Kurt Behrendt in "South Asian International Trade and the Indian Ocean, 100 B.C.E. - 300 C.E.," sketches a picture of international trade networks between the Red Sea, Gujarat, and Gandhara, a civilization influenced by Hellenistic and Buddhist contacts and situated in modern-day Afghanistan. The key connecting point of this trade was West Indian region of Gujarat, where archeological sites at Junagadh and Sopara, and particularly Barygaza, bear out the trans-Arabian Sea trade of ivory, onyx, agat, cloth, silk, and powder from India to the Red Sea system in return for gold, silver, iron, and women.

Berhendt notes that by 200 C.E., there is good archeological evidence of trade coming into Gandhara through the Gujarati peninsula. The major Indian demand on the Roman trading system is gold. Roman gold coins were imported throughout the period 0 C.E. to 300 C.E., though the coins were progressively debased. In Gandhara, the coins were usually melted into bullion. Additionally, Amphora remains turn up in Gujarati sites such as Arkemedu likely carrying Roman products such as wine and olive oil, yet no Amphora turn up in Gandhara, likely because leather skins were used instead for transporting the imported materials. Going the other way, Berhendt comments that the appearance of the goddess Lakshmi on a table leg found in Pompeii during the second century C.E., is strikingly similar to a figure found at Bhokardan in the Deccan Plateau. This suggests the range of the India-Roman World trading network extended even beyond the Red Sea, Gujarat, and Gandhara during the second century C.E. Behrendt concludes by noting that Gandhara dies as a trading center by 400 C.E.

JRB
 
Reading List:

Begley, V., and De Puma, R., ed. Rome and India: The Ancient Sea Trade. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.

Casson, L. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton, 1989.

Liu, X. Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges Ad 1-600. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Neelis, J. "Kharosthi and Brahmi Inscriptions from Hunza-Haldeikish: Sources for the Study of Long-Distance Trade and Transmission of Buddhism." In South Asian Archaeology 1997, edited by M. Taddei and G. De Marco, 903-23. Rome: IsIAO, 2000.

Ray, H.P. The Winds of Change: Buddhism and Maritime Links of Early South East Asia. New Delhi, 1994.

Temple University 

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