Periplusroutes

India at the heart of trade routes

By hypeatia
  • Period: 5000 BCE to 1000

    Trade route timeline

  • Trading, an old instinct
    3000 BCE

    Trading, an old instinct

    Travel via small canoes, hugging the coastlines, reach far off destinations to buy and sell goods
  • The cotton innovator in the Indus Valley
    2300 BCE

    The cotton innovator in the Indus Valley

    India's cotton textiles began to replace wool worn by people across the world. Trade routes with Egypt and Mesopotamia. Multiple references in Mesopotamian inscriptions to clothes sent to Mesopotamia from Meluhha (Sumerian name for Indus Valley Civilization).
  • 2000 BCE

    Grain and textiles

    Early trade between Harappa and Mesopotamia focused on grains in exchange of textiles. Millet and sorghum was the main grain traded
  • Kalinga-East Asia trade
    3 BCE

    Kalinga-East Asia trade

    Boats rode the monsoon winds to East Asia to trade textiles, beads,earthenware, agate and carnelian beads. Most of the ancient Indian ports were located at the mouth of rivers and in the case of lagoons, at the outlets to the sea
  • Periplus of the Erythrean Sea
    78

    Periplus of the Erythrean Sea

    By the time the Periplus was written in the middle of the 1st century, India was a well developed trading center.
  • Gupta Empire builds significant trade routes with the East and the West
    500

    Gupta Empire builds significant trade routes with the East and the West

    The Gupta empire traded a range of items - cloth, spices, precious gems, bullion - with empires in the East and the West, including the Roman empire
  • Chola Empire consolidates dominance in sea trade
    900

    Chola Empire consolidates dominance in sea trade

    Under Rajendra Chola, the sea trade becomes even more controlled, with the Cholas dominating sea routes and ports