Dvaravati–Kamboja route

The Kamboja–Dvaravati Route is the name given in old Jataka literature to an ancient land trade route that was an important branch of the Silk Road during antiquity and the early medieval era. It connected the Kamboja Kingdom in today's Afghanistan and Tajikistan via Pakistan to Dvārakā and other major ports in Gujarat, India, permitting goods from Afghanistan and China to be exported by sea to southern India, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and Ancient Greece and Rome. The road was the second most important ancient caravan route linking India with the nations of the northwest.[1]

The route

A horse caravan.

The Kamboja–Dvaravati trade route began at the seaport of Dvaravati. It passed through the Anarta region to Madhyamika, a city near Chittor. South of Aravalli, the road reached the Indus River, where it turned north. At Roruka (modern Rodi), the route split in two: one road turned east and followed the river Sarasvati to Hastinapura and Indraprastha, while the second branch continued north to join the main east-west road (the Uttarapatha Route across northern India from Pataliputra to Bamyan) at Pushkalavati.[2][3][4][5][6]

From Pushkalavati, the Kamboja-Dvaravati and Uttarapatha routes ran together to Bahlika through Kabul and Bamyan. At Bahlika, the road turned east to pass through the Pamir Mountains and Badakshan, finally connecting with the Silk Road to China.[2][5][6][7]

Land trade

Both the historical record and archaeological evidence show that the ancient kingdoms in the northwest (Gandhāra and Kamboja) had economic and political relations with the western Indian kingdoms (Anarta and Saurashtra) since Pre-Christian times. This commercial intercourse appears to have led to the adoption of similar sociopolitical institutions by both the Kambojas and the Saurashtras.[1][6]

Historical records

References in both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures mention trading activities of the ancient Kambojas with other nations:

Archaeological evidence

Numerous precious objects discovered in excavations in Afghanistan, at Bamyan, Taxila and Begram, bear evidence to a close trade relationship between the region and ancient Phoenicia and Rome to the west and Sri Lanka to the south.

Because archaeological digs in Gujarat have also found ancient ports, the Kamboja–Dvaravati Route is viewed as the logical corridor for those trade items that reached the sea before traveling on east and west.[12]

The seaport and international trade

Lapis lazuli.

From the port of Dvaravati at the terminus of the Kamboja–Dvaravati Route, traders connected with sea trading routes to exchange goods as far west as Rome and as far east as Kampuchea. Goods shipped at Dvaravati also reached Greece, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, southern India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, the land of Suwannaphum (whose location has still not been determined) and the Indochinese peninsula.

Dvaravati was, however, not the only port at the route's terminus. Perhaps more important was Barygaza or Bharukaccha (modern Bharuch, located on the mainland to the east of the Kathiawar peninsula on the river Narbada.

Horse dealers from north-west Kamboja traded as far as Sri Lanka, and there may have been a trading community of them living in Anuradhapura, possibly along with some Greek traders.[13] This trade continued for centuries, long after the Kambhojans had converted to Islam in the 9th century CE.[14]

The chief export products from Kamboja were horses, ponies, blankets embroidered with threads of gold, Kambu/Kambuka silver, zinc, mashapurni, asafoetida, somvalak or punga, walnuts, almonds, saffron, raisins and precious stones including lapis lazuli, green turquoise and emeralds.

Historical records: western sea trade

The sea trade from the southern end of the Kamboja–Dvaravati Route to the west is documented in Greek, Buddhist and Jain records:

The commerce of the western Indian coast was lucrative. Bharukacchan and Soparan traders who established settlements or trading posts in the Persian Gulf reaped enormous profits from the Indo-Roman trade and, according to the Vienna Papyrus, written in the mid-2nd century CE, paid high rates of interest.[20]

Archaeological evidence: western sea trade

A Roman coin.

There is good archaeological evidence of Roman trade goods in the first two centuries CE reaching Kamboja and Bactria through the Gujarati peninsula. Archaeologists have found frescoes, stucco decorations and statuary from ancient Phoenicia and Rome in Bamian, Begram and Taxila in Afghanistan.[21]

Goods from Rome on the trade route included frankincense, coral of various colors (particularly red), figured linen from Egypt, wines, decorated silver vessels, gum, stone, opaque glass and Greek or European slave?women. Roman gold coins were also traded and were usually melted into bullion in Afghanistan, although very little gold came from Rome after 70 CE. In exchange, ships bound for Rome and the west loaded up in Barbaricum/Bharukaccha with lapis lazuli from Badakshan, green turquoise from the Hindu Kush and Chinese silk (mentioned as reaching Barbaricum via Bactria in The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea).[22]

Historical records: eastern sea trade

The eastern and southern sea trade from the ports at the southern terminus of the Kamboja–Dvaravati Route is described in Buddhist, Jain and Sri Lankan documents.

Archaeological evidence: eastern sea trade

Archaeological digs in Sri Lanka have turned up coins, beads and intaglios from Bactria and Afghanistan. A fragment of a Gandhara Buddha statue in schist was recently unearthed from the excavations at Jetavanaramaya in Anuradhapura. Other finds in Sri Lanka, such as lapis lazuli of the Badakshan type, connect that island with Kamboja, ancient source of the material.

References

  1. 1 2 Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, Vol I, 1960, G. P. Malalasekera, p 526
  2. 1 2 Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, 1966, p 122, Oriental philology.
  3. India, a Nation, 1983, p 77, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala.
  4. Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India, 1977, pp vii, 94 Dr Moti Chandra.
  5. 1 2 Trade routes; Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh., 1999, p 537, Shyam Singh Shashi – History).
  6. 1 2 3 B.C. Law Volume, 1945, p 218, Indian Research Institute, Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar, Indian Research Institute – Dr B. C. Law.
  7. The Puranas, Vol V, No 2, July 1963; India, a Nation, 1983, p 76, Dr Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala.
  8. Kamboja. Sauraastra.ksatriya.shreny.adayo vartta.shastra.upajivinah || 11.1.04 || .
  9. Panchala Kalinga Shurasenah Kamboja Udra Kirata shastra varttah || 5.35ab ||.
  10. Kambojah.................yama vaishravan.opamah...|| MBH 7.23.42 || i.e the Kambojas ferocious like Yama, the god of death (in war), and rich like Kubera, the god of wealth, in material wealth.
  11. 1 2 Apadana, (P.T.S), II. 476.
  12. Ancient Ports of Gujarat, A.R. Dasgupta, Deputy Director, SIIPA, SAC, Ahmedabad, M. H. Raval Ex. Director, Directorate of Archaeology, Ahmedabad.
  13. Epigraphia Zeylanka, by Don Martino, Vol II, No 13, pp 75- 76.
  14. (Journal of Royal Asiatic Societry, XV, p 171, E. Muller.
  15. Ptolemy's Geography, p 38.
  16. Yuan Chwang, p 248
  17. 1 2 Life as depicted in Jain canons, p 273, Bombay, 1947, J. C. Jain; Geographical Data in Early Purana, 1972, p 321, Dr M. R. Singh.
  18. Brhatkalpa Bhashya, I, 2506.
  19. G. Buhler, Indian Antiquary, VI, 1877, pp 191–92 as Kamboika.
  20. The Indian Ocean in Antiquity, p. 295, J. Reade; A Resurvey of Roman Contacts with the West, H. P. Ray, Ed. Baussac and Salles, p. 103.
  21. Peter T Blood, Lib of Congress, Federal Research Division, 1997.
  22. Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers, M. Wheeler, p. 156
  23. cf: All Gratitude To Myanmar, S. N. Goenka, Vipassana Newsletter Vol. 7, No. 10 Dec 97.
  24. Jataka Fausboll, Vol II, p 188; Apadana. Vol II,.p 476; Manorathapurani, Anguttara Commentary, Vol I. p 156.
  25. Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology on the Indian Ocean, 2002, pp 108–109, David Parkin and Ruth Barnes.
  26. Early History of Education in Ceylon: from earliest times to Mahasena, 1969, p. 33, U. D. Jayasekara
  27. See Bhallika, Bhalliya, Bhalluka Thera in: Online Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names.
  28. Dr S. Parnavitana, Dr J. L. Kamboj and others; see talk page for Kambojas and for Migration of Kambojas.

External links

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