major manufactures of India. It forms the most comprehensive history of the
period.
Tavernier was another French traveller who visited India between 1640 and
1667. Being a diamond merchant, he was particularly interested in diamonds
and visited various diamond mines in India, especially those of the Deccan.
He traveled in the kingdoms of Golkonda and talked extensively of the
manufactures of this kingdom and mentions about various crops and their
processing into the finished goods and mentions also the curious practices of
the people. He also mentions the various currencies in use and effectively
deduces corresponding the European values. His book is called Travels in
India and is written in two volumes.
Abbe Carre, also a Frenchman, visited Mughal India between 1672 and
1674 and recorded his information in The travels of Abbe Carre in India and
the Near East. He, like his counterparts, wrote about the port towns and
mentions about the role of the newly formed French East India Company.
Thevenot, one of the first French travellers, graphically describes the
cultivation of indigo and the extent of its cultivation in his Remonstrantie
(1626).
Italian and Other Travellers Apart from these, there are the memoirs of
an Italian merchant, who for most of his life, stayed in the Mughal court.
Niccolai Mannuci wrote Storio de Mogor (Story of the Mughals). He was in
India from 1653 to 1702 and this stands to be the most authentic source for
the life of the Aurangzeb. Though it is often very gossipy about the palace
harem, their intrigues and above all the personal life of the king, it is still a
valuable source for the period under discussion. He accompanied the emperor
on his Deccan campaigns and talks extensively about the annexation of
Golconda, and the town of Madras is beautifully described. Other important
travellers were Athanasius Nikitin (Russian), Duarte Barbosa (Portuguese),
Francisco Pelsaert (Dutch), etc.
Comparison of Indain Chronicles and Foreigners’ Accounts A
comparative study of the Indian chronicles on the one hand and the foreign
travellers’ accounts on the other, gives us different thrusts in the streams of
writing history.
The former, as mentioned earlier, concentrated on the political and the
administrative histories, with a