Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/168



age of the Mauryas, of Chandra Gupta and Asoka, was followed by the age of the Andhras of the South and Kushans of the North, which witnessed an equal development of the foreign trade and intercourse of India. This is apparent not only from the writings of Greek, Roman, and other foreign authors, but also from the numismatic evidences discovered in India itself. With regard to the commerce of the Andhra period (200 to  250), R. Sewell, the well-known authority on the early history of Southern India, makes the following general remarks: "The Andhra period seems to have been one of considerable prosperity. There was trade, both overland and by sea, with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, and Egypt, as well as with China and the East. Embassies are said to have been sent from South India to Rome. Indian elephants were used for Syrian warfare. Pliny mentions the vast quantities of specie that found its way every year from Rome to India, and in this he is confirmed by the author of the Periplus. Roman coins have been found in profusion in the Peninsula,