Name the site that gives us valuable information about India's maritime links on the Coromandel coast.
- A.Bharukachchha
- B.Karur
- C.Arikamedu
- D.Anuradhapura
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Arikamedu. Arikamedu, near Puducherry on the Coromandel coast, was a busy port from about the 2nd century BCE, and its remains show trade with the Roman world. Excavations, most famously by Mortimer Wheeler in 1945, found Roman amphorae that carried wine and olive oil, Arretine ware (a red-glazed Italian pottery), Roman lamps and glass, along with beads of semi-precious stone and glass made at the site itself. Structures such as a large warehouse and dyeing vats point to a trading settlement where goods were stored, finished and shipped. The site is often identified with Poduke, a port named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Option A is wrong because Bharukachchha (Broach or Bharuch) was a great port, but on the western coast in Gujarat. Option B is wrong because Karur was an inland Chera capital in Tamil Nadu, known for Roman coins, not a port. Option D is wrong because Anuradhapura was the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, not a site in India. Exam tip: Arikamedu on the east coast means Roman trade; Bharuch and Muziris were the west-coast ports.
Practice Questions
View allThe Bali Jatra fair, which recalls the ancient sea voyages of Indian merchants to Southeast Asia, is held in which state?
- A.Odisha
- B.West Bengal
- C.Gujarat
- D.Tamil Nadu
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Bali Jatra, meaning the voyage to Bali, is held at Cuttack on the bank of the Mahanadi on Kartik Purnima, when people float small paper and banana bark boats in memory of the merchants of Kalinga who sailed to Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo; the same day is marked as…
Read the full explanation →Korkai, the pearl fishery port of the Pandyas in the Sangam age, stood on which river?
- A.Kaveri
- B.Vaigai
- C.Tamraparni
- D.Palar
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Korkai lay near the mouth of the Tamraparni in the present Thoothukudi district, and it was the headquarters of the Pandya pearl fishery of the Gulf of Mannar, praised by the Periplus and by the Sangam poets; the sea has since receded and left the site inland.
Read the full explanation →Which Chola ruler sent the naval expedition against the Srivijaya empire of Sumatra in 1025 of the Christian era?
- A.Rajaraja I
- B.Rajendra I
- C.Kulottunga I
- D.Vijayalaya
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The correct answer is B, Rajendra I, the son of Rajaraja I, who in 1025 of the Christian era sent a Chola fleet across the Bay of Bengal against Srivijaya, the trading power that controlled the straits of Malacca and Sunda, and recorded the campaign in his inscriptions along with…
Read the full explanation →Which Indian export was known in Tamil sources as yavanapriya, the favourite of the Yavanas?
- A.Pearl
- B.Muslin
- C.Pepper
- D.Sandalwood
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The Sangam poems and later Sanskrit texts call pepper yavanapriya, literally dear to the Yavanas, the word used for the Greeks and Romans who crowded the Malabar ports for it.
Read the full explanation →Which Greek pilot is credited with using the south west monsoon winds to sail directly across the Arabian Sea to India?
- A.Megasthenes
- B.Hippalus
- C.Ptolemy
- D.Nearchus
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Around the middle of the first century of the Christian era this pilot is said to have worked out the rhythm of the south west monsoon, after which ships ran straight from the mouth of the Red Sea to the Malabar coast instead of hugging the shore, cutting the voyage…
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