Visitor

Ethnicity

Important Points To Remember

Megasthanese

Greek

• He was ambassador of Seleucus Nikator of Syria.
• Visited the Chandragupta Maurya (Sandrokattes) court.
• He wrote the book Indica which was about his experiences in the country.

Fa-Hien

Chinese

• Visited India at the time of Chandragupta II, known as Vikramaditya.
• Visited Lumbini, Gautam Buddha’s birth place.
• His journey is described in his travelogue, A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms.

Hiuen Tsang

Chinese

• Visited India at the time of Harshavardhan.
• He wrote his experiences in his book ‘Si-yu-ki; or the ‘Great Tang Records of Western World’.

Al beruni

Persian

• Visited  India with Mohammad Ghazni.
• He is regarded as the father of Indology.
• His wrote ‘Tahqiq-i-Hind’ which explains about India.
• First Muslim scholar to visit India

Marco Polo

Venetian

• Visited Rudramadevi’s Kakatiya dynasty.
• Wrote a book entitled ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan

• He came to India during the reign of Muhammed bin Tuglaq.
• He described his journey in a travelogue entitled ‘Rihla’.

Nicolo Conti

Venetian

• He visited India at the time of Devaraya I of Vijayanagar empire

Thomas Roe

English

• He was ambassador to the court of Jahangir at Agra.
• His ‘Journal of the mission to the Mughal Empire’,was a valuable source of information for the reign of Jahangir.

William Hawkins

English

• He arrived during the reign of Jahangir.
• He was the ambassador King of England James I.
• The purpose of his visit was to persuade the king to grant a commission for an English factory at Surat.
• He was able to persuade the emperor but due to the pressure of the Portuguese Viceroy, the grant was withdrawn.

Abdur Razzaq

Persian

• He was the Ambassador of Shahrukh of Timurid Dynasty.
• Visited during the rule of Devaraya II of Vijayanagar empire.

François Bernier

 French

• He was personal physician to Mughal prince Dara Shikoh the elder son of the  Shah Jahan, and after Dara Shikoh’s demise, was attached to the court Aurangzeb.
• He wrote ‘Travels in the Mughal Empire’, which is mainly about the reigns of Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb.