In respect of Indian trade with western Asia, the matter seems to rest on a somewhat better footing. The earliest definite reference that we can get is a commercial expedition sent out by

1 India and the Western World.

Soloman with the assistance of Hiram of Tyre. According to Josephus, Soloman gave the command to the pilots of the expedition, "that they should go along with his stewards to the land that of old was called, Ophir, but now Aurea Chersonesus which belongs to India, to fetch gold." The expedition left Ezion-Gebeir (Akaba at the head of the Gulf of Suez), and was three years on its voyage. It brought with it 420 talents of gold, almug wood, ivory, apes, and peacocks. According to the statement of Josephus, the objective of the expedition should have been the Malay peninsula, the "golden Chersonese " of Milton. Several scholars take it to mean the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, both of which produced enormous quantities of gold, and came to be known to the inhabitants of India by the name Suvarna Bhumi. But the variant of the name in the Septuagint is Sophir. Sophir and Ophir can be considered equivalent if the word with "S" passed through Persia. Sophir is the proper form or the form nearest to the Indian equivalent. Thus the country under reference may be taken to be Sauvira which might have been one of the stages, or the final stage, which the mercantile fleet of India left as the last part of a coasting voyage. The only difficulty that scholars appeared to have felt against this identification seems to be, the 420 talents of gold. That this region Sauvira between the mouths of the Indus and Broach produced gold is in evidence in the name of one of the rivers being "golden sands" (Suvarna-sikata). This name is found recorded in the Junaghad inscription of the famous Ksatrapa king, Rudradaman of A.D. 150. Of about the same time, we have another reference to a region lower down the west coast of India, which contained gold mines. The territory of north and south Kanara under the Tamil chief Nannan is said to have contained hills showing gold-veins. What is more telling as a piece of evidence is a story connected with this chieftain, who had been branded with ignominy as woman-killer, as a result thereof, He is said to have had a fruit garden producing specially delicious fruits. A girl who went to a canal for water, picked up a fruit floating down the canal which happened to be flowing through the royal garden. She took the fruit and ate it without a thought; and for this great crime against His Majesty, the king ordered the girl to be killed. Her parents and relatives offered to ransom her by giving to the king a life-size statue of the girl in solid gold or whatever else the king might require by way of ransom. The story concludes by saying that the king refused the offer, and handed himself down to evil fame as woman-killer. The river Kaveri is known to classical Tamil literature by the name Ponni, and the name is said to have been given to it as it carried gold in her sands. Hence the difficulty on the score of gold ceases to be of force in regard to this identification.