Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/162

 36. Sandalwood.—Santalum album, Linn., order Santalaceae. A small evergreen tree native in the dry regions of South India (as the Western Ghats, Mysore, and Coimbatore); in North India chiefly as a cultivated plant. Sandalwood has been known in India from the most ancient times, the Sanskrit authors distinguishing various woods according to color. Chandana is the name for the series, srikhanda the tree, or white, sandal, and pitachandana the inferior, or yellow, sandal, both being derived from Santalum album. They distinguish two kinds of red sandal or raktachandana, namely, Pterocarpus santalinus and Caesalpina sappan.

This mention in the Periplus seems to be the earliest Roman reference to sandalwood. It is mentioned by Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century A. D.) under the name Tzandana; and thereafter frequently by the early Arab traders who visited India and China. Cosmas and the Arabs attributed it to China, this mistake arising, as Watt points out (op. cit., p.976) from the fact that Chinese vessels at this time made the voyage between China and the Persian Gulf, stopping to trade in Ceylon and India, and disposing of their cargoes finally to the Bagdad merchants. The wood is not native of China.

According to experiments at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, sandalwood is a root-parasite on many plants.

For further references see Lassen: Indische Alterthumskunde, I, 287.

36. Teakwood.—Tectona grandis, Linn., order Verbenaceae. A large deciduous tree indigenous in both peninsulas of India. The wood is that chiefly exported from India at the present time, particularly from Burma, and is the most important building timber of the country.

Watt, (op. cit., p.1068), quoting Gamble, says that the western Indian teak region has for its northern limit the Narbada and Mahanadi rivers, although it is occassionally found farther north. Climatic changes since the date of the Periplus have probably restricted its area. It is plentiful in Bombay and Travancore.

The wood owes its value to its great durability, ascribed to the fact that it contains a large quantity of fluid resinous matter, which fills up the pores and resists the action of water. Watt menions one structure known to be over 2000 years old, and the discovery of teak in the Mugheir ruins indicates its use there under Nabonidus (6th century B. C.), and possibly very much earlier.

36. Blackwood.—The text is sasamin, which Fabricius alters and translates "white mulberry," from conjecture only. McCrindle shows that the text refers to the wood still known in India as sisam,