9/17/23, 11:37 PM Through the Eyes of Travellers Chapter Notes | History Class 12 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Chapter Notes: Through the Eyes of Travellers

Al-Biruni and The Kitab-ul-Hind

From Khwarizm to the Punjab
Al-Biruni was born in Khwarizm, which is in present-day Uzbekistan.
He was well-versed in several languages: Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Sanskrit.
In 1017, when Sultan Mahmud invaded Khwarizm, he took several scholars and poets back
to his capital, Ghazni; Al-Biruni was one of them.
It was in Ghazni that Al-Biruni developed an interest in India.

The Kitab-ul-hind
Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind is written in Arabic.
It is a simple, lucid, and voluminous text, divided into 80 chapters on subjects such as religion
and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, manners and customs, social life, weights and
measures, iconography, laws, and metrology.
Al-Biruni, who wrote in Arabic, probably intended his work for people living along the
frontiers of the subcontinent.

Ibn Battuta's Rihla

Ibn Battuta was an inveterate traveler who spent several years traveling through North Africa,
West Asia, and parts of Central Asia (he may even have visited Russia), the Indian subcontinent,
and China, before returning to his native land, Morocco. When he returned, the local ruler
instructed that his stories be recorded.
An early globe-trotter:
Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller born in Tangier into a family known for their expertise
in Islamic religious law or sharia.
Ibn Battuta’s book of travels, called Rihla, written in Arabic, provides extremely rich and
exciting details about the social and cultural life in the subcontinent in the fourteenth
century.
He loved traveling and went to far-off places, exploring new worlds and peoples.

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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 traveling through Central Asia.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi, was impressed by his scholarship and appointed
him the qazi or judge of Delhi.
In 1342, he was sent 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 proceeds to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Before resuming his mission to China, visited Bengal and Assam as well. He took a ship to
Sumatra and, from there, another ship to the Chinese port town of Zaytun (now known as
Quanzhou). He travelled extensively there.
He meticulously recorded observations about new cultures, peoples, beliefs, values, etc.
He said 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 traveling in a
caravan.
While traveling from Multan to Delhi, his caravan was attacked, and many fellow travelers
lost their lives; Battuta, including other survivors, was severely injured.

Francois Bernier: A doctor with a difference

He was a Frenchman, a doctor, a political philosopher, and a 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 with the
Mughal court as a physician to Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan.

Comparing “East” and ‘West”

He travelled to several parts of the country and wrote accounts of what he saw, and
compared India with the situation in Europe.
He dedicated his major writing to the king of France, Louis XIV.

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Making Sense of an Alien World: Al-Biruni and the

Sanskritic Tradition
Overcoming barriers to understanding
He discussed several “barriers” that he felt obstructed understanding. The first amongst
these was language.
He depended almost on the works of Brahmanas, often citing passages from the Vedas, the
Puranas, the Bhagavad Gita, the works of Patanjali, the Manusamriti, etc provided an
understanding of Indian society.
The self-absorption and consequent insularity of the local population, according to him,
constituted the third barrier.
The second barrier was a difference in religious beliefs and practices.
For him, Sanskrit was so different from Arabic and Persian that ideas and concepts could not
be easily translated from one language into another.

Al-Biruni’s description of the caste system

Al-Biruni tried to explain the caste system by looking for parallels in other societies.
He noted that in ancient Persia, four social categories were recognized.
He suggested that social divisions were not unique to India.
He pointed out that all men were considered equal within Islam, differing only in their
observance of piety.
He accepted the Brahmanical description of the caste system but disapproved of the notion
of pollution.
He remarked that everything that falls into a state of impurity strives and succeeds in
regaining its original condition of purity.
According to him, the conception of social pollution, intrinsic to the caste system, was
contrary to the laws of nature.
Al-Biruni’s description of the caste system was deeply influenced by his study of normative
Sanskrit.

Ibn Battuta and the Excitement of the Unfamiliar

By the time Ibn Battuta arrived in Delhi in the fourteenth century, the subcontinent was part
of a global network of communication that stretched from China in the east to northwest

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Africa and Europe in the west.

He enjoyed spending time with learned men and rulers, often officiating as qazi, and enjoying
the cosmopolitan culture of urban centers. Anything unfamiliar was particularly highlighted
to impress the readers or listeners.

The coconut and the paan

Ibn Battuta’s representation strategies are evident in how he described the coconut and the
paan.
These two kinds of plants were unfamiliar to his audience.
He had compared coconut with palm; they look the same except that the one produces dates
and bears the nuts as its fruits.
He describes the paan as a tree cultivated in the same manner as the grapevine.

Ibn Battuta and Indian cities

He found the cities in the subcontinent full of exciting opportunities for those with the
necessary drive, resources, and skills.
They were densely populated and prosperous.
Most cities had crowded streets and bright and colorful markets with various goods.
He describes Delhi as a vast city with a great population, the largest in India.
Daulatabad was equal in size to Delhi.
The bazaars were places of economic transactions and the hub of social and cultural
activities.
Most bazaars had a mosque and a temple, and spaces were marked for public performances
by dancers, musicians, and singers.
He found Indian agriculture very productive because of the fertility of the soil.

A unique system of communications

The state took special measures to encourage merchants.
All trade routes were well supplied with inns and guest houses.
He was amazed by the efficiency of the postal system, which allowed merchants to not only
send information and remit credit across long distances but also to dispatch goods required
at short notice.

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Bernier and the Degenerate East

The question of land ownership
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 its nobles which had disastrous
consequences for the economy and society.

A more complex social reality

He felt that artisans had no incentive to improve the quality of their manufactures.
The state appropriated the profit.
A vast quantity of the world’s precious metals flowed into India, as manufacturers exported
in exchange for gold and silver.
He also noticed the existence of a prosperous merchant community engaged in long-
distance exchange.
Merchants often had strong community or kin ties and were organized into their own caste-
cum occupational bodies.
Other urban groups included professional classes such as physicians (hakim or vaid),
teachers (pundit or Mulla), lawyers (wakil ), painters, architects, musicians, calligraphers, etc
Some depended on imperial patronage, many made their living by serving other patrons and
some served ordinary people.

Women Slaves, Sati and Labourers

Travelers who left written accounts were generally men who sometimes took social
inequities for granted as a “natural” state of affairs.
It appears from Ibn Battuta’s account that there was considerable differentiation among
slaves.
Slaves were generally used for domestic labor, and Ibn Battuta found their services
particularly indispensable for carrying women and men on palanquins or dola.

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The price of slaves, particularly female slaves required for domestic labor, was very low, and
most families who could afford to do so kept at least one or two of them.
Contemporary European travelers and writers often highlighted the treatment of women as
a crucial marker of difference between Western and Eastern societies.
Bernier chose the practice of sati for detailed description. He noted that while some women
embraced death cheerfully, others were forced to die.
It seems unlikely that women were confined to the private spaces of their homes because
their labor was crucial in agricultural and non-agricultural production.

Summary
Al-Biruni was born in Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan.
Sultan Mahmud attacked Khawrizm and took Al-Biruni to his capital Ghazni.
Al-Biruni wrote “Kitab-ul-Hind” also known as “Tahkik-a-Hind”.
Ibn-Battuta’s traveling account “Rihla” gives very interesting information of the social and
cultural life of India.
Ibn-Battuta’s attacked by bands of robbers several times.
Whatever Bernier saw in India compared it to the European condition.
Al-Biruni discussed several “barriers”.
Ibn-Battuta wrote that Indian agriculture was very productive.
Ibn-Battuta was incredibly amazed by looking at the postal system. Bernier compared India
with contemporary Europe.
Bernier critically wrote his account “Travels in the Mughal Empire”.
Around fifteen percent population in the seventeenth century lived in towns in India.
Bernier called Mughal cities “camp towns”, which were dependent upon imperial protection
for their survival.
Bernier’s description influenced Western theorists like Montesquieu.

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