Do you think that Muziris may have had settlements with people from Africa and the Mediterranean?
I think it was a real hodgepodge of nationalities. Like in a modern port town, people would have come and gone, but there may have been some who had a permanent presence. I am sure those descriptions of Mangalore in medieval times in Amitav Ghosh’s In an Antique Land are similar to what Muziris was like in Roman times. As I walk away, my head is spinning with images of Tamil chefs dishing out sambhar in Red Sea ports thousands of years ago and I realise how much I miss my masala dosa.
