as an aromatic, sapphire, beryl, diamonds and tortoiseshell. As Roman ships began to trade with the Coromandel coast, the fi ne cotton textiles of the region were also exported. From Rome, the main imports were coin, topaz, antimony, coral, crude glass, copper, tin and lead and wine. Clearly, the value of the exports from the Tamil region was much higher than the value of imports from Muziri papyrus document XI History - Lesson - - Polity and Society in Post-Mauryan Period necessities, rather than selling the salt for money.
However, the extent of the overland and overseas trade, as well as the descriptions of the city markets in the literature would imply that money was the main medium of exchange. Roman coins Chera coins The Roman coins that have been found in various centres substantiate this inference. Locally, imitations of Roman coins were also minted, primarily to increase the supply of money in circulation. Fairly large volumes of Chera coins have also been found in the bed of the Amaravati river.
The very large quantities of Indo-Greek and Kushana coins found in North India would lead to a similar conclusion about the level of monetisation. All this would lead to the inference that there was considerable use of money as the medium of exchange in the ancient period. Conclusion The centuries in discussion in this chapter were not a period of great political stability. With the exception of Kanishka, the invaders in North India did not consolidate their conquests by establishing large, stable empires.
Even Kanishka ruled only for a relatively short period, and his empire slowly fell apart after his death. The Tamil region did not have the unifying force of a large empire and was fragmented into relatively small kingdoms and even smaller principalities. The most important development of this period both for the north and the south was the great expansion of trade. From the north, trade relations extended to China in the east and up Other yavanas also came with the merchants.
The fortress of Madurai was guarded by yavanas carrying large swords.