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Trade and Travels To India

The document discusses the historical trade routes connecting India with the Old World, particularly focusing on the spice trade in Kerala and the influence of Buddhism via the Silk Road. It highlights the significance of the Kushan Empire in expanding trade and cultural exchanges between India and other regions, as well as its role in promoting Buddhism and art. The Kushan Empire, under Kanishka, linked maritime trade with the Silk Road, fostering long-distance commerce until its decline in the 3rd century CE.

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8 views2 pages

Trade and Travels To India

The document discusses the historical trade routes connecting India with the Old World, particularly focusing on the spice trade in Kerala and the influence of Buddhism via the Silk Road. It highlights the significance of the Kushan Empire in expanding trade and cultural exchanges between India and other regions, as well as its role in promoting Buddhism and art. The Kushan Empire, under Kanishka, linked maritime trade with the Silk Road, fostering long-distance commerce until its decline in the 3rd century CE.

Uploaded by

nemishah21
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Trade and travels to India

Further information: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Silk Road and Spice trade, ancient trade routes that linked
India with the Old World; carried goods and ideas between the ancient civilisations of the Old World
and India. The land routes are marked as red, and the water routes are marked as blue.

The spice trade in Kerala attracted traders from all over the Old World to India.
India's Southwest coastal port Muziris had established itself as a major spice trade
centre from as early as 3,000 BCE, according to Sumerian records. Jewish traders
arrived in Kochi, Kerala, India as early as 562 BCE.[135] The Greco-Roman
world followed by trading along the incense route and the Roman-India
routes.[136] During the 2nd century BCE Greek and Indian ships met to trade
at Arabian ports such as Aden.[137] During the first millennium, the sea routes to India
were controlled by the Indians and Ethiopians that became the maritime trading
power of the Red Sea.

Indian merchants involved in spice trade took Indian cuisine to Southeast Asia,
where spice mixtures and curries became popular with the native
inhabitants.[138] Buddhism entered China through the Silk Road in the 1st or 2nd
century CE.[139] Hindu and Buddhist religious establishments of South and Southeast
Asia came to be centres of production and commerce as they accumulated capital
donated by patrons. They engaged in estate management, craftsmanship, and trade.
Buddhism in particular travelled alongside the maritime trade, promoting literacy, art,
and the use of coinage.[140]

Kushan Empire
Main article: Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire

Kushan territories (full line) and maximum extent of Kushan dominions under Kanishka (dotted
line), according to the Rabatak inscription
Depiction of the Buddha in Kanishka's coinage, Mathura art, 2nd century CE

The Kushan Empire expanded out of what is now Afghanistan into the northwest of
the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of their first emperor, Kujula Kadphises,
about the middle of the 1st century CE. The Kushans were possibly a Tocharian
speaking tribe,[141] one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation.[142][143] By the time
of his grandson, Kanishka the Great, the empire spread to encompass much
of Afghanistan,[144] and then the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.[145]

Emperor Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism; however, as Kushans expanded


southward, the deities of their later coinage came to reflect its
new Hindu majority.[146][147] Historian Vincent Smith said about Kanishka:

He played the part of a second Ashoka in the history of Buddhism.[148]


The empire linked the Indian Ocean maritime trade with the commerce of the Silk
Road through the Indus valley, encouraging long-distance trade, particularly between
China and Rome. The Kushans brought new trends to the budding and
blossoming Gandhara art and Mathura art, which reached its peak during Kushan
rule.[149] The period of peace under Kushan rule is known as Pax Kushana. By the 3rd
century, their empire in India was disintegrating and their last known great emperor
was Vasudeva

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