Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
treaty with the ruler of Calicut. In 1660 they captured the Portuguese forts at Cochin (now
Kochi) and Kodungallor.
The English also set up a trading venture, the British East India Company, which in
1600 was granted a monopoly. Like the Dutch, the English were at that stage interested in
trade, mainly in spices, and Indonesia was their main goal. But the Dutch proved too
strong there and the English turned instead to India, setting up a trading post at Madras
(now Chennai). The Danes traded off and on at Tranquebar (on the Coromandel Coast)
from 1616, and the French acquired Pondicherry (now Puducherry) in 1673.
ENTER THE PORTUGUESE
By the time Krishnadevaraya ascended to the throne, the Portuguese were well on the way to establishing a firm
foothold in Goa. It was only a few years since they had become the first Europeans to sail across the Indian
Ocean from the east coast of Africa to India's shores.
On 20 May 1498 Vasco da Gama dropped anchor off the South Indian coast near the town of Calicut
(Kozhikode). It had taken him 23 days to sail from the east coast of Africa, guided by a pilot named Ibn Masjid,
sent by the ruler of Malindi in Gujarat.
The Portuguese sought a sea route between Europe and the East so they could trade directly in spices. They
also hoped they might find Christians cut off from Europe by the Muslim dominance of the Middle East, while at
the same time searching for the legendary kingdom of Prester John, a powerful Christian ruler with whom they
could unite against the Muslim rulers of the Middle East. However, in India they found spices and the Syrian
Orthodox community, but not Prester John.
Vasco da Gama sought an audience with the ruler of Calicut, to explain himself, and seems to have been well
received. The Portuguese engaged in a limited amount of trading, but became increasingly suspicious that
Muslim traders were turning the ruler of Calicut against them. They resolved to leave Calicut, which they did in
August 1498.
The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama
by Sanjay Subrahmanyam is one of the better recent investigations of
the person credited with 'discovering' the sea route to India.
