Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/170

 Indian art. "Kadphises I., who struck coins in bronze or copper only, imitated, after his conquest of Kabul, the coinage either of Augustus in his later years, or the similar coinage of Tiberius (14 to 38 ). When the Roman gold of the early emperors began to pour into India in payment for the silks, spices, gems, and dye-stuffs of the East, Kadphises II. perceived the advantage of a gold currency, and struck an abundant issue of Orientalized aurei, agreeing in weight with their prototypes, and not much inferior in purity. In Southern India, which during the same period maintained an active maritime trade with the Roman Empire, the local kings did not attempt to copy the imperial aurei, which were themselves imported in large quantities, and used for currency purposes just as English sovereigns are now in many parts of the world."

Numismatic evidences point unmistakably to the growth of an active Indian commerce with the West, chiefly Rome. They also show that the main centre of this commercial activity was towards the south, in Tamilakam, the land of the Tamils, which figures so largely in the early history of the commerce of India. For we have already seen how, in the ancient days of Solomon, this land supplied the merchandise of his ships and kept up a commercial