A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.52

c6.52

To turn lastly to the European travellers in India after Cosmas, it has been doubted if the Jewish traveller from Spain, Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1170), ever visited India, though he has some interesting remarks to offer on Quilon and its trade. With Marco Polo, the ‘prince of medieval travellers’, begins a new epoch in the direct contacts between Europe and the East. He reached the court of Kublai Khan after a hazardous journey of three and a half years across Asia. He spent seventeen years in the Mongol court where he became a great favourite of the Khan and was employed on many important missions. Finally he was chosen to escort a princess of the Khan's family on her bridal journey to the ruler of Persia. He left China in 1292 and his voyage to Persia through the Indian seas lasted about a year and a half. Thence he travelled to Constantinople and returned to Venice finally in 1295. He was only passing through some parts of South India on his way to Persia, but the amount of information he was able to collect is indeed surprising. His veracity and justness of observation were doubted for a long time, but this is no longer so. He has much to tell on the manners, beliefs, and practices of the people of South India, and on their maritime trade. ‘The commerce of India he found stretching, like an immense chain, from the territories of Kublai Khan to the shores of the Persian Gulf and of the Red Sea. He found the shores and the islands of the Indian Sea luxuriantly covered with nature's choicest products. . . He tells us of the topaz, the amethyst, and the emerald, of the sapphires of Ceylon, and the diamonds of Golconda.’