Travelers of Ancient India

Some famous travelers and explorers who visited ancient India.

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History of India has always been an exciting topic for discussions, debates as well as a vast source of knowledge and culture. Today we can know about anything and everything with a click, but back in the day people had to travel different regions, countries, and even continents to gather information. Before the web of internet, there was a web of travelers and traders. India being home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world, scholars, and travelers throughout the world visited India in various time periods. From Europe and the Middle East, travelers came to find and understand this new piece of land called India. They hoped to gather information about the people living here, their lives, culture, and customs. They were understanding the politics between regional kingdoms, they were admiring and learning about the architecture that they had seen, they were here to also provide information about their country and kings to us. From the east or mainly china scholars came tracing back their Buddhist roots to India. Many things that we use today were invented in China, and these travelers spread those across the world. These travelers, scholars, merchants were travelling to India since early seventh century AD. Even during the period of Chandragupta Maurya, which was 302 BC. The books, journals, report these travelers wrote helped the world to imagine and understand India politically, religiously and geographically. It also helped us to paint the picture, how the subcontinent was back then.

Hiuen Tsang (China)

A Chinese traveler also known as ‘pilgrim prince’, Hiuen Tsang was one of the earliest and famous ancient travelers of India. He studied at Nalanda university, and travelled to Kashmir, Punjab, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Deccan, Orissa, Bengal among other places. In search of the Buddhist scriptures, he also learned some new practices here.

Ibn Battuta (Morocco)

Ibn Battuta was a passionate traveler. He visited India during Mohammad bin Tughlaq’s rule. In his journals, he wrote about the structural beauties of the cities he had been to. Muslim religious places in the northern parts of India that he found different from his native place, he wrote about that. He was the only traveler of his time to have visited the lands of all the Muslim rulers of the then. He was appointed as the ambassador by Mohammad bin Tughlaq.

Marco Polo (Italy)

Probably the most famous ancient traveler is still the Marco Polo. This Venetian traveler visited India in 1288 and 1292. He mostly travelled the southern parts of India. He recorded about the climate of the region, and detailed entries about the life of the people can be found in his journal. It was the reign of Rudramma Devi of the Kakatiya Dynasty when Marco Polo visited the India.

Abdur Razzaq (Persia)

During the Vijayanagara empire, this Persian scholar and traveler visited India. In his records he described the capital city “Hampi” in detail. The great architectural wonders, the city markets and other things. He was the ambassador of Timurid emperor Shahrukh.

Vasco da Gama (Portugal)

Vasco de Gama was the first European to travelled India by an Ocean route. The Portuguese explorer landed on the port of Calicut in 1498. His voyage helped the Portuguese empire establish the infamous “spice trade”, followed by other European powers, which leads to the colonization of the entire subcontinent.

Travelling was really the elitist thing in the ancient world. Knowledge, money, protection, and acknowledgment from the kings, understanding of the routes are some of the things that are necessary for exploration back then. It was like going into the unknown territory in true sense.

These are some of the people who travelled to the land of spice called India, when the rest of the world just listened and told the stories of it. They were the pioneers of multiculturalism in the world. And when kingdoms, empires were invading, fighting, ruling and expanding their boarders, these travelers with their passion for exploration and knowledge navigated through those same boarders.