Nicolo De Conti was an adventurer and merchant from Italy. In 1420-1421 AD, he crossed the Arabian Sea to Cambay in Gujarat and reached India. He visited the kingdoms of Pacamuria, Helly, and Vijayanagara. Devaraya I was sworn on the throne of Vijayanagara at the time. Here we will discuss more Nicolo De Conti, which will be useful to understand how foreigners viewed India from their perspective during ancient times. This article will help the UPSC Civil Service aspirants to cover ‘India through the eyes of Foreign Travellers’ in detail.

Nicolo De Conti (AD 1395 - AD 1469)

• Niccolo De Conti was born in the year 1395 in Venice, Italy.
• In 1419, he left Venice and went to work as a trader in Damascus, Syria, where he learned Arabic.
• He travelled extensively throughout Asia as a trader for 25 years. He headed off towards Baghdad, then travelled down the Tigris River until he arrived in Hormuz, Iran, near the Persian Gulf's southern edge.
• He travelled through Persia, sailed down the Malabar coast in 1420, saw portions of Hindustan's interior, as well as the islands of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Sumatra (Indonesia), and Java.
• Niccolo founded a trading enterprise in Persia with the help of local merchants and began doing business in numerous ports around the Indian Ocean.
• Niccolo travelled to the Malay Peninsula, Champa, or modern-day Vietnam, and then to Pegu, Burma, along the Irrawaddy River.
• Conti next travelled to the south of China, passing through the Ethiopian shores, sailing across the Red Sea, crossing the desert to reach Cairo, and returning to Venice in 1444.
• His family followed him on all of his journeys. However, during an outbreak in Egypt, his wife, whom he had met in India, and two of their four children perished. With his remaining children, he travelled to Italy.
• Conti was asked to produce a report on his travels for Pope Eugenius, so he enlisted the help of Vatican secretary Poggio Bracciolini, who served as scribe for Niccolo Conti and the work titled 'Historia de Varietate Fortunae.'

Nicolo Conti Visit To India

• When Niccolo Conti arrived in India, the first city he visited was Kambath (Cambay) in Gujarat.
• He saw the abundance of beautiful stones known as sardonyxes in Cambay, as well as the prevalence of the Sati ritual.
• Conti arrived in Pacamuria and Helly, two cities on the coast, after a 20-day journey from Cambay. He talks about how ginger grows and is dried in the areas surrounding these cities.
• Niccolo Conti travelled 300 miles to the famous city of Bizenegalia (Vijayanagara, now Hampi, Karnataka state) on the banks of the river Tungabhadra. Vijayanagara was the Deccan's capital at the time in India.
  • He described Vijayanagara as being encircled by towering and enormous stone walls that go throughout the valleys and up the mountains.
  • The intricately constructed water channels of the Rayas for field irrigation; stone-built houses of the nobility, merchants, and upper classes of the large town.
  • There were lush gardens and woodlands, as well as opulent rice and sugarcane farms. Hindu deities are honoured with ornately carved temples and fanes. There were also Brahmanical colleges and schools to be visited.
  • Men in the region can have a lot of wives (polygamy), and they burn themselves to death after their spouse dies, which they consider a tremendous honour.
  • Niccolo described the Maha Navami celebration, which was held in the capital. Deepawali, Holi, and Kanarese New Year Day were among the other festivities he highlighted.
  • He also mentioned the discovery of diamonds on a mountain he dubbed "Albenigaras."
  • He invented the term 'Italian of the East’ to describe the Telugu language, which he discovered included words ending in vowels, similar to Italian.
• He arrived in the magnificent city of Penugonda (a district in Andhra Pradesh) after an eight-day journey from Vijayanagara. He travelled through two cities, Odeschiria and Cenderghiria, where the red sandal thrives, after 20 days of the journey. These are most likely Udayagiri (Sunrise Mountain) and Chandragiri (mountain of the moon).
• Niccolo Conti then travelled to Goa and Maliapur (now Mylapore, a suburb of modern-day Chennai), the burial site of St. Thomas, the most revered shrine among Indian Christians.
• Niccolo Conti then travelled to "Pedir," a town in northern Sumatra, where he spent a year learning about the local gold and spice trade. He also came across cannibalism here.
• Conti arrived in Tenasserim, on the Malay peninsula, and the Ganges Delta area, after 16 days at sea. Further up the river, he travelled through Marazia (Mathura), a magnificent city known for its aloes, timber, gold, silver, valuable stones, and pearls.
• Niccolo proceeded overland to Arakan after seeing Sonargaon and Chittagong (in modern-day Bangladesh) (now Rakhine State, Burma). He travelled for Java (the furthest place Conti visited) after journeying through the affluent city of Pegu in Burma, where he stayed nine months before heading to Champa in Vietnam.
• Conti travelled to Ceylon's far south. He made several stops along India's Malabar Coast, including Cochin and Calicut (Kozhikode).
• He returned to Cambay before heading to the Arabian Peninsula's southern coast and the city of Aden.
• Niccolo also made a pit stop in Jidda, Mecca's harbour, before travelling overland to Cairo and Mt. Sinai before landing in Venice in 1444.

Conclusion

Nicolo De Conti was an Italian trader and adventurer. He arrived in India in 1420-1421 AD after crossing the Arabian Sea to Cambay in Gujarat. Pacamuria, Helly, and Vijayanagara were among the kingdoms he visited. At the time, Devaraya I was sworn into the throne of Vijayanagara. As a result, he provides a thorough overview of Vijayanagara and Medieval Indian history.