ha @muntenman,
Interessante bijdrage ! Een handelsbasis.. ik ben eens gaan zoeken,
"The Romans, too, seem to have had limited direct contact with the island. Only two visits to Sri Lanka by Romans have been recorded: that of a freedman of Annius Plocamus in the first century A.D., which resulted in the sending of a delegation from Sri Lanka to Rome during the reign of the emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) (Pliny N.H. VI.23.84), and that of Sopatros, probably in the fifth century A.D. (Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography XI.17-19). This is not surprising, for products from Taprobane were readily available in Indian markets (Strabo II.1.14) so there was no need to travel to Sri Lanka to obtain them. "
BRON: Byrn Mawr Classical review (status: gerenommeerd)
Over de naamgeving van het eiland vond ik nog iets interessants,
"The Romans knew the place, too, as Taprobane. Pliny refers to it as such, and it wasn't all hearsay: in the first century a Roman arrived in Sri Lanka by sailing accident, and the result was a trip to Rome by four Sri Lankan ambassadors. In the fourth century, however, there was a name change: a Sri Lankan ambassador arrived in Constantinople, where his country was soon called Seren Devi, meaning "country of the Sinhalas." From this Byzantine usage, Arab writers called the island Serendib, from which English gets "serendipity," Crop the last syllable from Serendib and turn the "r" into an "l," and you have Ceylon, the English name through the colonial period."
BRON: Sri Lanka: Anuradhapura (status: onduidelijk)
Conclusie: op basis de spaarzame gegevens uit Romeinse bron is het bestaan van een
handelsbasis speculatief, maar er waren zeker contacten !
Wat ook klopt, is dat er Romeinse munten en navolging van Romeinse munten wordt aangetroffen in India. Ook is de Kushan-muntslag beinvloed door het Romeinse muntbeeld.
Van feitelijke muntvondsten op Sri Lanka heb ik nog nooit gehoord, maar wat niet is kan nog komen.. Kun je een voorbeeld tonen svp ?

Lx