Through the Eyes of Travellers Perceptions of Society| Class 12 History Notes

Diverse Reasons for Travel: People, both men and women, embarked on journeys for various reasons such as seeking employment, fleeing natural disasters, engaging in trade, serving as soldiers, priests, or pilgrims, or simply being driven by a sense of adventure. Travelers encountered unfamiliar landscapes, customs, languages, and beliefs in the lands they visited or settled, prompting them to adapt or carefully document their observations.

Absence of Women’s Travel Accounts

• Despite historical evidence of women traveling, there is a scarcity of surviving travel accounts written by women, leaving gaps in our understanding of their experiences.

Variety of Travel Accounts

• Surviving travel accounts cover a wide range of subjects, including court affairs, religious matters, and architectural features and monuments.
• For instance, Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi’s detailed description of the city of Vijayanagara in the fifteenth century offers valuable insights into its society and culture.

Domestic Travel Within Empires

• In some cases, travelers did not venture far from their homeland. Administrators in the Mughal Empire, for example, traveled within the empire, documenting observations on popular customs, folklore, and traditions.

Enriching Knowledge of the Past

• Descriptions of social life provided by travelers offer valuable insights into the past, enriching our understanding of historical societies.
• Three notable travelers whose accounts contribute to our understanding of the Indian subcontinent are Al-Biruni from Uzbekistan (eleventh century), Ibn Battuta from Morocco (fourteenth century), and François Bernier, a Frenchman (seventeenth century).

Ibn Battuta’s Rihla

Ibn Battuta was an avid explorer who spent several years wandering across North Africa, West Asia, and portions of Central Asia (perhaps including Russia), the Indian subcontinent, and China before returning to Morocco. When he returned, the local monarch ordered that his stories be documented.

An Early Globe-Trotter

• Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller was born in Tangier into a family known for their expertise in Islamic religious law or shari‘a.
• Ibn Battuta’s book of travels, called Rihla, written in Arabic, provides extremely rich and interesting details about the social and cultural life in the subcontinent in the fourteenth century.
• He just loved travelling, and went to far-off places, exploring new worlds and peoples.
• Before he set off for India in 1332-33, he had made pilgrimage trips to Mecca, and had already travelled extensively in Syria, Iraq, Persia, Yemen, Oman and a few trading ports on the coast of East Africa.
• Battuta reached Sind in 1333 travelling through Central Asia.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi, was impressed by his scholarship appointed him the qazi or judge of Delhi.
• In 1342 , he was sent to proceed to China as the Sultan’s envoy to the Mongol ruler.
• He then proceeded to the Malabar coast through central India.
• From Malabar he went to the Maldives, where he stayed for eighteen months as the qazi. He then proceed to Sri Lanka and Maldives.
• Before resuming his mission to China, visited Bengal and Assam as well. He took a ship to Sumatra, and from there another ship for the Chinese port town of Zaytun (now known as Quanzhou). He travelled extensively there.
• He meticulously recorded his observations about new cultures, peoples, beliefs, values, etc.
• According to him, it took forty days to travel from Multan to Delhi and about fifty days from Sind to Delhi.
• The distance from Daulatabad to Delhi was covered in forty days, while that from Gwalior to Delhi took ten days.
• Ibn Battuta was attacked by bands of robbers several times. So,he preferred travelling in a caravan.
• While travelling from Multan to Delhi his caravan was attacked and many of his fellow travellers lost their lives; Battuta, including other survivors were severely injured.

Francois Bernier

• He was a Frenchman, a doctor, political philosopher and historian. He came to the Mughal court in search of opportunities. He was in India for twelve years from 1656 to 1668. He was closely associated to the Mughal court as a physician to Prince Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan.
• He travelled to several parts of the country and wrote accounts of what he saw and comparing India with the situation in Europe.
• He dedicated his major writing to the king of France Louis XIV.
• Bernier’s Travels in the Mughal Empire is marked by detailed observations, critical insights and reflection
• According to Bernier one of the fundamental differences between Mughal India and Europe was the lack of private property in land.
• He believed in the virtues of private property and saw crown ownership of land as harmful for both the state and its people.
• The empire owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles which had disastrous consequences for the economy and society.
• Bernier chose the practice of sati for detailed description. He noted that while some women seemed to embrace death cheerfully, others were forced to die.
• It seems unlikely that women were confined to the private spaces of their homes because their labour was crucial in both agricultural and non-agricultural production.

FAQs on Class 12 History Notes Chapter 5 Through the Eyes of Travellers Perceptions of Society

Who are the three notable Travellers whose accounts contribute to our understanding of the Indian Subcontinent?

Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta and Francois Bernier.

What were some common reasons for people to embark on journeys in historical times?

 People traveled for various purposes, including seeking employment, escaping natural disasters, engaging in trade, serving as soldiers, priests, or pilgrims, or driven by a sense of adventure.

Why is there a scarcity of surviving travel accounts written by women despite historical evidence of women traveling?

Although historical evidence indicates that women traveled, there is a lack of surviving travel accounts authored by women, leaving gaps in our understanding of their experiences.

Give an example of a notable traveler who provided a detailed description of a city in the fifteenth century.

Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi’s detailed description of the city of Vijayanagara in the fifteenth century offers valuable insights into its society and culture.

What subjects do surviving travel accounts cover?

Surviving travel accounts cover a wide range of subjects, including court affairs, religious matters, and architectural features and monuments.