For millenia before the white man came exploring, the Indonesians were trading in cinnamon and cassia with the East African coast, and had settled in Madagascar by the first half of the first millenium AD.
This ancient trade network hooked up with market ports of India with the Roman civilization. Uncouth post Dark Ages europeans were not the first to sniff upon a clove studded orange as a way to cope with stenches of primitive urban living conditions, without city drains or baths.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Spice_trade 

So, the Indians connected the Levantine, Middle Eastern, Arabian trader networks with the East Asian ones, acting as brokers and trusted intermediaries where the trades could be safely made in Kerala's entrepot markets.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-8613_1998_num_56_1_3477 From the Persian Gulf to the islands of Japan
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