THE TRADE ROUTES OF SOUTH INDIA

It is believed by most historians that South Indian Trade Routes originated in the post-Sangam period, after the 3rd century A.D. This assumption is based on the fact that the Tamil Sangam Literature written during the Christian era of the early centuries does not mention the names of any Trade Guilds in the later South Indian inscription, hence eliminating the idea of its presence in any significant manner. 

In those days, rulers would commission inscriptions in various public places throughout the city, to keep their citizens informed of the work being performed in the kingdom. On several of these inscriptions, many mercantile corporations were mentioned. According to sources, the Ainnuruvar, often styled as 'The Five Hundred Swamis of Ayyavole', was one of the most celebrated South Indian guilds. One of the clearest epigraphical illustrations from the period is the record of sales of land by Ainnuruvar to the Nanadesis. Another major merchant guild that functioned in the early medieval ages was the Manningramam. It is clear that trade guilds were a flourishing business.

Poduke, which is now identified as Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu, is a marketplace mentioned by Periplus Erithraie. It is a centre of early Chola trade about 3 kilometres from the modern-day Pondicherry. The first true maritime trade network established in the Indian Ocean was by the Austronesian people of Southeast Asian islands, who built the first ships capable of sailing across oceans. They established trade routes with Southern India and Sri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug and sewn-plank boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas, and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures of India and China. 

Thus, the state and trade guilds worked together for the welfare of people. The South Indian rulers often gave several rights to the trade guilds, by virtue of the power and influence they had over affairs of the state. To safeguard their businesses against robbers and enemies, the trade guilds of the early medieval period are known to have maintained militaries, much as the British East India Company would do in the distant future.

Trade guilds had their own assembly called ‘Nigama Sabha’ in the early medieval times They proved to play a significant role in the economic and commercial success of every Medieval South Indian. It was a period in which trade flourished. This, in all probability, was the beginning of the ‘Feudal Age’, because of the developments in South India.

Geographical Characteristics of the South Indian Trade Routes 

Authors such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder have outlined trade routes from Rome to Tamilakam in detail. Hippalus was the first Roman captain to sail to India using the seasonal monsoon winds that blow across the Indian Ocean. The merchants were able to shorten the long journey eastwards by sailing from Cana or Cape Guardafui Port. He noticed that it was easy to fly directly from Rome to Tamilakam.

Pliny writes that if the monsoons were blowing regularly, it would be a forty-day trip to Muziris from Ocelis, located at the entrance to the Red Sea from the south. However, passengers preferred to embark at Bacare (Vaikkarai) in Pandya country, rather than Muziris which was infested with pirates. The ships returned from Tamilakam carrying rich cargo which was then transported in camel trains from the Red Sea to the Nile, then up the river to Alexandria, finally reaching the capital of the Roman empire. Evidence of Tamil trading presence in Egypt is seen in the form of Tamil inscriptions on pottery in Red Sea ports. The Kerala Region was likely also trading in various commodities such as spices and cotton fabrics with the Sumerians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, Arabs and Chinese.

It should be recalled that in the fourth millennium B.C., South India was a prosperous nation of culture and trade while today’s affluent and modern countries were in darkness. Indeed, trade started necessarily in South India. “Her geographical features helped her to become a commercial country," says a historian. As a large part of Tamil peninsular India is near the sea, the knowledge of easy sea travels and the comparatively rich commercial animal, mineral, and agricultural products of the same naturally tempted the inhabitants of the coastal districts, called "Baradavar" or sailors, to take to sea travels and to contract commercial relations with other countries.

Challenges faced by the Southern India trade routes -

• Religious thoughts were among the most important products that were exported along the classical Indian Ocean routes. Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism spread to Southeast Asia from India. It was not the missionaries who were responsible for this but rather the merchants. Islam later spread in the same way during 700 CE.

• Crossing difficult terrain like rivers, mountains and the hostile maritime South Indian trade workers was among the many obstacles that the wagon route operators faced.

• One thing scholars assert is that the very nature of the ocean trade made prolonged periods of interaction necessary and imperative.

• The currents of the Indian Ocean change seasonally, and traders had to wait for months together before the currents shifted in favour of the return voyage. For many seafarers, these foreign ports became akin to a second home.