On the first day of spring in 1170 (417 AD) a merchant of the Satavahana who was transporting goods to the Roman Empire moved close enough to the coast that he saw the harbors and shipyards of the Maurya. When he returned to the Satavahana Kingdom the other merchants did not believe him but he insisted that they were real and that there were ships bearing the Maurya’s seal on them just north of their Kingdom. Dismissive as the people were, the government was less sure. A small group of boats moved out and to the area that the merchant had described, looking for these harbors. They came across Harishchandrang and were attacked by the Maurya navy.