XII. COSMAS
(A) A description of Indian Animals
i. The Rhinoceros
This animal is called the rhinoceros from having horns upon its snout. When it is wandering about, the horns are mobile, but when it sees anything which excites its rage, it stiffens them, and they become so rigid that they are strong enough to tear up even trees by the roots—those especially which come in the way of the front horn. The eyes are fixed low down about the jaws. It is altogether an animal much to be dreaded, and in this respect so far a contrast to the elephant. Its feet and its hide, however, closely resemble those of that animal. The hide when dried is four fingers thick, and this is sometimes used instead of iron in ploughs for tilling the land. The Ethiopians in their language call the rhinoceros Arou, or Harisi, prefixing the rough breathing to the alpha of the latter word, and adding risi to it in order that by the arou they may designate the animal and by the arisi, ‘ploughing,’ giving it this name from its shape about the nostrils, as well as from the use to which its hide is applied. I have seen in Ethiopia, when I was standing at a distance off, a living rhinoceros and I have seen also the hide of a dead one stuffed with chaff, and set up in the royal palace, and of this the picture I have drawn is an exact copy.[^4]
ii. The Taurelaphos, the Bull-stag or Ox-deer
The taurelaphos is an animal found in India and in Ethiopia. But the Indian ones are tame, and gentle and the people use them for transporting pepper and other stuffs packed in saddle-bags. They supply the natives with milk and butter. Moreover we eat their flesh, the Christians killing them by cutting their throats, and the Pagans by knocking them on the head. The Ethiopian ox-deer, unlike the Indian, are wild and untamable.
—McCrindle: Ancient India as described in Classical Literature pp. 156-7, (cf. The Christian Topography of Cosmas, ed. J. W. McCrindle, Hakluyt Society, (1897), pp. 358-9).
iii. The Agriobous or Wild Ox
This is an animal[^5] of great size and belongs to India, and from it is got what is called the toupha[^6] wherewith commanders decorate their horses and their banners when taking the field. It is said of this animal that if its tail be caught by a tree, it no longer stoops but stands erect, from its reluctance to lose even a single hair. The natives thereupon come up and cut off its tail, and then it scuttles away completely docked of this appendage. Such is the nature of this animal.
—Ancient Ind., pp. 157-8.
iv. The Moschus or Musk-deer
The small animal,[^7] again, is the Moschus, called in the native tongue Kastouri. Those who hunt it pierce it with arrows and having tied up the blood collected at the navel[^8] they cut it away. For this is the part which has the pleasant fragrance known to us by the name of musk. The men then cast away the rest of the carcase.
—The Christian Topography, p. 360.
(B) Indian Flora
i. Piper-pepper
This is a picture of the tree which produces pepper, each separate stem being very limp and slender twines itself, like the pliant tendrils of the vine, around some tall tree that does not itself bear fruit. Each of the clusters is enveloped within a couple of leaves. It is of a deep green colour like that of rue.
ii. Argellia—The Narikela of Sanskrit—Cocoa-nuts
The other tree (represented) is that which bears what are called argellia, that is, the large Indian nuts. It differs in no way from the date palm, except in being of greater height and thickness, and in having larger branches. It bears not more than two or three flower-spathes, each having as many nuts. Their taste is quite sweet and pleasant, like that of green nuts. The nut is at first full of a delicious liquid which the Indians therefore drink instead of wine.[^9] This very sweet beverage is called rhongkhosura. If the fruit is gathered at maturity, then so long as it keeps fresh, the liquid in contact with shell hardens upon it progressively, while the liquid in the centre retains its fluidity until it entirely fails. If, however, it be kept too long the fruit becomes rancid and unfit for human food.
—Ancient India, p. 159; (cf. Christian Top p. 362).
(C) Concerning the Island of Taprobanê—Ceylon
This is a large oceanic island lying in the Indian sea. Among the Indians it goes by the name of Sielediba, but the Pagans call it Taprobanê, wherein is found the stone hyacinth. It lies farther away than the pepper country. Around it there is a great number of small islands,[^10] all of them having fresh water and cocoanut trees. They nearly all have deep water close up to them. The great island, as the natives allege, has a length of three hundred gaudia[^11] and a breadth of as many—that is of nine hundred miles. There are two kings in the island who are at feud with each other. The one possesses the hyacinth, and the other the rest of the island wherein are the port and the emporium of trade. The emporium is one much resorted to by the people in those parts.[^12] The island has also a church of Persian Christians who have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia, and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual.[^13] The natives and their kings are, however, heathens in religion. In this island they have many temples, and in one situated on an eminence is a single hyacinth as big as a large pine-cone, the colour of fire and flashing from a distance, especially when the sunbeams play around it—a matchless sight.[^14] As its position is central, the island is a great resort of ships from all parts of India, and from Persia and Ethiopia, and in like manner it despatches many of its own to foreign ports. And from the inner countries,[^15] I mean China and other marts in that direction, it receives silks, aloes, clovewood, sandalwood, and their other products, and these it again passes on to the outer ports, I mean to Malê,[^16] where pepper grows, and to Kalliana[^17] where copper is produced and sesame wood and materials for dress; for it is also a great mart of trade; and to Sindu also, where musk or castor is got, as well as Androstachus, (?) and to Persia and the Homerite country, and to Adule.[^18] Receiving in return the traffic of these marts, and transmitting it to the inner ports, the island exports to each of these at the same time her own products. Sindu is the frontier country of India for the river Indus, that is, the Phisôn, which empties itself into the Persian Gulf, separates Persia from India. The following are the most famous commercial marts in India: Sindus, Orrhotha,[^19] Kalliana, Sibor,[^20] Malê which has five marts that export pepper: Parti, Mangarouth[^21] Salopatana, Nalopatana, Poudopatana.[^22] Then out in the ocean, at the distance of five days and nights from the mainland, lies Selediba, that is Taprobanê. Then, again, farther away and on the mainland is the mart Marallo, which exports chank shells, then comes Kaber[^23] which exports alabandênum, then next is the clove country, then China, which produces silk, beyond which there is no other land, for the ocean encircles it on the east.
Sielediba being thus in a central position with reference to the Indies, and possessing the hyacinth, receives wares from all trading marts and again distributes them over the world, and thus becomes a great emporium. Now once upon a time one of our countrymen engaged in commerce and called Sopater who to our knowledge died five and thirty years ago, came on business to the island of Taprobanê, where also, it so happened, a ship from Persia came to moorings. So the men from Adulê, among whom was Sopater, disembarked, as did likewise the men from Persia, among whom there was one of advanced age. Then in accordance with the custom of the place, the magistrates and the custom-house officials received them and brought them to the king. The king, having admitted them to his presence and received their obeisances, requested them to be seated. Then he asked them: How fares it with the countries you come from, and how are things moving there? To this they replied: Things are going on all very well. Afterwards, when in the course of conversation, the king inquired: Which of your respective kings is the greater and the more powerful? the Persian, who was in haste to speak first, replied: Our king is both more powerful and is greater and richer, and is King of Kings, and he can do whatever he pleases. Sopater, on the other hand, remained silent. So the king asked: Have you, Roman,[^24] nothing to say? What have I to say, he rejoined, when he there has said these things? If you wish to ascertain the truth, you have both the kings here. Examine each and you will see which of them is the more illustrious and the more powerful. On hearing this the king was surprised at what he said, and asked: How, have I both the kings here? The other then replied: You have the money of both—the current coin of the one and the drachma of the other, that is, the miliarision.[^25] Examine the image of each, and you will see the truth. The king thanked the man, and assenting to his proposal, ordered both coins to be produced. Then the Roman coin had a good ring, and was bright and finely shaped, for choice pieces of this nature are exported thither. But the miliarision, was silver and, to say in a word all that need be said, was not to be compared with the gold piece. The king having closely examined each of the coins both on the obverse and reverse side, bestowed all manner of praise on the Roman coin and said: Truly the Romans are splendid men and powerful, and possessed of great good sense. He therefore commanded Sopater to be greatly honoured, and having mounted him on his elephant, he conducted him round the whole city with drums beating and many marks of honour. All this was told us by Sopater himself as well as by his companions, who had gone with him to that island from Adulê.[^26] This occurrence, they assured me, overwhelmed the Persian with shame.
Between the famous marts already mentioned, there are many others, both on the coast and in the interior, and the country has a vast area. The regions higher up, that is, farther north than India, are occupied by the White Huns, whose king, called Gollas,[^27] when going to war is said to take with him no fewer than two thousand elephants and much cavalry. Within his empire is included India, from which he extracts tribute. Once on a time, this king, as the story goes, wished to sack an Indian city in the interior—one that was surrounded by water and was thus protected from assault. He encamped all around it for a considerable time, until all the water had been drunk up by his elephants, his horses, and his soldiery. Having then crossed over to the city on dry land, he was able to capture it. This people highly prize the emerald stone and wear it when set in a crown. For the Ethiopians, who traffic with the Blemnyes[^28] in Ethiopia, carry this same stone into India, and with the price they obtain make purchases of the most beautiful articles. All these particulars I have related and described partly from what fell under my observation, and partly as I learned them after most careful inquiry when I was in the neighbourhood of the places I have mentioned.
The kings of various parts of India possess elephants, as for instance the kings of Orrotha, and Kalliana, and Sindu and Sibor and Malê. They have each six hundred, it may be, or five hundred more or less. But the king of Sielediba obtains by purchase both the elephants and horses which he possesses. The price he pays for the elephants depends upon the number of cubits they reach in height. For the height is measured from the ground in cubits, and the price is reckoned at so many pieces of money for each cubit, say fifty or a hundred pieces, or even more. His horses again are imported from Persia, and the traders from whom he buys them he exempts from the payment of custom house dues. But the kings of the mainland catch their elephants as they roam about at large, and having tamed them, employ them in war. They often set elephants to fight against each other in the presence of the king. They separate the two combatants by means of a large cross-beam of wood fastened to other two beams standing upright and reaching up to their breasts. A number of men are stationed on this and that side to prevent them meeting in close fight, but they instigate them to attack each other, and then the beasts becoming enraged use their trunks to belabour each other with blows till one or other of them gives in. The tusks of the Indian elephants are not large, but should they be so the Indians shorten them with a saw so that the weight may not encumber them when in action. The Ethiopians again have not the art of taming elephants, but when the king happens to wish to have one or two for show, they catch young ones and put them under training. Now they are quite plentiful in Ethiopia, and their tusks being large are exported by sea from that country into India and Persia and the Homerite country and the Roman dominion. These facts I have recorded on the testimony of others.
The river Phisôn (Indus) divides India from the country of the Huns. In Scripture the Indian country is called Euilat (Havilah), ‘where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good.’
—Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, McCrindle, pp. 160-6 (cf. The Christian Topography of Cosmas, pp. 363-373; and Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither² i. pp. 222-231).
XIII. C. 550-600 A.D. (MA TWAN LIN)
Ma Twan Lin, a mediaeval Chinese historian, brought together in a Cyclopaedia all the ancient authorities known to him, and the extract given below may well be taken to apply to South India about the second half of the sixth century or earlier from its position in the work of Ma.
On the condition of South India
On the west, India carries on a considerable commerce by sea with Ta-tsin (the eastern Roman empire), the An-se (or Asae, Syrians); some of the Indians come as far as Foo-nan and Keaouche (Tonquin), to traffic in coral necklaces and pearls of inferior quality (or which only resemble pearls—san-kan). These merchants are accustomed to dispense with books of accounts (in their commercial transactions). Teeth (elephants’ or rhinoceros’?) and shells form their articles of exchange. They have men very skilful in magical arts. The greatest mark of respect which a wife can show towards her husband is to kiss his feet and embrace his knees: this is the most energetic and persuasive demonstration of the interior sentiments. In their houses, they have young girls who dance and sing with much skill. Their king and his ministers (ta-chin, ministers about the sovereign) have a vast number of silk dresses and fine woollen fabrics. He dresses his hair on the top of his head (like the Chinese women), and the rest of the hair he cuts, to make it short. Married men also cut their hair, and pierce their ears, to hang valuable rings in them. The general practice is to walk on foot. The colour of their dress is mostly white. The Indians are timid in battle; their weapons are the bow and arrows, and shield; they have also (like the Chinese) flying or winged ladders;[^29] and according as the ground will permit, they follow the rules of the wooden oxen and rolling horses.[^30] They have a written character and a literature and they are well versed in astronomy or the science of the heavens, in that of numbers, and in astrology. All the men study the instructive books denominated Seihthan,[^31] written on the leaves of the tree pei-to intended to preserve a record of things.
—JASB. vi. pp. 66-7. (JRAS vi. pp. 457-9 and IA. ix pp. 14 ff).