Their journeys
Each line is one traveller’s documented route through Bharat. Tap a line to read their account.
Greek and RomanChinese pilgrims and envoysArab and PersianEuropean
Greek and Roman
मेगस्थनीज़Megasthenes and the IndikaA Greek envoy of Seleucus Nicator who lived at the court of Chandragupta Maurya and wrote the Indika in four books.Envoy at Pataliputra some time between c. 302 and 288 BCE
पेरिप्लसThe Periplus of the Erythraean SeaA Greek sailing guide written by an unnamed merchant of Roman Egypt, port by port, from the Red Sea to Barygaza, Muziris and the Pandya coast.Written c. 40–70 CE by an unnamed merchantChinese pilgrims and envoys
फ़ाह्यानFaxian (Fa-hsien)A Chinese monk who walked from Chang’an over the Pamirs to find complete copies of the Vinaya, the monastic rules, and spent about seven years in Bharat in the reign of Chandragupta II.c. 402–409 CE in Bharat, then two years in Lanka
ह्वेनसांगXuanzang (Hiuen Tsang)The Chinese monk-scholar who spent some thirteen years in Bharat, five of them studying at Nalanda, and was honoured by Harsha at Kanyakubja and Prayag.c. 630–643 CE in Bharat
इत्सिंगYijing (I-tsing)A Chinese monk who came by sea, landed at Tamralipti in 673 and studied at Nalanda for about ten years.673 to c. 685 CE in Bharat
मा हुआनMa HuanA Chinese Muslim interpreter who sailed three times with the Ming treasure fleets of Zheng He and described the ports they touched.With Zheng He’s fleets, voyages of 1413, 1421 and 1431–33Arab and Persian
सुलैमान ताजिरSulaiman the Merchant and the Accounts of China and IndiaAn Arabic book of 851, Akhbar al-Sin wa al-Hind, built on the reports of a Gulf merchant named Sulaiman and other sailors.Account dated 851 CE
अल-मसऊदीAl-MasudiA Baghdad-born historian and traveller who visited Multan, Sindh, Cambay and the Konkan around 915 and later wrote the Muruj al-Dhahab, ‘Meadows of Gold’.c. 915–916 CE in Bharat
अल-बीरूनीAl-Biruni and the Kitab al-HindA Khwarazmian scholar brought to Ghazni by Mahmud, who learned Sanskrit from pandits in the Punjab and wrote the Kitab al-Hind about 1030, an eighty-chapter study of Hindu belief, science, calendar and custom.c. 1017–1030 CE, in the Punjab under Mahmud of Ghazni
इब्न बतूताIbn BattutaThe Moroccan jurist who reached the Indus in 1333, served Muhammad bin Tughluq as a qadi of Delhi for about eight years, and then went down the Malabar coast and on to Ma’bar and Bengal.1333–1346 CE in Bharat, with a stay in the Maldives
अब्दुर्रज़्ज़ाक़Abdur Razzaq SamarqandiThe Timurid envoy of Shah Rukh of Herat who landed at Calicut in 1442 and spent most of 1443 at Vijayanagara under Deva Raya II.November 1442 to January 1444European
मार्को पोलोMarco PoloThe Venetian who served Kublai Khan touched the coasts of Bharat on his voyage home and described the Pandya kingdom, the pearl fishery, the Brahmin merchants, the widowed queen of the Kakatiya country and the pepper of Kollam.c. 1292–1293 CE, on the voyage home from China
निकोलो दे कोन्तीNiccolò de’ ContiA Venetian merchant who lived as a trader in the East for about twenty-five years and was in Vijayanagara under the Sangama kings.c. 1420s–1430s, within twenty-five years of travel ending in 1444
अफ़ानासी निकितिनAfanasy NikitinA merchant of Tver who brought a stallion to India hoping for profit, lived some four years in the Bahmani Deccan, and kept a diary, the Khozhenie za tri morya, ‘Going beyond Three Seas’.c. 1469–1472 by the older reckoning
दुआर्ते बारबोसाDuarte BarbosaA Portuguese clerk and interpreter at Cannanore who spoke Malayalam better than the Malayalis, by one contemporary’s account, and in 1516 finished a survey of the coasts and kingdoms of the Indian Ocean.c. 1500 to 1516/17 CE in Portuguese service
डोमिंगो पाइसDomingo PaesA Portuguese visitor who was at Vijayanagara with Cristóvão de Figueiredo soon after the battle of Raichur and wrote the fullest eyewitness account of the city at its height: its size, its markets, the Mahanavami festival on the House of Victory, and Krishnadevaraya himself.c. 1520–1522 CE at Vijayanagara
फ़र्नाओ नूनिज़Fernão NunizA Portuguese horse-trader who spent three years at Vijayanagara and wrote a chronicle of its kings from the founding to Achyuta Raya.Three years at Vijayanagara, c. 1535–1537 CE
टैवर्नियरJean-Baptiste TavernierA French jeweller who made six voyages to the East and crossed Bharat again and again buying diamonds and selling jewels to princes.Repeated visits, c. 1640–1667 CE
मनूचीNiccolao ManucciA Venetian runaway who reached Surat at seventeen, served as a gunner for Dara Shikoh, commanded artillery for Raja Jai Singh against Shivaji, and lived sixty years in Bharat as a soldier and physician.January 1656 until his death, said to be in 1717बर्नियरबर्नियरFrançois BernierA French physician and philosopher who reached Surat just as Aurangzeb seized the throne, served the Mughal noble Danishmand Khan for years, and wrote letters home on the empire, its economy and the ‘Gentiles’.Late 1658 or early 1659 to c. 1667 CEBeyond kings and battles
