THE MURUNDAS AND THE ANCIENT

TRADE-ROUTE FROM TAXILA TO UJJAIN

BY

P. H. L. EGGERMONT

Introduction

In the XVIIth century the principal trade-route leading from the western coast of India to Afghanistan started from Surat, then the great port of the western coast, and ran to Agra and Delhi, and further to Peshawar and Kabul From the data of the Periplus Maris Erythraei it can be inferred that such a trade-route already existed in the first century A.D. 2). Generally, the anonymous Greek skipper who wrote this Seaman's Manual restricts himself to the description of the principal ports to be called at on the long run from Egypt to the Gulf of Bengal. The port of Barygaza (i.e. Bharukaccha, modern Broach) makes an exception to this rule. The Skipper gives an extensive description of the hinterland: "The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as the Aratrii, the (A)rachus(i)i, the Gandaraei and the people of Procl(a)is, in which is Bucephalus Alexandreia. Above these is the very warlike nation of the Bactrians, who are under their own king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated to the Ganges, leaving aside Limyrica and the southern part of India; and to the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander: Apollodotus and Menander 3). Inland from this place and to the east, is the city called Ozene, formerly a royal capital; from this place all things needed for the welfare of the country are brought 258 down to Barygaza; so are many things for our trade: agate and carnelian, Indian muslims and mallow cloth and much ordinary cloth. Through this same region and from the upper country is brought the spikenard that comes through Proclais: that is, the Cattyburine and Patropapige and Cabalite and that brought through the adjoining country of Scythia; also costus and bdellium" 1). In the above text the Skipper indicates starting-point and end of the ancient trade-route. Proclais has been identified with Puskalavati (modern : Charsada), situated on the bank of the Swat river, where it emptied itself into the Kabul river in the first century A.D.2). Barygaza appears to have been the most important port on the north-western coast of India in the same period. It lay at the other end of the trade- route. Ozene, the stage next to Barygaza-Broach, is known to be identical to the famous Indian capital of Malwa, called Ujjayini or modern Ujjain.

§ 2. Further stages on the ancient western trade-route according to Ptolemy Contrary to the practical trend of the Skipper's description, Ptolemy's Geography is the result of theoretical considerations. Criticizing the geographical study of his predecessor Marinus of Tyrus (c. i Zo A.D.) Ptolemy himself developed a new system of degrees of longitude and latitude into which he fitted all the geographical data known to him from previous geographical literature. In his work ancient data from the descriptions of Alexander's expedition and relatively modern information from Greek merchants go side by side and are inextricably mixed up. Ptolemy mentions, for example, a town Rabbath-Ammon as situated in Arabia Petraea, whereas the same town bearing another name, Philadelphia, is supposed to belong to the Syrian Decapolis. As the degrees of longitude and latitude of both towns are entirely different, Ptolemy must have mixed up two documents belonging to different historical periods 3). For this reason I am not inclined to attach too much value to the reasoning of A. Berthelot, who tried to