Which Indian export was known in Tamil sources as yavanapriya, the favourite of the Yavanas?

The correct answer is C, pepper. 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. Pepper was the single largest item of the Roman trade, so valuable that Pliny blamed it for the outflow of Roman gold, and it is why Muziris and Nelcynda grew rich. Option A is wrong because pearls, fished off Korkai in the Gulf of Mannar, were a famous export but carried no such name. Option B is wrong because the fine cotton of Masulipatnam and Bengal was praised by Roman writers as woven air, yet again without this term. Option D is wrong because sandalwood went mainly to the eastern markets and later to China. One line to remember: pepper equals yavanapriya equals the Malabar coast.