Tamilnadu had a unique civilization unique in the sense, it was the most most chaotically recorded civlisationin the history of whole India. For a very long time the tiny tail like part of the Indian subcontinent was about of bounds for most of the invaders beyond the Vindhya -Sathpura hill ranges. This hill range cuts the Indian subcontinent into two Uththarapada ( Northern part )and Dakshinapada ( southern part) except for a linear vertical strip of land in the west and east along the coastline.
These coast lines are called as eastern coast and western coast. But they have other names too which are more poetic and descriptive of the geopolitical history of the land . The West coast is better known as Arabian seacoastand .. the easrtern coast is called as the coromandel coast named in the glory of the Chola dynasty. The only one dynasty in the entire world which ruled the Tamilagam and its neighboring states continuously for almost thousand years . From the 9TH century onwards… Western coast or the Arabian coast t is historically more connected with the western countries and had a flourishing trade with all countries be it Mediterranean countries or European countries like Rome and Greek. And another equally important fact is that most of the European countries that landed on India did so on the western coast either for the purpose of trade or invading India or more holy purpose of spreading the religion to the barbaric Indians who worshipped trees, cattle , monkeys and elephants Whatever be the reason western coast is the point of entry. In this little book we shall see the internal and the external trade that flourished in ancient Tamilnadu , the Tamilnadu of sangam age and after sangam ag