what factors led to the expansion of indian contacts abroad?
Answers
The Indian merchants followed two routes. One was through Bengal, Assam, Manipur and Burma to reach different parts of S.E. Asia. The other was the sea route mainly from the Coromandel Coast or the coast of Bay of Bengal from the river Ganga to the mouth of Cape Comorin. Literary sources also confirm the existence of a number of ancient ports among which Tamralipti or modern Tamluk in Midnapore (West Bengal), Palur or Patura in Ganjam (Orissa) and Machhlipatnam (Andhra Pradesh) were more important.
“Avery large number of ports and cities of these regions (including S.E. Asia) became the flourishing centres of Indian culture and were rarely subjected to Indian kings and conquerors who hardly witnessed the horrors and havoc of any Indian military campaign or expedition and were perfectly free, politically and economically. The people, elevated to nobler sphere by Indian culture, religion and art, looked upon India as a holy land, a sacred region of pilgrimage rather than an area of jurisdiction and political supremacy.”