In the 7th and 8th centuries, groups of merchants from a small land called Armenia, far beyond the Hindu Kush mountain range started coming in to India to sell silk, muslin, spices, timber and precious stones. Through the several centuries that followed, these traders formed small settlements in different parts of the country from Kerala to Kolkata, and from Agra to Madras. By the 17th century, there was a sizable population of their people in Madras, now Chennai, and the street where most of them lived, came to be known as the Armenian Street.