Q1.
Have you ever wondered how historians uncover the trade relations between two distant kingdoms many centuries ago? Let’s take a moment to brainstorm and discuss how this information comes to light.
Answer
Historians do not have shipping bills from 2,000 years ago. They build the picture out of several kinds of evidence that agree with one another.
| Kind of evidence | How it proves trade | An example from this chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Coins found far from home | Money travels with merchants. A hoard of foreign coins means goods were bought and sold there | Sātavāhana coins found from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh; Roman coins are found in south India |
| Pictures on coins | They show what mattered to the economy | The Sātavāhana coin with a two-masted ship — evidence of shipbuilding and sea trade |
| Excavated goods | Pottery, beads, glass and metal from a distant land, dug up at a site, can only have arrived by trade | Imports of glass and perfumed ointments into the Sātavāhana kingdom |
| Inscriptions | Kings and merchants record gifts, tolls and goods | Khāravela states that hundreds of pearls were brought to him from the Pānḍya kingdom |
| Foreign written accounts | Travellers and officials describe the ports they knew | Megasthenes' Indika describes the Pānḍya kingdom as prosperous and trading with Greeks and Romans |
| Literature | Poets describe the goods and the cities they saw | Silappadikāram “takes us through cities rich in traded goods”; Sangam poems describe port life |
| Structures on trade routes | Toll posts, rest houses and ports show where traffic ran | The Naneghat caves near Pune — used for collecting tolls and as a rest place for traders |
| Science on old objects | Testing the material tells where it was mined or made | Sourcing the stone of a bead, or the clay of a pot, matches an object to its home region |
Why several kinds are needed: one Roman coin in a field proves very little — it could have been carried by a single traveller or dropped much later. But Roman coins plus Roman pottery plus a Greek writer describing the port plus a Tamil poem naming the same goods make a case no single find could make. Historians call this corroboration — evidence that supports evidence.
Try This: imagine an archaeologist digs up your classroom in 3000 CE. Which objects would prove that your town traded with other places? Make a list and see how many need a second piece of evidence to be convincing.