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India has always been a dream destination for those who wish to explore one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Since time immemorial, India has been visited by many curious travelers who came here and fell in love with its traditions and colors. While British travelers were actually disguised forms of imperialists, earlier travelers came to India to acquire knowledge, education, and customs. These travelers documented their experiences of the country and became the earliest chroniclers of history. In fact, much of what we know about ancient India today is through the accounts of these travelers. Here is a list of foreign travelers who visited India and explored its diverse cultural terrain:
1. Hiuen Tsang (630-645 AD) Chinese traveler
Hiuen Tsang, one of the earliest and most famous travelers to India, came to India from China in search of Buddhist belief and practice. He has been described as the "prince of the pilgrims" and his accounts contain a great deal of information about the political, social, and religious system of India. Hiuen Tsang visited Kashmir and Punjab and proceeded to Kapilvastu, Bodh-Gaya, Sarnath, Kushinagar, and so forth. He studied at Nalanda University and traveled to the Deccan, Orissa, and Bengal. Since he lived in India for 14 years, his accounts show what ancient India must have been like.
2. Al Biruni (1024-1030 AD) traveler of Persia
Al Biruni was an Islamic scholar who was "commissioned" by Mahmud of Ghazni to write his monumental commentary on the Tahqiq-i-Hind, a book on Indian philosophy and culture. In the words of today's historians, "His comments on Indian conditions, systems of knowledge, social norms, religion... are perhaps the most incisive of any visitor to India." Born in Uzbekistan, this traveler lived in India for thirteen years to understand the culture and literature of India.
3. Ibn Battuta (1333-1347 AD) traveler of Morocco
It is unbelievable that a person could travel so far at a time when no travel material was available. Meet Ibn Battuta, who had a unique travel hobby in history that cannot be compared to any other person. It is hard to believe that Ibn Battuta traveled more than 75,000 miles (121,000 km), a figure unsurpassed by any explorer until the advent of the steam age some 450 years later.
He was the only medieval traveler who is known to have visited the land of every Muslim ruler of his time. His travels included North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe in the west, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and China in the east, a distance three times that of his near-contemporary Marco Polo. Is.
4. Marco Polo (b.1254–d.1324) Italian traveler
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, is perhaps the most famous traveler today. He is said to have visited South India twice, in 1288 and 1292, where he saw a tomb of St Thomas "in a certain small town", which he did not name. Many historians accept these dates and visits without question and identify little with the city he talks about as Mylapore.
5. Abdur Razzaq (1443-1444 AD) traveler of Persia
One of the earliest mentions of the Vijayanagara Empire in India comes through the Persian traveler Abdul Razzaq, who visited it around 1440. His accounts of the Hampi Bazaar, its architecture, and grandeur have left much of the corpus of history for later historians to work on. Abdur Razzaq was the ambassador of Shahrukh of the Timurid dynasty.
6. Megasthenes (302-298 BC) Ambassador of Greece
Megasthenes was a Greek historian who came to India in the 4th century BC. as ambassador to Seleucus Nicator. He lived in the court of Chandragupta Maurya for about five years (302–298 BC). His experience of India is written in his book titled "Indica". Through his accounts, we get to know everything that he saw in India- its geography, government, religion, and society.
7. Fa Hien (405-411 AD) Traveler of China
Fa-Hien was the first Chinese monk to travel to India in search of great Buddhist texts. At the age of sixty-five, he traveled mostly on foot, taking the southern route through central China to Shenzhen, Dunhuang, and Khotan, and then through the Himalayas to Gandhara and Peshawar.
8. Niccolò Conti (1420-1421 AD) traveler of Italy
Niccolo de Conti' (AD 1419–1444) was a Venetian explorer and writer who visited the west coast of India from Ely and reached inland at Vijayanagara, the capital of the major Hindu kingdom of the Deccan. Of this city, Conti gives a detailed description which is one of the most interesting parts of his description. From Vijayanagara and Tungabudhara, he traveled to Maliyapura, present-day Chennai, near Madras.
9. Afanasy Nikitin (1469-1472) from Russia
The Russian merchant Nikitin traveled to different cities in India for more than two years, got acquainted with local residents, and carefully described everything he saw. The merchant's notes were compiled in the form of a so-called "travel", which is more like a traveler's log. The work accurately described the nature and political organization of India as well as its traditions, lifestyle, and customs.
10. Domingo Paes from Portugal (1520-1522 AD)
After the conquest of Goa in 1510 and its rise as the capital of the Portuguese Estado da India, many Portuguese travelers and traders visited Vijayanagara and wrote detailed reports about the glory of Bisnaga of Vijayanagara. The most valuable is that of Domingos Paes written in C. 1520–22. Paes's report of a visit to Vijayanagara during Krishnadeva's reign is based mainly on careful observation as he describes in detail the so-called feudal Nayankara system of Vijayanagara's military organization and the annual royal Durga festival.
11. Fernão Nunes (1535-1537 AD) from Portugal
Fernão Nuniz, a Portuguese horse trader, composed his account of India around 1536–37. He was in the capital of Vijayanagara during the reign of Achyutaraya and may have been present in the earlier battles fought by Krishnadevaraya. This visitor was particularly interested in the history of Vijayanagara, particularly the foundation of the city, the subsequent careers of the three dynasties of rulers, and the battles they fought with the Sultans of the Deccan and the Rajas of Orissa. His accounts also give an insight into the Mahanavami festival, where he praises the extravagant ornaments worn by the court ladies as well as the thousands of women in the service of the king.
12. Vasco da Gama (1497–99, 1502–03, 1524)
Vasco da Gama was the first Portuguese or indeed the first European to reach India. He is an important traveler of India whose history is closely linked with that of Goa. After sailing along the west coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made several stops in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498. For his second voyage, da Gama arrived in Goa with work. To counter the growing corruption that had tarnished the Portuguese government in India.
Does the question arise whether any traveler had come to us in the past who left his home and family and set out to travel abroad. The answer would be very few. Even if they are, their accounts and narratives do not add much to our travel corpus today. The reason was that India was not a traveling country like Persia, Britain, Italy, and many other countries. Indians considered themselves very much satisfied with their country and rarely crossed the borders. However, with the growing trend of tourism, Indians today are traveling a lot and planning trips, making them observers rather than subjects of narratives. Let us travel, explore and learn the world write it in your own words and make your travel diary.
* This is a list of important foreign travelers or envoys in Indian history who is very important for exams like UPSC, State Services, SSC, etc. Please let us know if you have any improvements or something to add to this list in the comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who is the first Chinese traveler to visit India?
a. Fa-Hien or Faxian (399-413 AD) was the first Chinese traveler to visit India. He was a monk and traveled in search of the great Buddhist scriptures.
Q. Who is the first traveler of India?
Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucus Nicator, was the first foreign traveler to India. He visited India during the supremacy of Chandragupta Maurya.
Q. Who were the two Chinese travelers who came to India?
A. Two prominent Chinese travelers who visited India stayed here for many years, and returned to China to share their teachings, were Faxian (often written as Fa-hian in Indian history books
Q. Who was the Chinese traveler who came to India during the period of Chandragupta Maurya?
A. Fa-hian or Faxian visited India during the reign of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta Maurya
Q. Which foreign traveler has been called the prince of medieval travelers?
A. Italian traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324) is called the prince of medieval travelers. He was a European traveler. He recorded all his travel experiences in India and observations related to the geography and economic history of India in a book titled The Book of Ser Marco Polo, The Venetian.
Q. Which European traveler saw that a Hindu woman can go anywhere alone?
a. Abbe J.A. Dubois (Jean-Antoine Dubois) remarked in the early 19th century, "A Hindu woman can go anywhere alone, even in the most crowded places."
