepper is cultivated in large scale may look like a forest, which prompted the foreigners to conclude that pepper was a forest product. The variety of pepper cultivated in north Malabar was supposed to be better than the one from south Malabar or the erstwhile princely state of Travancore.This book is divided into twelve chapters along with this brief introduction on spice history. Circulation of spices in the early historical period is discussed in the first chapter. The role played by Muziris, the first emporium of India, in the Indo-Roman trade forms the central theme. The second chapter deals with the development of the spice route via Persian Gulf and to the Eastern Mediterranean after the decline of the Roman Empire till 1453 CE. Following the fall of Constantinople, the effective steps taken by the Portuguese in the opening of a direct route, entirely sea-borne, connecting the Malabar coast with the Portuguese ports are discussed in chapter three. This is followed by chapters four and five, which deal with the arrival of the English, Dutch, the French and the Danes on the Malabar coast for obtaining spices and their conflicts with the Portuguese as well as their ousting from coastal Malabar. Exclusive right of navigation in the Indian Ocean regions claimed by the Portuguese, the English and the Dutch is discussed in chapter six. Issuance of passes by the European powers for safe oceanic voyages is also highlighted. The subsequent chapter seven takes up the study of building of ships in the Malabar coast for the spice routes. Chapter eight deals with life on board the ships. The merchant financiers from Europe were extending financial support to the Portuguese trade with the Malabar coast. Therefore attention is paid in chapter nine to the role of European financiers. The part played by the middlemen in spice trade with the Malabar coast is discussed in chapter ten. Production of spices is also dealt with in the same chapter.The spices routes right from the early historical period served as an important conduit for cultural diffusion. The details of this are discussed in chapter eleven. Various European powers who established their commercial contacts with the Malabar coast came from the same Christian background even though a few of them adopted non-Catholic ideology from the second quarter of the sixteenth century while retaining their basic Christian mores. The concluding chapter twelve contains the ideas that are derived from the foregoing chapters. A bibliography is added to the work for the use of prospective researchers interested in the subject.

Chapter 1Circulation of Spices inthe Early Historical Period

In ancient times, the enticing aroma and flavour of spices, particularly of the Malabar coast, lured people from world over. Thousands of mariners and innumerable vessels lie buried under the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean, having involved in bloody maritime battles to get a foothold on the Malabar coast and thus appropriate the fabulous profit from trade in spices. The internecine naval battles waged in the Arabian Sea sent a host of merchant-warriors to the bosom of the sea. Contending religious denominations from Europe vied with each other and reached India through this route for proselytizing activities. Gold and silver collected from the Western Hemisphere after its discovery by the Europeans flowed to the Malabar coast in exchange of spices. Similarly large amount of copper from Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Germany arranged by the merchant financiers of Italy, Germany and Belgium found its way to the south-western coast of India through the spice routes. The Europeans braved turbulent oceans and seas as well as the fully armed vessels to get a space in the staple centres of spices on the Malabar coast. Yes, Malabar was the target of all the European entrepreneurs till the close of the eighteenth century. It is held by many that, even during the Pharaonic age, spices from the East were used in burial chambers of Egypt. Earliest material evidence for the use of spices is found in the wall relief of the Dayr al-Bahri funerary monument of the Pharaonic, Queen Hatshepsut (1512 BCE - 1482 BCE), built on the west bank of the river Nile at Thebes, nearly 3500 years old. It is believed that from around 1000 BCE the Phoenicians used to trade in spices.[footnoteRef:17] [17: Chris and Carolyn Caldicott, The Spice Routes: Recipes and Lore, Singapore, 2001, p.11.]

From early historical times up to the fall of the united Roman Empire, spices were circulated by different regimes through diverse routes and various ports. Silk routes and incense routes, a network of overland and sea trade routes used for carrying silk from China and frankincense from Arabia to various parts of Europe and Asia, were also employed for the shipment of spices from India. But the most important among them were the silk routes consisting of branches passing entirely through land and the other passing chiefly over sea and partially by land.[footnoteRef:18] Even for silk there was no exclusive route as such but was transported through several routes, on account of which, we speak of silk routes rather than silk route.[footnoteRef:19] The same was the case with spices. [18: It was a German geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872, who used for the first time the term Seidenstrasse and Seidenstrassen - silk road(s) or silk route(s) - in 1877.] [19: John Keay, op.cit, p.xiii. ]

Though the name Silk Route was ascribed to the specific intercontinental conduit of commodities and culture, primarily by dint of the lucrative trade in Chinese silk, spices too were a part of the long list of products exchanged. The silk route is said to have covered 6,500 kms from the eastern terminus of Loyang in China to Seleucia on the Tigris or the neighbouring city of Ctesiphon from where it branched out into two - one to Antioch, on the Orontes river in Turkey, and the other to the Jordanian city of Petra via the Persian Gulf. It connected China to the Mediterranean through India of the Kushanas and the territory of the Sassanians, who played an important role in the Asian trade. Founded by Ardashir I, the Sassanian Empire was the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam and they controlled one of the most lucrative trade routes in Asia. Seleucia on the Tigris, Mesopotamias leading city, was the headquarters of the western silk merchants. The silk route came into operation during the Han Dynasty of China (206 BCE - 220 CE); the Central Asian sections of the silk routes were expanded around 114 BCE. The first major step in opening the silk route between the East and the West took place with the expansion of the empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia. He founded the city of Alexandria Eschate or Alexandria the Furthest at the mouth of the Fergana Valley in Tajikistan in August 329 BCE, which turned out to be a major staging point on the northern silk route. The Greeks remained in Central Asia for the coming three centuries as administrators of the Seleucid Empire and of Greco-Bactrian kingdom in Bactria, a province of the Persian Empire, which is now northern Afghanistan. There was another move from Emperor Wu, one of the most ambitious emperors in the Chinese history, to open a route across the Tarim Basin in northwest China and the Gansu Corridor to China proper. This was successfully materialised in 130 BCE by sending the embassies of the Han Dynasty to Central Asia, subsequent to the reports of the explorations conducted by ambassador Zhang Qian. The two diplomatic missions by Zhang Qian to the Western regions helped in connecting Chinas Xinjiang area to West Asia, opening up the historically famed path known as Silk Road. Following the defeat of the ancient nomadic tribes called Xiongnu, who had a confederated state located north of China, the Chinese Han armies established themselves in Central Asia, giving a firm and safe footing for the Silk Road, which became a major avenue of international trade. The silk routes served as an important conduit in the realms of trade, commerce and culture as well as technological exchanges connecting ancient China, India, Tibet, the Persian Empire and Mediterranean countries for a long period stretching from the time of the Han Dynasty till the discovery of the direct sea route via Cape of Good Hope in 1498. Different branches of the silk routes connected India with China, Central Asia, Parthia and Rome. Important centres like Taxila, which is today a town in Pakistan and other places in India like Mathura, Sravasti and Kausambi of Uttar Pradesh, Vaisali in Bihar, Pataliputra of Patna, Tamralipti in Bengal, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Barygaza of Gujarat were all linked with the silk routes.Though commodities of various types were carried along the silk route, silk itself was an important and valuable item of trade. The Roman ladies had a craze for silk and they purchased it avidly, as a result of which the Roman economy was badly affected. The Greek and Roman writers of the period decried severely tendencies of this sort and some of them wrote rather sarcastically, such as Seneca, the elder. Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wifes body.[footnoteRef:20] [20: The Elder Seneca: Declamations, vol.1, Controversiae, translated by M. Winterbottom, London, 1974, p.175.]

There seems to have been two distinctive branches for the overland segment of the Silk Route, namely the northern and southern sections. Extending westwards from the ancient commercial centres of China, the silk route was divided into two, bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and the Lop Nur salt lake of China. The northern branch started at Changan (present day Xian, and the capital city of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history), went westwards through the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi and split into three different routes. Two of them followed the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, the westernmost Chinese city and the other went north of the Tian Shan Mountains. One of the branch routes made its way through the north of the Aral and Caspian seas and on to the Black Sea. Another branch started at Xian and passed through Persia and Iraq before joining the western boundary of the Roman Empire.The southern branch took the direction from China through the Karakoram mountain range and continued onto Turkestan-Khorasan region in north-eastern Iran, Mesopotamia and then into Anatolia or Asian Turkey. A branch crossing the high mountains passed through Syrian Desert to the Levant (comprising Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Israel) where Mediterranean trading ships plied regularly to Italy. Another road travelled from Herat in Afghanistan through Susa in Iran to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome. The western termini of the silk road were Antioch in Syria and Alexandria in Egypt which in their turn had been connected with the two inland centres of trade namely Petra in the Nabatean kingdom and Palmyra in Syria/Jordan. The maritime linkages between eastern Mediterranean area and coastal western India were strengthened considerably with the conquest and annexation of Egypt to the Roman Empire in 30 BCE, thereby providing easy access to the Red Sea route which brought Egypt and Alexandria into the orbit of Indias maritime trade.The silk road ran westwards from Xian through Lanzhou in Gansu province and then, following the westernmost spur of the Great Wall, passed the Gansu corridor on to the county city of Dunhuang in western China, which was a major stop. Near Dunhuang, the desert routes split. The main northern route followed the southern edge of the Tian Shan mountains, running along the north of the Taklamakan desert and through the Chinese oasis towns of Hami, Turfan, Korla, Kucha and Aksu before reaching Kashgar, the westernmost Chinese city.The southern route proceeded through the oases of Chakhlik, Cherchen, Niya, Keriya, Khotan and Yarkand before reaching Kashgar where it terminated. There could have been a branch from Yarkand to Leh and Srinagar and down to India through the Karakoram Mountains.An alternate northern route also existed from the north of the Tian Shan Mountains from Hami to Almalik bordering Kazakhstan, Balasaghun of Kyrgystan and through the cities of Tashkent, Samarkhand and Bokhara in Uzbekistan. There were a number of routes from Kashgar through the Hindu Kush past Tashkurgan in China to the Buddhist kingdoms of Gandhara and Taxila. The traders travelled north along the plains of the vast mountain ranges of Pamirs to Samarkhand and Bokhara, or south of Pamirs to Balkh in northern Afghanistan and thence to Merve in Turkmenistan. From Merve, various routes led to the Mediterranean via Baghdad to Damascus or Antioch or Constantinople and to Trebizond on the Black Sea.[footnoteRef:21] [21: Francis Wood, The Silk Road, Berkeley, 2002, pp.11-13. ]

Both the northern and southern routes ran through the lines of oasis settlements found near the encircling mountain ranges, which provided the oases with melt-water. Travellers like Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) noted vividly the inclement weather experienced in the silk routes. He wrote:The plain, whose name is Pamir, extends fully twelve days journey. In all these twelve days there is no habitation or shelter, but travellers must take their provisions with them. No birds fly there because of the height and cold; fire is not so bright here nor of the same colour as elsewhere, and food does not cook well. Now let us pursue our course towards the northeast and east. At the end of this twelve days journey, the traveller must ride fully forty days more east-north-east, always over mountains and along hill-sides and gorges, traversing many rivers and many deserts. And in this entire journey, he finds no habitation or shelter, but must carry his stock of provisions.[footnoteRef:22] [22: Ronald Latham, Marco Polo: the Travels, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1958, p.80.]

The inhospitable terrain, especially the desert through which the silk roads ran, was without any life as noted again by Marco Polo who describes the condition of Tarim Basin in the following words:This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end and at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sand and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat. But I can tell you that after travelling a day and a night you find drinking water.... And all the way through the desert you must go for a day and a night before you find water. And I can tell you that in three or four places you find the water bitter and blackish; but all the other watering places, that is, twenty-eight in all, the water is good. Beasts and birds are there none, because they find nothing to eat.[footnoteRef:23] [23: Latham, op.cit, p.84.]

Silk routes served as an important means for the transmission of religious beliefs like Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Odoric of Pordenone, an Italian friar and missionary traveller and John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan missionary and founder of the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China were also among the celebrated explorers like Marco Polo, Giovanni de Marignoli, Nicolo de Conti and Ibn Batuta who traversed the silk route.[footnoteRef:24] [24: The details of such interactions are provided in a subsequent chapter on cultural diffusion. ]

In 1453, with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks and the fragmentation as well as disintegration of the Mongol Empire, the silk route stopped serving as a shipment route. When the land route was blocked, the sea route via Malabar coast was reopened. Silk route, with a number of branches, connected the subcontinent of India. It had a maritime branch with intermittent passages through land where caravans were employed for the transportation of commodities. Thus Malabar coast, which produced spices, was connected to the silk route through its sea route section and spices found their way to various parts of the world from here. Muziris, which was widely known at the time, served as the major centre for the export of spices.The expansion of the Mongols in the Asian continent from 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the silk route via Karakoram mountain range. The Mongols replaced the monopoly trade held by the Islamic Caliphate. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer became one of the first Europeans to travel through the silk route to China. His work, Travels of Marco Polo, opened the eyes of the Europeans to the East. Though the nomenclature Silk Route/s suggests a continuous journey, this was not the reality. Commodities were in fact carried through a series of routes by a number of agents, passing through several hands before they were delivered at the ultimate destination. Similarly, the number of travellers who traversed the entire length of the silk routes was also very few, save for the missionaries coming from the West. But more significantly, these routes opened the avenue for transportation of a variety of commodities other than silk, although the Routes went into history as such.Incense route and distribution of spicesAnother passage of importance for spice trade, though not as extensive as the silk route, was the Incense Road or the Incense Trade Route. It comprised a network of major ancient land and sea trade routes linking the Mediterranean world with Eastern and Southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, extending from the Mediterranean ports across the Levant and Egypt through eastern Africa and Arabia to India and beyond. The trade in incense from South Arabia to the Mediterranean through the land route flourished roughly between the 7th century BCE and the 2nd century CE. This route served as a channel for trading of goods such as Arabian frankincense and myrrh; Indian spices, precious stones, pearls, ebony, silk and fine textiles; and East African rare woods, feathers, animal skins and gold.There were a few political entities that promoted trade in spices on account of their location and the societal factors. We shall have a cursory glance at them.The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic state founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the empire created by Alexander the Great. Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories after the latters death in Babylonia in 323 BCE. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Kuwait, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and northwest parts of India. The Empire controlled the trade networks to India before the establishment of Roman Egypt in 30 BCE.The Ptolemaic dynasty, sometimes also known as the Lagids or Lagides after the name of Ptolemy Is father, Lagus, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Ptolemy I, Soter, one of the bodyguards of Alexander the Great, founded the dynasty in 305 BCE. The kingdom ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Ptolemy declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful Hellenistic dynasty that ruled an area stretching from southern Syria to Cyrene and southwards to Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a centre of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition from the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs.All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy while the female ones were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII (51 BCE-30 BCE), known for her role in the Roman political battles between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and later between Octavian and Mark Antony. Her apparent suicide following the conquest by Rome marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. Just like the Seleucid dynasty, the Ptolemaic dynasty too controlled trade networks to India before Egypt was brought under the Roman Empire.The Ptolemies, by and large, promoted maritime trade but Ptolemaic contacts with India were sporadic. There is mention of diplomatic relations between Asoka the Great (265- 228 BCE) and Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, as mentioned in the Thirteenth Rock Edict of Asoka. However, commercial interaction between Eastern Mediterranean and areas of India in Hellenistic times and between Ptolemaic Egypt and India was limited.[footnoteRef:25] [25: Steven E. Sidebotham, Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2011, p.37.]

The Parthian Empire that existed between 247 BCE and 224 CE was another political unit that served as an important geographical segment in the circulation of spices in the early historical period. Also known as the Arsacid Empire or ancient Persia, it was a major political and cultural power in ancient Iran. Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia, who, as leader of the Parni tribe, founded it in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the Parthia region in Irans northeast, then a satrapy(province) in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. During its peak of glory, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now south-eastern Turkey to eastern Iran. It was located on the silk road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and Han Empire of China. On account of its location it became an important centre of trade and commerce.The Aksumite Empire or the kingdom of Aksum or Axum which grew from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BCE, came to prominence by the first century CE and lasted a period from 100 to940 CE, playing an important role in the trade and commerce between India and the Roman Empire. It comprised present-day Eritrea of the African Union and northern Ethiopia. Home of the legendary Queen of Sheba, the kingdom minted its own coins to facilitate trade. It converted to Christianity under Ezana (320-360 CE). The kingdom of Axum pioneered the Red Sea Route before the first century CE.The Sasanian Empire also known as Sassanian, Sasanid, or Sassanid or Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam. Founded by Ardashir I, after the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V, and the subsequent fall of the Arsacid Empire (Parthian), it lasted from224 CE to 651 CE. As a successor to the Parthian Empire, it was recognized as one of the main powers in Western and Central Asia, alongside the RomanByzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. It comprised all of todays Iran, Iraq, the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Israel), the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan), Egypt, parts of Turkey, much of Central Asia (Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), the Persian Gulf countries of Yemen, Oman and Pakistan. Roman Empire and the Spice RouteThe Roman Empire came into existence as an autocratic form of government on the ruins of the Roman Republic and lasted for 500 years. The most important event that marked the transition from being a Republic to Empire was the appointment of Julius Caesar as the perpetual dictator in 44 BCE. Another major event that orchestrated this change was the battle of Actium in 31 BCE. Shortly afterwards, the Roman province of Egypt was established in 30 BCE after Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) defeated his rival Mark Antony, deposed his lover Queen Cleopatra VII and annexed the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt to the Roman Empire. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula, which was later conquered by the Roman emperor, Trajan.On 16th of January, the Roman senate granted the honorific title Augustus to Octavian who ruled from 27 BCE to 14 CE as the first Emperor. The Roman Empire encompassed large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa and Asia, enjoying unprecedented prosperity for the first two centuries. The dissensions of the civil war ended at Actium. This period was known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). The most visible effect of Pax Romana was the spurt in external trade, especially with India.[footnoteRef:26] The territorial expansion reached its zenith during the reign of Trajan (98 -117 CE). TheodosiusI, the last emperor to rule over both Western and Eastern empire, divided the empire in 395 CE, after making Christianity the official state religion. Rome continued to be the capital of the western segment while Constantinople became the headquarters of the Eastern Roman empire, which lasted till 1453 CE. The Western Roman Empire fell to the Goths in 476 CE. [26: H.G. Rawlinson, Intercourse between India and the Western World From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome, New Delhi, AES reprints, 2001, p.101.]

Graeco Roman Ports related to Trade with IndiaThe unsigned travel guide of the 1st century CE, Periplus of Erythraean Sea mentions Myos Hormos and Bernice (Bernike), both of which were located on the boundary of Egypt. Further south of the same western coast was the important port of Adulis. Myos Hormos and Bernice were both linked by organized caravan routes with Coptos on the Nile and hence with the Egyptian markets. Between Bernice and Adulis, the small market-town of Ptolemaic period provided some sort of outlet for Meroe, the decayed capital of Nubia. Behind Adulis, lay the kingdom of the Axumites, in what is now Ethiopia or Abyssinia.1. AdulisAdulis or Aduli, situated on the coast of the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, about 30 miles south of Massawat, was the port of the Kingdom of Aksum. It was a great emporium for ivory, hides, slaves and other exports as described in the first century work, Periplus of Erythraean Sea. Pliny the Elder, was the earliest writer to make a mention of this town.[footnoteRef:27] [27: Naturalis Historia, 6.34.]

2. ArsinoeThe Ptolemaic dynasty, taking advantage of the strategic position of Alexandria for developing commercial relations with India, first made use of the harbour of Arsinoe, the present day Gulf of Suez, on the Red Sea. It was one of the principal harbours of Egypt. The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to the harbour centre of Arsinoe. It was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos. The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez. During the reign of Trajan, the citys fortunes declined with the development of a new canal between the Nile and the Red Sea which terminated at Clysma, a few kilometres to the west of Arsinoe.3. Berenike (Berenice Troglodytica)Port of Berenike in Egypt was established in 275 BCE on the Red Sea Coast in the far south of the Egyptian Eastern Desert. Before the founding of this port, cargoes from Muziris to Egypt had to be transported through overland routes covering a considerable distance. Spices brought from the East to Berenike were carried to Coptos on the Nile by caravans and from there to Alexandria. It turned out to be the principal point of communication between India and Europe. The site of Berenike was discovered by Belzoni, the great Italian explorer and archaeologist in 1818. Excavations were launched at Berenike in 1994 by a team of archaeologists from the University of Delaware led by Steven E. Sidebotham. At this last outpost of the Roman Empire, a large number of significant finds has been made providing evidence of the cargo from the Malabar coast and the presence of people from South India. Among the unexpected discoveries at Berenike were a range of ancient Indian goods, including a large quantity of teak wood, black pepper, coconuts, beads made of precious and semi-precious stones, cameo blanks, a Tamil Brahmi graffito etc. The details of the findings were brought out by E. Sidebotham in 2011.[footnoteRef:28] [28: Steven E. Sidebotham, op.cit.]

It was an important conduit in the southern maritime spice route which served long distance commerce ranging from the Mediterranean basin, Egypt, and the Red Sea on the one hand to the Indian Ocean...[footnoteRef:29] It was one of the hubs of the ancient silk routes, incense route and the maritime spice routes. The fact that spices, especially pepper, were carried through this port can be confirmed from the findings of archaeologists who worked in this site after the rediscovery of this port by G. Belzoni. The so-called Serapis temple located on top of the highest point of the site at Berenike was found to have two large Indian-made round-bottomed terracotta storage and shipment jars resembling adolia. They were discovered in a courtyard like area during the first century CE. A holding of 7.55 kg of black pepper corns was stored in one of the containers devoid of wooden lid.[footnoteRef:30] This could suggest widespread use of pepper in the city throughout the early to late Roman periods as well as the shipment of pepper to the Roman Empire through Berenike. [29: Steven E. Sidebotham, op.cit.] [30: Sidebotham and Wendrich 2001-2002:30; Cappers, R.T. J (2006) Roman Footprints at Berenike: Archaeological Evidence of Subsistence and Trade in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology: 114-119; Sidebotham 2007:74-75; Steven E. Sidebotham, op.cit, p.60.]

4. Koptos (Coptos)Koptos, Coptos or Coptus was an ancient city in Egypt located on the right bank of the Nile. The town was of importance in Hellenistic times, when it was the terminus of a caravan route to Berenike on the Red Sea. Built by Augustus in the 3rd century CE, it was almost destroyed by Diocletian in292 CE. The present day village of Qift is built on the site. 5. Myos HormosMyos Hormos was a Red Sea port constructed by the Ptolemies around the 3rd century BC. Following excavations carried out recently by David Peacock and Lucy Blue of the University of Southampton, it is thought to have been located on the present day site of Quseir al-Quadim (old Quseir), eight kilometres north of the modern town of Al-Qusayr in Egypt. According to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India.6. BarbaricumBarbaricum, otherwise known as Barbarikon, was a port near the modern day city of Karachi in Pakistan. It was important in the Hellenistic era for trade in the Indian Ocean regions. The Periplus makes mention of the port of Barbaricum.This river [the Indus] has seven mouths, very shallow and marshy, so that they are not navigable, except the one in the middle; at which by the shore, is the market-town, Barbaricum. Before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara; it is subject to Parthian princes who are constantly driving each other out.[footnoteRef:31] [31: Schoff, op.cit, p.37.]

The Periplus also gives information about the imports and exports of Barbaricum:The ships lie at anchor at Barbaricum, but all their cargoes are carried up to the metropolis by the river, to the King. There are imported into this market a great deal of thin clothing, and a little spurious figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine. On the other hand there are exported costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn and indigo.[footnoteRef:32] [32: Schoff, op.cit, pp.37-38.]

7. BarygazaBarygaza, also known as Broach or Bharuch was situated at the confluence of Narmada river with the Arabian sea. It was known to the Greeks, various Persian Empires, Roman Republic and also to the Roman empire. In Periplus, there is mention of the difficulty in entering the port of Barygaza:And even if the entrance to the gulf is made safely, the mouth of the river at Barygaza is found with difficulty, because the shore is very low and cannot be made out until you are close upon it. And when you have found it the passage is difficult because of the shoals at the mouth of the river. Because of this, native fishermen in the kings service, stationed at the very entrance in well-manned large boats called trappaga and cotymba, go up the coast as far as Syrastrene, from which they pilot vessels to Barygaza.[footnoteRef:33] [33: Schoff, op.cit, p.40.]

There were a few more ports in the country of Damirica or South India, which were also known to the Roman traders. The area indicated by the term Damirica comprised chiefly, the Tamil kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas and the Cheras. It seems that the interests of the Roman traders in spices led them to other ports on the Malabar coast, especially Muziris.8) NauraNaura is identified with Kannur from where Roman coins during the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius and Nero were discovered. This testifies to the fact that Naura or Kannur had commercial relations with the Roman empire. The following mention of Naura is made in the Periplus: Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica...[footnoteRef:34] [34: Schoff, op.cit, p.44.]

9) TyndisTyndis, located in the kingdom of the Cheras or Cerobothra,[footnoteRef:35] has been recognized as modern Ponnani. A few other scholars like Burnell identify it with Kadalundi near Beypore. It is depicted in the Periplus as a village in plain sight on the shore. [35: Schoff, op.cit, p.44.]

10) MuzirisThe term Muziris used in western classical sources like Periplus, and by writers like Pliny and so on must have had its origin from Mucciri in ancient Tamil literature. It was situated in south-western India on the estuary of the Pseudostomos/Chulli River/Periyar. The massive flooding of Periyar in 1341 CE is believed to have destroyed Muziris town. It was also known by names like Muiricode, Muchiri-pattanam, Murachipattanam, Marichipattanam etc. Muchiri means cleft palate and pattanam meant a port-city. Periyar branched into two like a cleft palate and thus came the name Muchiripattanam according to some scholars. The word Muzirikode was employed to indicate the same in the Jewish copper plate of Bhaskara Ravi Varma (c. 1000 CE). The town figures in the fourth century Peutingerian table (Tabula Peutingeriana) reproduced below.Reference to Muziris is seen in the Periplus, which mentions its location on the bank of a river away from the sea shore. Muziris, of the same Kingdom [Cerobothra), abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia.[footnoteRef:36] [36: Schoff, op.cit, p.44.]

Pliny the Elder (c.23-79 CE), qualifies Muziris with the epithet primum emporium Indiae(premier emporium of India) and shares some points as in Periplus. He writes:They sail thence with the wind Hippalus in forty days to the First Emporium of India, Muziris. Besides, the station for ships is at a great distance from the shore and cargoes have both to be landed and shipped by little boats. There reigned there, when I wrote this Calabotras.[footnoteRef:37] [37: Pliny, ref. W.H.S. Jones (tr.&ed.), Plinys Natural History, London, 1969, p.101.]

Two important points to be underlined in the descriptions by Pliny and those seen in Periplus are: 1) the distance of Muziris from the sea shore which necessitates the use of small vessels to carry the cargoes from the shore to the emporium and vice versa 2) the statement that Muziris was the premier emporium of India; not only of Malabar or the kingdom of the Cheras but the whole of India. An emporium by its nature presupposes a settlement of merchants from outside, a market place and also a production centre.Ptolemy who compiled his work in 150 CE calls Muziris an emporium, a trading post, and pre-eminently a commercial port with rights or privileges. It is likely that in the emporia were posted permanent agencies of the Graeco-Roman traders, organised like factories of the Portuguese.[footnoteRef:38] It was from here [Muziris] that the pepper was taken away in such quantities that ships of the largest burden anchored in the harbour which was crowded with Greek and Arabian vessels.[footnoteRef:39] The discovery of a 2nd century CE papyrus document from the archives of Vienna in 1985, which deals with the maritime loan arrangements made between the traders of Muziris and Alexandria shows that both these places existed not in isolation, but were brought closer by the frequent movement of commodities and people.[footnoteRef:40] [38: Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers, Pelican Books, 1954, p.152.] [39: M.P. Charlesworth, Trade Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire, Cambridge, 1926, p.69.] [40: For details on this document, ref. H. Harrauer and P. Sijpesteijn ed, Ein neues Dokument zu Roms Indienhadel, P. Vindob, G. 40822 in Anzeiger der sterreichischen Akademie de Wissensachaften, Phil. His. K1.122, 1985, pp.124-155, Lcasson, P. Vindob, G. 40822 and the Shipping of Goods from India BASP 23, 1986, pp.73-79, G. Thr Hypotheken-Urkunde eines Seedarlehens fr eine Reise nach Muziris und Apographe fr die Tetarte in Alexandria zu P. Vindob, G. 40822 Tyche 2, 1987, pp.241-246. ]

The papyrus written on both sides, contains the details of the agreement in Greek. The agreement was between two shippers, one of whom agrees to serve as an agent for a cargo belonging to the other and took up the responsibility to transport it from Muciri to Alexandria.[footnoteRef:41] The names of the contracting parties are not available on the papyrus. Cargo consisted primarily of products of the ancient Chera kingdom and the value of the commodities involved in this was so great that it could purchase 2400 acres of farmland in Nile delta as per the calculations made by the scholars.[footnoteRef:42] Tamil-Brahmi inscribed potsherds recovered from the Red Sea ports of Bernike and Qusier al-Qadim give personal names of the Indian traders involved in trade with Egypt under the Romans. [41: The Greek text is translated by Dr. Osmund Bopearachchi, Charge de Recherch au CNRS, Centre dAcheaologie Paris and published with notes by K.Rajan, ref. Muciri-Alexandria Trade Contract: An Archaeological Approach. Pondicherry University Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, vol.1, nos.1&2, 2000, pp.93-104.] [42: K. Rajan, l.cit. p.98. ]

The classical text of Sangam literature in Tamil too refers to the arrival of foreign ships to Muziris disturbing the white foams of the river Periyar in search of pepper for gold. We have the following interesting information in one of the poems.The well- built crafts of the Yavanas came, beating the white foams of Chulli [Pseudostomos, or Periyar] to the prosperous and beautiful Muchiri and then return laden with black pepper paying for it in gold.[footnoteRef:43] [43: Akanaruru, Poem no.149.]

12. NelcyndaThis was another important centre of trade in Malabar during the Roman period. Known as Nelcynda, it was situated in the kingdom of the Pandyas.Periplus has this about Nelcynda: Nelcynda is distant from Muziris by river and sea about five hundred stadia, and is of another Kingdom, the Pandian. This place also is situated on a river, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the sea.[footnoteRef:44] [44: Schoff, op.cit, p.44.]

Pliny seems to have confused Nelcynda with Becare, as can be seen from what he has written:Another port belonging to the nation is the more conveniently Naecydan, which is called Becare. There reigned Pandian in an inland town, far distant from the emporium called Madura - the region however, from which they convey pepper to Becare in boats formed from single logs.[footnoteRef:45] [45: Pliny ref. W.H.S. Jones (tr.&ed.) Plinys Natural History, op.cit, p.101.]

But in Periplus, it is written clearly that Nelcynda and Becare are two different places. Here is what is mentioned in the Periplus:There is another place at the mouth of this river, the village of Becare; to which ships drop down on the outward voyage from Nelcynda and anchor in the roadstead to take on the cargoes; because the river is full of shoals and the channels are not clear.[footnoteRef:46] [46: Schoff, op.cit, p.44]

Seasons of voyage for the Ptolemaic and Roman contacts with IndiaThe monsoon winds, used by the sailors from the Red Sea regions, blew from the southwest between June and September or October. This is the appropriate season to sail to the western coast of India. A most suitable period for the voyage from Egypt to southern India is during this season. Return from India to the Red Sea regions is to be organised between November and March/April.[footnoteRef:47] E.H. Warmington has suggested that the ship bound to the Malabar coast sailed from Berenike about mid-summer and leaving out Muza (modern Mecca), it halted at Ocelis[footnoteRef:48] and taking advantage of the South West Monsoon, the ship proceeded to Muziris. The return voyage was scheduled for December or at the latest the first week of January, when the north-east monsoon took the ship to the Red Sea so as to catch a south-east or east wind at the Strait.[footnoteRef:49] [47: Sidebotham, op.cit, p.35.] [48: Ocelis is an ancient port on the Red Sea, on the Arabian side near or at Bab al-Mandeb, the strait separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.] [49: E.H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1995, p.48.]

Pliny the Elder gives a description of voyages to India in the 1st century CE. He refers to many Indian ports in his work The Natural History.To those who are bound for India, Ocelis (on the Red Sea) is the best place for embarkation. If the wind, called Hippalus (south-west Monsoon), happens to be blowing it is possible to arrive in forty days at the nearest market in India, Muziris by name. This, however, is not a very desirable place for disembarkation, on account of the pirates which frequent its vicinity, where they occupy a place called Nitrias; nor, in fact, is it very rich in articles of merchandise. Besides, the road stead for shipping is a considerable distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to be conveyed in boats, either for loading or discharging. At the moment that I am writing these pages, the name of the King of this place is Caelobothras - the Chera dynasty. Travellers set sail from India on their return to Europe, at the beginning of the Egyptian month of Tybia, which is our December, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian month Mechir, the same as our Ides of January; if they do this they can go and return in the same year. They set sail from India with a south-east wind (Northeast Monsoon), and upon entering the Red Sea, catch the south-west or south.Direction of the Roman trade route for spicesA voyage from Alexandria in Egypt to Muziris on the Malabar coast was a long and arduous one. The merchants in search of spices and other commodities available at Muziris set sail from Alexandria, up the Nile to Koptos/Coptos, situated on the right side of the river Nile. The passage from Koptos was across the Eastern Desert by caravan, which took about two weeks or so. There were several stops at Roman military outposts between Koptos and Berenike on the Red Sea shore, the southern-most port in the Roman world. Other emporia of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, Arabia and India were connected with the Mediterranean basin through Berenike. It functioned as a transit point for the movement of vast quantities and varieties of commodities, people and ideas from the ancient world. The merchants spent a few weeks in Berenike awaiting suitable means of transportation and favourable sailing conditions. They proceeded by vessels to the south Arabian port of Qana (in modern Yemen) and took some rest there. In the meantime, additional cargo was loaded in their vessels. The merchants set sail from Qana to Muziris on the Malabar coast, taking advantage of the monsoon winds. They had the option of travelling from Muziris via the Palghat Pass to Puduke/Arikamedu on the Coromandel coast.Duration of the voyage to Muziris According to Pliny, the vessels set sail from Egypt in midsummer and in 40 days arrived at the Straits. He writes: If the wind called Hippalus be blowing, the Muziris, the nearest mart of India, can be reached in forty days.[footnoteRef:50] By the term Hippalus, he means the south-west monsoon blowing over the western coast of India especially Malabar. In fact, the monsoon wind is named Hippalus after the Greek Navigator and merchant Hippalus who is credited to have discovered the use of the monsoon winds to reach the western coast of India.[footnoteRef:51] The recent researches on Roman trade with India proved that a voyage from Ocelis to Muziris with the help of south-west monsoon could be completed in 20 days instead of the 40 days of Pliny. In this case, the ship should start from Ocelis by late August, when the fury of the monsoon subsides and it could then reach Muziris by mid-September.[footnoteRef:52] The return voyage should be scheduled from Muziris to the Red Sea with the help of the north-west monsoon winds which start blowing from October to February. The ship loaded with cargo, as in the case of the ship Hermapollon mentioned in the mid-second century CE maritime loan contract document (now kept in Vienna), should move from Muziris in the direction of either Bernike or Myos Hormos. The cargo was unloaded from the ship at Berenike or Myos Hormos from where it was carried on the backs of camels to the Coptos on the Nile. From Koptos the cargo was loaded on to boats on the river Nile and then transported to Alexandria, subject to the payment of 25 per cent customs duties.[footnoteRef:53] [50: Pliny, VI.23.26, and J.W. Mc Crindle, Ancient India as described in classical literature, p.111.] [51: Hippalus was a Greek navigator and merchant who probably lived in the 1st century BCE. He is sometimes conjectured to have been the captain of the Greek explorer Eudoxus of Cyzicus ship. The anonymous writer of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (written probably in CE 60) credited Hippalus with discovering the direct route from the Red Sea to India over the Indian Ocean by plotting the scheme of the sea and the correct location of the trade ports along the Indian coast. Pliny the Elder claimed that Hippalus discovered not the route but the monsoon wind also called Hippalus (the south-west monsoon wind). Neither the anonymous author nor Pliny gives any date for Hippalus. For a detailed discussion ref. E.H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1995, pp.44-48. He seems to approve of the first century BCE suggested by Kornemann and Chwostow.] [52: Lionel Casson, Romes Trade with the East: The Sea Voyages to Africa and India, Transactions of the American Philological Society, 110, (1978), pp.21-36.] [53: Lionel Casson, New Light on Maritime Loans: P. Vindob, G. 40822, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Band84, 1990 & Ranabir Chakravarti ed., Trade in Early India, New Delhi, 2005, pp.228-43.]

Commodity composition of the Indo-Roman tradewith special reference to the Malabar coastExports from Malabar to the Roman EmpireThe most important centres of trade in the southern part of coastal India were Muziris and Nelcynda, where the colonies of the Yavanas or foreigners existed. The products exported from these places were black pepper, less costly than the long ones, malabathrum (cinnamomum tamala, equivalent to cinnamon, but less costly),[footnoteRef:54] indigo, cinnamon and cardamom, all grown in Malabar.[footnoteRef:55] Pepper from the Malabar coast was an important item in the Indo-Roman sea-borne trade. It must be stressed that pepper was not a product of the forest, nor a wild produce; it was indeed cultivated by the agriculturists in the interior parts of Kerala and was brought to Muziris by boats through the branches of Periyar river. There was great demand for pearls, ivory, semi-precious stones, among which were garnets and beryl from Padiyur in the district of Coimbatore,[footnoteRef:56] sandalwood, nutmeg, precious stones like diamonds and sapphires from Ceylon, nard and Chinese silks both of which came from the North-eastern coast and tortoise shells from the island of Chryse, the Aurea Cherosonesus of Ptolemy, which is the peninsula of Malacca. Chinese silk products brought to the Eastern coast were taken to Muziris through the Palghat pass. Pliny testifies that use of pepper had become a fashion in Europe among the barbarians. Alaric, the head of the Visigoths, after defeating Rome demanded an indemnity of two tons of pepper.[footnoteRef:57] Cinnamomum tamala, nard, macir and cinnamon along with pearls and cotton materials sent by land and sea from the Gangetic regions were sent to the ports of the western coast, especially Muziris. [54: The author of the Periplus of Erythraean Sea distinguishes three sorts of malabathrum, namely, those made of the largest leaves, those of the smaller and the smallest. Ref. Schof., op.cit, p.49.] [55: Wilfred H. Schoff, op.cit, p.45.] [56: Beryl, from Sanskrit vaiduryam was the much priced aquamarine of the Romans. Only two beryl mines existed in S. India, at Padiyur and Vaniambadi. Ref. H.G. Rawlinson, Intercourse between India and the western world, Delhi, AES Reprint, 2001, p.101. ] [57: Ref. Cimino, op.cit. p.81.]

Periplus includes amongst the exports from the Malabar coast, great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the Ganges, malabathrum from the places in the interior, transparent stones of all kind, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise shell. Diamonds from Central India, pearls from Cape Comorin and silk from China were brought to Muziris via the east coast of India for export to the Mediterranean.There is evidence to prove that foreign merchants, especially those from the Roman Empire, resided at Muziris as is recorded in the second century CE papyrus kept in the Vienna Museum, Papyrus Vindobonensis G 40822. This papyrus document is of great importance as it chronicles the trade relations between the Mediterranean world and India. It contains a commercial contract that foresees the transport of goods from Muziris to the Red Sea, then on to Coptos, and across the Nile to Alexandria. The Muziris or Vienna Papyrus sheds some light on the commodities of export from Muziris. The recent researches conducted by Casson and Federico de Romanis concludes that there could have been large amounts of pepper in the ship Hermapollon of which no mention was made in the declaration. The commodities mentioned consist of Gangetic nard, sound ivory and schidai (ivory of lower quality), which amounts to only 11.36% of the entire cargos value. De Romanis speculates that the remaining 88.64% of the value must have consisted of pepper and malabathron. His argument is that without assuming the shipping of pepper and malabathron on board the Hermapollon, the problem of the total value of the cargo remains unattended and unexplained.[footnoteRef:58] The ship had 60 containers of Gangetic nard, brought from the Ganga delta to Muziris for onward shipment to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and probably further to various European destinations. [58: Federico de Romanis, Playing Sudoku on the Verso of the Muziris Papyrus: Pepper, Malabathron and Tortoise Shell in the Cargo of the Hermapollon , Journal of Ancient Indian History, XXVII, 2010-11, pp.75-101; L. Casson, P. Vindob, G. 40822 and the Shipping of Goods from India, BASP, 23 (1986), pp.73-79; L. Casson, New Light on Maritime Loans; P. Vindob, G. 40822, ZPE, 84 (1990), pp.195-206.]

Imports from the Roman Empire to MalabarAuthor of the Periplus speaks about the Greek merchants from Egypt who brought wine, brass, lead, glass etc. for sale to Muziris and Bacare, and who purchased from these ports pepper, ivory betel, pearls and fine muslin. The traders brought to the Malabar coast a large quantity of coins, topaz, thin clothing, figured linens, antimony, coral, crude glass, copper, tin, lead, wine, realgar and orpiment, and wheat for sailors.[footnoteRef:59] The Tabula Peutingeriana speaks of a temple dedicated to Augustus at Muziris. This testifies to the Roman settlement in Muziris.[footnoteRef:60] A large cache of coins was found at Eyyal, Cochin. They were mostly Augustan-Tiberian denarii, which further buttresses the claim of Muziris area being a landing point for ships coming from Roman Egypt. The stash of money found on the slope of a hill in 1945 contained12 Roman gold coins, 50 Roman silver coins and 12 silver punch marked coins.[footnoteRef:61] Coins issued by Augustus reached India, signifying trade contact with India during the reign of emperor Augustus. [59: Schoff, op.cit, pp.44-45.] [60: Cimino, Ancient Rome and India, p.172.] [61: Cimino, Ancient Rome and India, p.172.]

Sixty-eight finds of Roman coins are recorded in India, of which, fifty-seven come from the south of Vindhyas. Twenty-nine first century finds comprising aurei or denarii ranging from Augustus to Trajan (CE98 - 117) came from Cochin, Pudukkottai, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore.[footnoteRef:62] They are of gold or silver, implying Roman trade with India during the first century.[footnoteRef:63] Pliny speaks of (vi, 101) 50 million sesterces to India. Tiberius (CE14 - 37) complained about the reckless exportation of money.[footnoteRef:64] The imported coins were used as bullion to be weighed out in exchange for goods. [62: Wheeler, op.cit, p.166.] [63: Wheeler, ibid, p.167.] [64: Wheeler, ibid, p.167.]

Identifying MuzirisClassical works in Indian and western languages give clear indications regarding the location of Muziris on the bank of river Periyar, slightly away from the sea shore. It is further added that cargoes for import had to be unloaded from the ocean-going ships to smaller vessels that could carry the goods through the river to the town of Muziris and commodities for export also had to be loaded on such vessels for transfer to the big vessels anchored in the sea. From researches and analyses conducted in Arikamedu near Pondicherry on the eastern coast of India by scholars from India and abroad, we learn that Puduke of the Periplus was the same as Arikamedu on Ariyankuppam Gingee river, away from Veerampattanam, situated on the Bay of Bengal. The contribution of Jouveau Dubreuil who started collecting materials from the surface of the mound and the river bank as early as 1937, describing it as a ville romaine and finally identifying it in 1941 with the Puduke of the classical writers, is worth noting. In other words, the known trade settlement of foreigners in the early historic period was not on the sea-shore, but on the banks of a river opening out into the sea. It is to be borne in mind that the devastating flooding of river Periyar in 1341 played havoc to the geo-morphology of the lower Periyar valley. The fourth century Peutingerian table also points out the location of Muziris. Taking all these into account we have to assess the attempts made by scholars in the recent past to locate Muziris of the Roman times.Till the end of the 90s of the twentieth century, Cranganore or Kodungalloor in Trichur district of Kerala was considered to be the location of Muziris. A few chance surface findings, explorations and trial excavations prompted scholars to search for Muziris in places other than Cranganore. Detailed explorations and excavations were initiated with the assumption that Pattanam (100924N 761233E) situated two kilometres north of North Parur in Vadakkekkara village, in the District of Ernakulam, Kerala, and nine kilometres south of Kodungalloor could be the lost port of Muziris. Pattanam is 3.32 m above the mean sea level, with its highest point at about three to four metres. The core area of the mound is circa 45 hectares and is surrounded by low-lying and marshy land.Several attempts were made in the recent past to situate Muziris in the lower Periyar valley. Shajan K. Paul during his researches leading to Doctorate in the Department of Marine Geology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, is reported to have come across some potteries in Pattanam, near North Parur, by around 1996/97. These potteries were identified as pieces of Roman amphorae with the assistance of Roberta Tomber from the British Museum and V. Selvakumar, a participant in the excavations at Arikamedu, another Roman settlement. Discovery of surface finds of potsherds and beads from Pattanam by the Centre for Cultural and Ecological Studies, Union Christian College, Aluva in late 1990s also marked the beginning of the attempts to identifying Muziris. So two different agencies in the same period, probably without any mutual contacts, brought to light the potsherds pointing to the possible Roman settlement in Pattanam. An article that appeared in 2004 in the Journal of Roman Archaeology put forward the hypothesis that Pattanam could be associated with Muziris. Explorations and digging of experimental trenches were done under the aegis of the Centre for Heritage Studies, Thripunithura, which came across evidences of commercial activity and habitation. The excavations headed by P.J. Cherian, Director of Kerala Council of Historical Research (KCHR), under the aegis of the Muziris Project launched by the Government of Kerala began in Pattanam in 2007 and continued for seven years till 2013. Interim Report of the Pattanam Excavations/Explorations 2013 (Seventh period of excavation) has been brought out by the KCHR. The archaeologists involved in the excavations at Pattanam were successful in unearthing a small boat and a wharf which could remind us of the small vessels mentioned in the Periplus and by Pliny, used for the transportation of commodities from and to the big ships anchored at sea to Muziris situated on the bank of a river. The industrial products retrieved through the excavations in Pattanam could point to the existence of an emporium which presupposes a production centre. The excavations conducted during the last seven seasons unearthed 95,213 artefacts relevant to delve deeper into the early historic times and the period immediately following it. The important finds of the archaeological excavations spanning from 2007 through 2013 consists of the following items: a)Local pottery pieces - an overwhelming quantity of nearly four million sherds (39, 72, 059) b) Non-local pottery from distant continents and other parts of India c) Indian Rouletted ware (10,720) d) Fragments of turquoise glazed pottery (1736) and torpedo jars (3684) e) Sherds of amphorae (7430) and Terra Sigillata (160) f) Beads - glass (71,467), Semiprecious stones (3095) and Terracotta.The pre