Tamil kingdoms, South India · c. 30 BC - 200 AD

Pepper and monsoons: South India and the Roman trade

Every summer, Greek and Egyptian ships rode the monsoon winds from the Red Sea to the pepper ports of South India and came home with the winter winds. Students follow the trade between the Tamil kingdoms and Rome through winds, coins, pottery and poems.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 200 to AD 100
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Every summer, Greek and Egyptian ships rode the monsoon winds from the Red Sea to the pepper ports of South India and came home with the winter winds. Students follow the trade between the Tamil kingdoms and Rome through winds, coins, pottery and poems.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the three Tamil kingdoms and the main ports of South India on the map.
  • Explain how the monsoon winds made sea trade between Egypt and India possible.
  • Use coins, pottery and written sources as evidence of trade between India and Rome.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 200

Three Tamil kingdoms

Open the map in AD 200 and zoom in on the southern tip of India. Find the Chola lands in the east. The Cheras ruled the west coast and the Pandyas the far south. Which coast faces Arabia and Egypt?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 100

The sea road

Set the year to AD 100 and turn on Trade Routes. Follow the Maritime Spice Route from India to Egypt. Which seas does it cross?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 100

Riding the wind

Type "How did the monsoon winds help ships sail between Egypt and India?" in Ask the atlas. In which season did ships sail east, and when did they come back?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Ships could cross the open Arabian Sea only with the monsoon winds. How does nature shape trade?
  2. Pepper grew in South India but was a costly luxury in Rome. Why is a spice worth so much far from home?
  3. The Roman writer Pliny complained that luxuries from the East drained Rome's money. Was he right to worry?
  4. Tamil poems describe foreign traders in their ports. What can poems tell historians that coins cannot?
  5. Hoards of Roman coins have been found in South India. Why might people bury coins, and why might they never dig them up?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Augustus in Rule History. After he took Egypt in 30 BC, the trade with India boomed, and he wrote that embassies from Indian kings often came to him. After the round, discuss: which of your rulings would help or hurt merchants sailing to India?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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