DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.643#0174
154
WESTERN HINDOOSTAN,
Its antient
Tb adb,
The Zamo*
SEEN,
is, and, in refpect to its natural fituation, what it muft have
been at that time. The works of art are too minute to be
perceptible, amidft the bold and eternal operations of nature.
Caligut was at that time the greateft emporium of all India.
The commerce of the Arabs with this port was prodigious.
Pretious ftones, pearls, amber, ivory, China-ware, gold and
lilver, filks and cottons, indigo, fngar, fpices, valuable woods,
perfumes, beautiful varnimes, and whatever adds to the luxu-
ries of life, were brought there from all parts of the eaft. Some
of thefe rich commodities came by fea; but as navigation was
neither fo fafe, nor purfued with fo much fpirit as it hath been
fince, a great part of them was conveyed by land, on the backs
of oxen and elephants.
All its fplendor and all its opulence was owing to commerce,
yet thehoufes were mean, but not crowded, detached from each
other, and fnrrounded with delicious gardens; none were built
of ftone, but the royal palace, which rofe with great magnifi-
cence above the other buildings. The town was very exten-
sive, and very populous.
At the arrival of the Portuguefe it was governed by a mo-
narch, called the Zamorin, who, like a lord paramount, had all
the other princes of Malabar as tributaries. The account, as
related by the Portuguefe hiftorians, is, that fix hundred years
before the arrival of Gama, or about the year 898, Perimal
reigned fupreme over the whole country. In his old age he
became a convert to Mabometifm, and determined to refign his
dominions to his relations, and finiih his days at the holy city
of Medina. His fuccefTors retained the antient religion, and are
xonfidered as chief of the Nayrs. I "will relate the tale in the
elegant
WESTERN HINDOOSTAN,
Its antient
Tb adb,
The Zamo*
SEEN,
is, and, in refpect to its natural fituation, what it muft have
been at that time. The works of art are too minute to be
perceptible, amidft the bold and eternal operations of nature.
Caligut was at that time the greateft emporium of all India.
The commerce of the Arabs with this port was prodigious.
Pretious ftones, pearls, amber, ivory, China-ware, gold and
lilver, filks and cottons, indigo, fngar, fpices, valuable woods,
perfumes, beautiful varnimes, and whatever adds to the luxu-
ries of life, were brought there from all parts of the eaft. Some
of thefe rich commodities came by fea; but as navigation was
neither fo fafe, nor purfued with fo much fpirit as it hath been
fince, a great part of them was conveyed by land, on the backs
of oxen and elephants.
All its fplendor and all its opulence was owing to commerce,
yet thehoufes were mean, but not crowded, detached from each
other, and fnrrounded with delicious gardens; none were built
of ftone, but the royal palace, which rofe with great magnifi-
cence above the other buildings. The town was very exten-
sive, and very populous.
At the arrival of the Portuguefe it was governed by a mo-
narch, called the Zamorin, who, like a lord paramount, had all
the other princes of Malabar as tributaries. The account, as
related by the Portuguefe hiftorians, is, that fix hundred years
before the arrival of Gama, or about the year 898, Perimal
reigned fupreme over the whole country. In his old age he
became a convert to Mabometifm, and determined to refign his
dominions to his relations, and finiih his days at the holy city
of Medina. His fuccefTors retained the antient religion, and are
xonfidered as chief of the Nayrs. I "will relate the tale in the
elegant