The Assam connection of the Mediterranean in antiquity - Cleopatra in a Muga stola?

A few years back, I was visiting an ancient archaeological site in Puducherry. The structures still standing are some walls and a preserved site, on a curve of the Virampattinamriver as it enters the Bay of Bengal. The place is known as Arikamedu, a coastal fishing village, but archaeological evidence, including pottery, coins, idols, ornaments, fabrics, stones, and other artefacts, shows that it was a Greek port and trading post inancient times, servingGreece’s commerce with India and the Romans.

British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler began Arikamedu’s excavation in 1945, and subsequent research dated the port’s existence to between the 2nd century BC and to 8th century AD. In the later part of its existence, the Pallava dynasty ruled over the area, and in the rest of India, it was the time of the Gurjara Pratiharas in the North, the Palas in the East, the Rashtrakutas in the Deccan, the Chalukyas in the West, and the Rajputs in Rajasthan, Delhi, Malwa, UP, etc. The Varman dynasty was ruling over Kamrupa at that time, the Ahoms were yet to arrive, the Islamic invasions had not yet started, and Arikameduwas a busy and thriving port trading in silk and other goods. 

The mention of silk naturally stirred in me thoughts about our Assam silk, and the Silk Route. The Silk Route is not a single road, but a network of different land and sea routes that connected the Far East and the East with the Middle East and the West. This network arborised through most of China, the Levant, and some parts of Europe, touching on Myanmar, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arab lands through terrestrial and sea connections. Tbilisi in Georgia was a vital hub of this network, as it stood on the confluence of the east and the west. I am writing this piece sitting at the Narikala fortress in Tbilisi, a sprawling city in the foreground, as I re-organize my previous thoughts on the matter of Assam silks’ travel to the west in the ancient past. The Silk Route was named so only in 1877, by German geographer, Ferdinand Von Richtofen, as silk was a very important traded commodity.

As the Silk Route business touched on the Indian subcontinent, there were centres for such trade. UNESCO has identified 12 Silk Route sites in India. Most of the sites, like Vaishali, Vikramshila (Bhagalpur), Kushinagar, Sravasti, Kaushambi, Indraprastha (NCT), Sanghol, Harwan etc., are in North India and Jammu and Kashmir, while the other sites are near the sea, like Nagapattinam, Thane, and Arikamedu. There is strong evidence that Indian silk reached the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Romans, in addition to silk from China. “Periplus of the Erythrean Sea” is a 1st century CE Greek navigation guide that describes sea routes to the Indian ports from the Greek ports on the Red Sea, and mentions silk from Bactria (Afghanistan) reaching Arikamedu for transport by sea. By the third century CE, there were weaving centres near Red Sea ports that would process the raw silk imported. But was it the Assam silk? 

There are many varieties of silk in India in modern times, like the rough Matka silk of Karnataka and Kashmir, the red Garad silk of Bengal, the Banarasi with the gold and silver brocade, the Murshidabad tussar, the premium Mulberry silk, Angora silk, Pochampally silk, Mysore crap, pat, Eri, Muga, cot, Kosa, Bhagalpuri, etc. Some of these names are based on design, some on the source of the silk, some on the blending, some on the name of the region where it has originated. In ancient times, too, there must have been many silk varieties. So, where is the evidence to say that some Assam silk reached the Greek and the Roman nobility? 

Muga is the silk unique to Assam. It is produced nowhere else, and it has a Geographical Identity (GI) mark nowadays, to signify authenticity. It is distinct from Chinese, or any other silk found anywhere else. Though it was earlier believed that silk cultivation arrived in the Brahmaputra valley in the 2nd century before Christ, newer evidence shows that silk was used even in the Indus valley civilization, 2000 years before Christ, and microscopic and biochemical analysis of fabric from the Indus valley civilization site of Chanhu-Daru (Sind, Pakistan) shows the presence of Antherea Assamensis, or Assam silk. “Periplus of the Erythrean sea” from the 1st century CE, the accounts of Megasthaneswho visited the Magadhan empire during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya in 4th century BC, Strabo in 1st century CE, and Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE in his book Geographicahas chronicled the Kamrupa region of Assam, the people inhabiting the region, and the silk trade from the Brahmaputra valley. This evidence clearly shows that the Assamese Muga silk has found its way to the rest of the world through the silk routes. 

Silk was a very expensive fabric in the Roman and Greek cultures. Its import from the East was putting great strain on the Roman and Greek gold reserves, and only the nobles could afford it. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was known for her opulent lifestyle, and became the mistress of Roman ruler Julius Caesar, and after him of Mark Anthony. Is it then possible that she had a regalia, an ornate kalasiris, or a Stola of Muga silk, maybe gifted by Anthony, or the Gaius Julius Caesar himself? Who knows! Is it possible to find trails of the travel of Assam silk through this historic city of Tbilisi, in the Caucasus and the Black Sea? 

The silk routes must have run across the mountain passes, through Bhutan to Tibet and China, as well as to the sea ports in the south. The “Vrindavanivastra” was a creation from the mid-16th century in Assam by Saint Sankardeva and his disciples, in the lampas style of weaving, a tapestry of colourful cotton threads, silk, and brass in brocade. It is uncertain how it travelled to Tibet, from where it was recovered from a monastery in 1903 by a British Journalist. Did the “Vrindavani Vastra”, made of silk, also follow some ancient silk route path through the mountain passes to reach Tibet? Who knows! 
There are so many unknowns in history for imagination to fill the gaps!