Coastal Kingdoms and Silk Route Video Lecture - Class 6

traders kings and pilgrims the
importance of Trade and coastal kingdoms
what is trade buying and selling goods
is what trade is all about the sellers
usually make a good profit that is how
they earn a living but it is not all
that simple
you can't make much of a profit if you
sell stuff that people can get easily
themselves right so you have to sell
stuff that is not easily available that
comes from far far away and that is a
lot of work
even long ago merchants were interested
in making good profits so they would
bring things from faraway places to sell
they traveled across deserts mountains
and oceans it was very interesting
what did people trade gold spices and
precious stones from South India was
sold in the Roman Empire
pepper was also traded a lot it was so
precious it was called black gold
this trade was so much that a lot of
Roman gold coins have been found in
South India
how did traders travel traders traveled
by land
traders also traveled by sea
let's look at the roots coming in to
India closely where are most of the
entry points in India most of the entry
points are in South India and all of
those are from the sea there must have
been a lot of activity happening in
these coastal towns where Goods came in
or went out
there must have been warehouses docks
ports lots of offices and lots of
trading in these towns so basically
there must have been a lot of business
activity going on in these coastal towns
trade towns in India where there is more
business there is more money and where
there is more money people pay more
taxes which go to the person who
controls that town
in addition to the trade they were very
fertile river valleys near the coasts
too
so in these places the farmers would get
good crops and pay a lot of tax - so all
the powerful Chiefs there wanted to
control the coastal trade towns that is
because the chief who controlled these
towns could collect a lot of tax money
all these Kings had a controlling center
near the coast as well as one inland
they received a lot of gifts from the
people in these towns they also demanded
money and gifts from the people
what did they do with all this money
they must have kept some of the money
for themselves they must have had to
distribute some of the money to their
supporters they must have then used the
rest of the money for other things
what other things the Kings must have
used the money they collected for
military expeditions irrigation works
and roads and poets who wrote praises of
the king about 2,300 years ago there
were three ruling families who became
very powerful in South India the Cholas
the cheras the pandyas
about 200 years after that the dynasty
known as sattva Hana's came into power
one king of that dynasty called Ghouta
me pura sri saticon II was a very famous
one he fought against almost all
neighboring powers and won he and the
other rulers were called duction epatha
which means lords of the south these
kings wanted to control the coastal
towns to think and discuss why were the
kings interested in controlling the
coastal towns
whydid poets write songs that praised
their king
traders kings and pilgrims the Silk
Route
trade was important it was a good way of
making money
the sellers tried to make a good profit
by bringing in goods from faraway lands
some traders traveled by the land route
what was the land route it is the route
that you see in red
let us look at that a little closely
this was also called the Silk Route
it's connected Europe to Asia
why the name Silk Route mainly because a
lot of silk was carried for trade along
this road the silk was made in China and
then sent to the rest of the world many
other items were traded too but silk was
the major trade item
Silke came only from China the Chinese
had figured out how to make silk from
cocoons they didn't share the secret
with the rest of the world so the only
place that silk came from was China
silk was expensive obviously since it
had to be brought all the way from China
the road to Europe was dangerous through
mountains and deserts
there were also robbers on the way they
demanded money too
think and discuss it was difficult to
use cards along the Silk Route why
why was silk so expensive in Europe
Silke became fashionable since silk was
expensive only the rich could afford it
it became fashionable in Europe to wear
silk it showed that the person had money
control of the Silk Route since a lot of
trade happened along the Silk Route the
strong rulers at the time tried to
control it they wanted to control it
because they could collect a lot of
money as taxes and gifts from the
traders
the best-known controllers of the Silk
Route were the Kushner Kings they ruled
over Central Asia and Northwest India
Mathura Peshawar and taxila were their
major cities they issued gold coins that
the silk route traders used
think and discuss why did Kings want to
control the area around the Silk Route