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Chapter - I Indo-Arab Relations Western Coast CHAPTER - I INDO-ARAB RELATIONS WESTERN COAST I. EARLY INDO-ARAB RELATIONS II.A. THE ADVENT OF ARABIC IN INDIA B. THE INTRODUCTION OF ARABIC IN INDIA AS A LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATION C. THE HISTORY OF CULTURAL EXCHANGES. I - EARLY INDO-ARAB RELATIONS The relations of India with West Asia are rooted into antiquity and are possibly as old as the people themselves. There are legends which take the relations as far back as the creation of humanity. The first creation of God, according to the Semitic belief, was Adam who, being the first human is called Abu'1 Bashar, "The Father of Mankind". It is said that this Biblical Adam, when driven from Paradise, found refuge on the Island of Sarandib (Sinhata- dwip: Ceylon), where he is deemed to have stayed for 200 years separated from his wife 'Eve', doing penance and repenting for his disobedience. There is on the island a mountain called by Portugese 'Picode Adam' where, according to the legend, the imprints of Adam's feet, 70 cubits long, are seen on the rock . The Adam's bridge , the name given possibly to a route leading to the island of Lanka, still survives and reminds one of the Indo-Semitic relations of the antiquated period. These traditions have not only become part of the Islamic religious literature but they are also recounted by many Arab historians and geographers in their works e.g. Ibn Qutayba (d.276/889), Maqdisi (d.375/985) and Ya'qut al-Hamavi (d.626/1228) and others. Ibn-al-Faqih-al-Hamadani says in his Kitab 2 ul-Buldan : ..2 2 ^ >e t »JLJ <J ^ \.\.[ ,. 1 \ ^_>* ^j^ l^ ,j i •"> \-» O ti* < V- • -*^ ' J "It is said that Adam descended at Mount Sarandib India, Eve at Jeddah, Satan at Missan, the place of Dajjal's appearance, where the lands are fertile, water is sweet, climate is good, winds are low and we find many kinds of grains similar to other places. Allah knows better and He is the wisest." In a couple of traditions it is mentioned that Adam is believed to have died in Ceylon and that the stories connected with his sons, Habil and Qabil are said to have taken place in Indi.a 3. The west Asian tradition of linking up India with their version of the beginning of creation is itself an illuminating piece of evidence of the immemorial and very ancient affinities and connections between the regions. Even the word 'Adam' reminds one of the Adi-Manushya of Sanskrit (The initial man, the first man) the two terms both in sound and content are so similar. The river valley civilization of ancient India, Iraq and Egypt » • • ^ had many things in common. Even their epics, the Book of the Dead of Egypt, Gilgamesh of Iraq and Mahabharata and Ramayana of India have much that speak of a dumberative cultural and social characteristics within the regions. The story of flood, destroying the civilized world is recounted by the Semites of Syria and Arabia, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the Aryans of India. The relationship, one can safely reiterate have been as old as the people themselves. Apart from the legendry relations, India's commercial and trade relations with west Asia and north Africa have known to have existed since the third millenium B.C. Even in the times of Harappa and Mohinjodaro the close commercial and cultural contacts have existed between the two river civilizations of Tagris-Euphrates and Indo-Ganges. Piggot points out: "Cotton cloth is likely to have been an important article of commerce for the Harappan civilization, and it is probable that some of the trade 4 with Mesopotamia at least was in cotton goods" . This view is also supported by the imprint preserved on the back of 5 one seal (used on bales of goods) . Indian cotton came to be known in Iraq and the vicinity with the passage of time as 'Sindhu' and the word has even passed into Greek as 'Sindou'. ..4 Evidence of commercial contact between India and the ancient civilization of Tigris-Euphrates region is provided by Lothal Seals, etched cornelian beads, lapis lazuli and amazonite found in Sumerian sites. In several digging sites, Indian pottery has also been found . The principal articles of commerce from India to Sumer, Akkad and their successors, however, was mainly textiles. South India too had its share in this exchange of culture and commodities. According to Nilkantha Sh^stri "the suggestion of a possible trade and cultural contact between Mesopotamia and south India gets support from the striking parallels noticed in the religious practices of early Mesopotamia and southern India. The amazonite beads found in the rivers of the west have come from the Nilgiri Hills of south India" . "Even before the discovery of Mohanjodaro", observes R.C. Majumdar, "there were trade relations between India and western world from times immemorial. On the basis of recent archaeological evidence, one can, with confidence, assert that the beginning of the intercourse between India and West Asia can be pushed back to a date earlier than the 9th 8 century B.C." The commercial activities in the Arabian Sea from early times upto the 3rd century A.D. were dominated by the Greeks and Romans. From the ancient times, the Arab merchants were the main ware-carriers and commercial agents • • • 3 5 for the trade between India and Egypt. The items supplied to Egypt were precious stones, spices and the incense. Incence was mainly used at the altars of the ancient Egyptian gods. Export of cotton cloth finds mention in the most of the ancient Indian texts and Prof. A.H. Sayer believes that it was exported by sea to the countries on the Persian Gulf in the 4th millenium B.C. and it also 9 found its market early in Egypt . The recent excavations in Nubia, Sudan also clearly show the Indo-Egyptian contacts. The Indian Muslin and Indigo were found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 1700 B.C. This lucrative trade with Egypt, India and the East was long monopolized by the Yemenite Arabs and the wealth it fetched enabled them to build a magnificent civilization with political and cultural centre at Sabaea . In the words of Agatharchides (113 B.C.) there was "no nation upon earth so wealthy as the Gerrhaeans and Sabaeans, because of their situation in the centre of all the commerce which passed between Asia and Europe 12 . The south Arabia was the Arabia Felix of Heradotus. The testimony of India's close contact with Western Asia can also be discerned in the names of Kassite Kings (18th century B.C.); most of them are the names of the Indian deities, Suryas, Marutas, etc. ... 6 Later evidences of continuous commercial contacts between India and western Asia tells us of trade by sea between Phoenicians of the Levant and western India. In or around 800 B.C. Hiram, King of Tyre, it is said, at the instance of King Solomon used to send a navy of Tarshish to India once in three years and the naval expedition used to bring back "gold and silver, ivory, apes, peacocks and plenty of Almug wood and precious stones" 13 from the port called 'Ophir*. R.C. Majumdar says that this port in all probability was in India and may be identified with modern 'Sopara', the 'Sophala' of the later Arabs. Besides, the use of Indian names for the merchandise carried in these maritime enterprises, speaks of the importance the Arabs 14 attached to their trade with India . (The Arab travellers and geographers of the later ages mention Sopara as Sufala, Sufara, Subara etc.). The fact that the words of Sanskrit and Tamil origin (e.g. "Valgu", "Chandana" - Sanskrit 'Thuki-im' and Tamil 'Tokei' for peacocks, the word 'Sindhu' used for Indian cotton and the Hebrew Karpas, derived from Sanskrit 'Karpasa') are used for the goods carried in these expeditions shows that the port of origin lay somewhere in the Peninsular India and this again supports that the biblical 'Ophir' was Sopara. ...7 7 Arab merchants, passed along the Coromondal coast on their way to China, where the monuments of pre-Islamic Arabs are still found at Canton. Agatharchides, a geographer who flourished in the 2nd century B.C. says that in his own time, the Indian trade was in the hands of the Sabeans of Yemen . Warmington observes that the Sabaeans of al-Yemen had built up a prosperous and undisturbed trade with India and that they had grown immensely wealthy The period between 31 B.C. and 96 A.D. is regarded as the "Golden Period" of trade between India and Graeco- Roman Empire 17 . There are plenty of references of these contacts in the works of Greek historians and geographers; e.g. Herodatus Strabo, Pliny etc. The possibility of discovering a direct sea route leading from Europe to India has always played an important role in human history. There were two important routes by which trade was carried on between India and the West in ancient times. The first route ran from the mouth of the Indus and up the Euphrates. This was an important route during the days of Babylonian Empire but fell into oblivion after its fall. The second route, more important than the first lay from the Indian coast to that of Yemen and Hadramawt and from there passing along the Red Sea coast to Syria and thence to Europe; either directly from the Syrian coast or via Egypt and Alexandria. This was an important ... 8 8 and highly beneficial commercial route for the prosperity of south-west Arabia in ancient times.
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