222
kodu-nadu, the hill-country back of the sea-coast, would accord with the facts while supporting the transliteration of the text. In any case the term does not seem to have been applied to an exact locality.
56. Great quantities of fine pearls. — These were from the fisheries of the Gulf of Manar, mentioned in § 59, and brought to be sold in the Chera ports, the meeting-point of Eastern and Western trade.
56. Silk cloth. — From China, by way of Tibet and the Ganges. See under §§ 39, 49 and 64.
56. Gangetic spikenard. — See under § 63.
56. Transparent stones. — These were principally the beryls of the Coimbatore district, for which there was a constant demand in Rome, and which always found their principal foreign market in the Malabar ports. This localization of the gem trade continued until after the Portuguese period in India; the reason is stated by Tavernier (II, xxi) :
“Goa was formerly the place where there was the largest trade in all Asia in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes, and other stones. All the miners and merchants went there to sell the best which they had obtained at the mines, because they had there full liberty to sell, whereas, in their own country, if they showed anything to the kings and princes, they were compelled to sell at whatever price they pleased to fix. There was also at Goa a large trade in pearls, both of those which came from the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, and those fished for in the Straits of Manar on the coast of the island of Ceylon.”
India and Ceylon were preeminently the source of production of precious stones of all kinds, which were exported to every part of the civilized world. Watt (p. 556) classifies the production as follows:
1. The Beryl group, from the sea-green aquamarine to the
white. (The beryllium of Pliny, XXXVII, 20.)
2. Diamond. (The adamas of Pliny, XXXVII, 15.)
3. Pearl.
4. Ruby. (The carbunculus of Pliny, XXXVII, 25.)
5. Sapphire, occurring in numerous colors, various blues, violet,
yellow, green and white. Produced mainly on the Southern
Malabar hills, now rarely found in India but more frequently
in Ceylon. (The hyacinthus of Pliny, XXXVII, 41.)
6. Spinel. (Included among the 12 varieties of Pliny’s carbun-
culus. )
7. Topaz. Watt doubts its production in India at any place,
and the Periplus shows on the contrary that it was imported
