-
III. Gardenia lucida (Roxb.). It grows in the Konkan districts,
producing a fragrant resin called Dikamali in India, and by the Arabs
Kankham.
IV. Balsamodendron Mukul, growing in Sind, Kattiawar and the Deesa
District, and producing the Indian Bdellium, Mukl of the Arabs and
Persians, used as an incense and as a cordial medicine. It is believed to
be the [Greek: Bdella] mentioned in the Periplus as exported from the
Indus, and also as brought down with Costus through Ozene (Ujjain) to
Barygaza (Baroch - see Mueller's Geog. Graec. Minor. I. 287, 293). It is
mentioned also (Mukl) by Albiruni as a special product of Kachh, and is
probably the incense of that region alluded to by Hiuen Tsang. (See last
chapter, note 3.) It is of a yellow, red, or brownish colour. (Eng. Cyc.
art. Bdellium; Dowson's Elliot, I. 66; Reinaud in J. As. ser. IV.
tom. iv. p. 263).
V. Canarium strictum (Roxb.), of the Western Ghats, affording the Black
Dammar of Malabar, which when fresh is aromatic and yellow in colour. It
abounds in the country adjoining Tana. The natives use it as incense, and
call the tree Dhup (incense) and Gugul (Bdellum).
Besides these resinous substances, the Costus of the Ancients may be
mentioned (Sansk. Kushth), being still exported from Western India, as
well as from Calcutta, to China, under the name of Putchok, to be burnt
as incense in Chinese temples. Its identity has been ascertained in our
own day by Drs. Royle and Falconer, as the root of a plant which they
called Aucklandia Costus. But the identity of the Pucho (which he
gives as the Malay name) with Costus was known to Garcia. Alex. Hamilton,
at the beginning of last century, calls it Ligna Dulcis (sic), and
speaks of it as an export from Sind, as did the author of the Periplus
1600 years earlier.
My own impression is that Mukl or Bdellium was the brown incense of
Polo, especially because we see from Albiruni that this was regarded as a
staple export from neighbouring regions. But Dr. Birdwood considers that
the Black Dammar of Canarium strictum is in question. (Report on Indian
Gum-Resins, by Mr. Dalzell of Bot. Gard. Bombay, 1866; Birdwood's
Bombay Products, 2nd ed. pp. 282, 287, etc.; Drury's Useful Plants of
India, 2nd ed.; Garcia; A. Hamilton, I. 127; Eng. Cyc., art.
Putchuk; Buchanan's Journey, II. 44, 335, etc.)
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF CAMBAET.
Cambaet is a great kingdom lying further west. The people are Idolaters,
and have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and are
tributary to nobody.[NOTE 1]
The North Star is here still more clearly visible; and henceforward the
further you go west the higher you see it.
There is a great deal of trade in this country. It produces indigo in
great abundance; and they also make much fine buckram. There is also a
quantity of cotton which is exported hence to many quarters; and there is
a great trade in hides, which are very well dressed; with many other kinds
of merchandize too tedious to mention. Merchants come here with many ships
and cargoes, but what they chiefly bring is gold, silver, copper [and
tutia].
There are no pirates from this country; the inhabitants are good people,
and live by their trade and manufactures.
NOTE 1. - CAMBAET is nearer the genuine name of the city than our CAMBAY.
Its proper Hindu name was, according to Colonel Tod, Khambavati, "the
City of the Pillar." The inhabitants write it Kambayat. The ancient city
is 3 miles from the existing Cambay, and is now overgrown with jungle. It
is spoken of as a flourishing place by Mas'udi, who visited it in A.D.
915. Ibn Batuta speaks of it also as a very fine city, remarkable for the
elegance and solidity of its mosques, and houses built by wealthy foreign
merchants. Cambeth is mentioned by Polo's contemporary Marino Sanudo, as
one of the two chief Ocean Ports of India; and in the 15th century Conti
calls it 14 miles in circuit. It was still in high prosperity in the early
part of the 16th century, abounding in commerce and luxury, and one of the
greatest Indian marts. Its trade continued considerable in the time of
Federici, towards the end of that century; but it has now long
disappeared, the local part of it being transferred to Gogo and other
ports having deeper water. Its chief or sole industry now is in the
preparation of ornamental objects from agates, cornelians, and the like.
The Indigo of Cambay was long a staple export, and is mentioned by Conti,
Nikitin, Santo Stefano, Federici, Linschoten, and Abu'l Fazl.
The independence of Cambay ceased a few years after Polo's visit; for it
was taken in the end of the century by the armies of Alauddin Khilji of
Delhi, a king whose name survived in Guzerat down to our own day as
Alauddin Khuni - Bloody Alauddin. (Ras Mala, I. 235.)
CHAPTER XXIX.
CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF SEMENAT.
Semenat is a great kingdom towards the west. The people are Idolaters, and
have a king and a language of their own, and pay tribute to nobody. They
are not corsairs, but live by trade and industry as honest people ought.
It is a place of very great trade. They are forsooth cruel Idolaters.
[NOTE 1]
[Illustration: 'The Gates of Somnath,' preserved in the British Arsenal at
Agra, from a photograph (converted into elevation)]
NOTE 1. - SOMNATH is the site of the celebrated Temple on the coast of
Saurashtra, or Peninsular Guzerat, plundered by Mahmud of Ghazni on his
sixteenth expedition to India (A.D. 1023). The term "great kingdom" is
part of Polo's formula.
