Source: VI NCERT History Chapter 10
- South India was famous for gold, Pepper, spices and precious stones.
- Pepper was very much valued in the Roman empire and it was called as Black gold.
- Sangam poems mention the muvendar, a tamil word which means three chiefs, used for the heads of three ruling families, the cholas, cheras, and pandyas.
- Each of the three chiefs had two centres of power - one inland and one on the coast.
- Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the cholas, and Madurai, the capital of pandyas were considered very important.
- The most important ruler of the satavahana was Gautamiputra shri Satakarni.
- He and other satavahana rulers were known as lords of the Dakshinapatha, literally the route leading to south.
- Techniques of making silk was first invented in China.
- Some people of China who went to distant places on foot, horseback and camels, carried silk with them. The path they followed came to be known as Silk route.
- Kushanas rulers were the best known rulers who controlled the silk route.
- Peshawar and Mathura were Kushanas power of centres.
- The Kushanas were amongst the earliest rulers of the subcontinent to issue gold coins.
- Kanishka was the most famoue Kushana ruler.
- Ashvagosha who composed a biography of the Buddha, Buddhacharitha, was lived in Kanishka court.
- Mahayana buddhism came into prominence during Kanishka rule.
- Many statues of the Buddha were were made in Mathura.
- FaXian, Xuan Zang and I-Quing were famous pilgrims who visited places associated with the life of Buddha.
- Nalanda was the famous Buddhist monastery where Xuan Zang and other pilgrims spent time studying.