Question

Briefly explain the coastal trade in ancient Tamilnadu.

Answer 1

Big cities like Poompuhar had the ‘Maruvurappakam’ (inland town) and ‘Pattinapakkam’ (coastal town), had market and bazaars where many merchants met one another for the purpose of selling or buying different kinds of commodities and foodstuff. Port towns like Tondi, Korkai, Puhar, and Muziri were always seen as busy with marts and markets with activities related to imports and exports. In such a brisk trade, people of the coastal region engaged themselves in coastal trade and developed their intercontinental trade contacts.

They were engaged in different kinds of fishing pearls, and conches and produced salts and built ships. Boats like ‘Padagu’, ‘Thimil’, ‘Thoni’, ‘Ambu’, ‘Odampunai’, etc., were used to cross rivers for domestic trade while ‘Kalam’, ‘Marakalam’, ‘Vangam’, ‘Navai’, etc., were used for crossing oceans for foreign trade.