Theme 5 – Through the Eyes of Travellers: Perceptions of Society

Through the Eyes of Travellers: Perceptions of Society

Introduction

Some of the most vivid accounts of early medieval India come not from Indian authors, but from foreign travellers who visited the subcontinent and recorded what they saw, heard, and found remarkable. These accounts — by Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta, and Francois Bernier among others — are invaluable historical sources, but they must be read critically: every traveller is shaped by their own cultural assumptions, linguistic limitations, and political contexts. This chapter focuses on three major travellers across different centuries and uses their writings to explore how outsiders perceived Indian society and how their perceptions differed from the views of Indians themselves.

Al-Biruni (973–1048 CE)

Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni was a Central Asian scholar of extraordinary range — mathematician, astronomer, physician, and historian. He accompanied Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni to the Indian subcontinent in the early 11th century, but unlike Mahmud, his purpose was intellectual. He spent years mastering Sanskrit and wrote his monumental work Kitab ul-Hind (Book of India) in Arabic.

Key features of Al-Biruni's approach:

He was deeply systematic and comparative — he explained Indian concepts by comparing them with Greek philosophy (Plato, Aristotle), Sufi mysticism, and Persian thought.
He was generally respectful of Indian learning, admiring Sanskrit texts on astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy.
He acknowledged five barriers to understanding India: language, different religious customs, the Hindu tradition of secrecy about sacred texts, the political situation, and the mutual ignorance between Indians and foreigners.
He observed the varna system and noted that while it resembled social hierarchies in other civilisations, the concept of ritual pollution had no parallel he knew of.
He translated several Sanskrit texts into Arabic, making them accessible to the Islamic world.

Limitations: Al-Biruni focused almost entirely on Brahmanical texts and elite Sanskrit learning. He had little to say about Buddhism (largely displaced from northern India by his time), women's lives, or the perspectives of lower castes and artisans. His India is a land of ancient philosophy, not of everyday people.

Historical significance: Despite its limitations, Kitab ul-Hind is one of the finest examples of cross-cultural scholarship from the medieval world. Al-Biruni's willingness to learn Sanskrit and engage seriously with Indian texts set him apart from most later visitors.

Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/9 CE)

Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Battuta, a Moroccan Muslim jurist and traveller, journeyed across the Islamic world and beyond over nearly three decades, covering an estimated 120,000 kilometres — more than any other medieval traveller. He arrived in India around 1333 CE and served as Qadi (judge) in the court of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq of the Delhi Sultanate.

Key features of Ibn Battuta's account (Rihla):

His Rihla (Journey) is extraordinarily detailed on social customs, markets, trade, food, punishments, and the behaviour of rulers.
He was fascinated by the wealth and markets of Indian cities — he described Delhi as one of the largest cities he had seen, with bustling bazaars, diverse communities, and lavish royal ceremonies.
He observed sati (the immolation of widows on their husbands' pyres) and described his shock in vivid detail, though he never directly challenged the practice.
He noted the caste system but discussed it primarily through the lens of religious difference — comparing it to social hierarchies in Africa and the Arab world.
He described slavery in the Delhi Sultanate, where enslaved people served in armies, households, and trade.
He was often hosted by Sufis (Muslim mystics), whose networks provided travellers with lodging and connections across the Islamic world.
Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq is portrayed ambiguously — as brilliant and generous but also erratic, cruel, and unpredictable.

Limitations: Ibn Battuta could not read Indian scripts and relied on interpreters. His social world was primarily that of the Muslim elite — sultans, merchants, and ulama (Islamic scholars). He tells us little about the majority Hindu population except as subjects of the sultanate. His accounts of miracles performed by Sufi saints reflect his own religious worldview and are not meant as objective reporting.

Historical significance: The Rihla is the most detailed account of 14th-century India available from any source and provides unique evidence about the Delhi Sultanate's court, trade networks, and social practices that Indian sources rarely describe.

Francois Bernier (1620–1688 CE)

Francois Bernier was a French physician who lived in the Mughal Empire for twelve years (c. 1658–1668 CE), serving in the court of Emperor Aurangzeb. He wrote extensive letters and accounts that were later compiled as Travels in the Mughal Empire — one of the most influential European descriptions of India.

Key features of Bernier's account:

Bernier was deeply shaped by European Enlightenment thinking and compared Mughal India unfavourably with Europe, particularly on questions of property rights and governance.
He argued that the Mughal Empire suffered from crown ownership of all land — that because private property did not exist (a claim that was inaccurate), no one had an incentive to improve land, causing poverty and backwardness. This argument was enormously influential and later used by European colonial administrators to justify intervention.
He described in detail Mughal court life, the mansabdari system (ranking officials by military strength), the opulence of the court, and the degraded condition of artisans and peasants.
He was struck by the absence of a middle class in Mughal society, comparing it negatively to France.
His account of the zenana (women's quarters) and sati reveals both genuine curiosity and the limitations of a male outsider who could not enter female spaces.
He described Kashmir as a paradise, contributing to its reputation in European imagination.

Limitations: Bernier's claim that the Mughal emperor owned all land was an oversimplification — there were complex land rights (jagirs, zamindari rights, temple endowments) that he misunderstood or ignored. He was writing partly for European audiences and shaped his descriptions to make points about European political philosophy (particularly the importance of private property). His Eurocentrism — the assumption that European institutions were the standard against which all others should be measured — was a fundamental bias.

Historical significance: Bernier's accounts were read widely in Europe and deeply influenced how Enlightenment thinkers (including Montesquieu and Marx) understood "Oriental despotism." His biases made his influence both powerful and problematic.

How to Read Travel Accounts as Historical Sources

Historians approach travel accounts through several critical questions:

1.Who is the traveller? Their social background, religion, nationality, and purpose shape what they notice and how they interpret it.
2.What are their linguistic limitations? Al-Biruni learned Sanskrit; Ibn Battuta used interpreters; Bernier knew Persian but not local languages.
3.Whose society are they describing? Most travellers moved in elite circles and described the court, merchants, and visible ceremonies — not the lives of women, peasants, or artisans.
4.What comparisons do they make? All three travellers compared India to what they knew from home — Greek philosophy, the Islamic world, and Europe respectively. These comparisons reveal as much about the traveller's home culture as about India.
5.What are they NOT telling us? Silences in these accounts (about lower-caste life, about women's inner lives, about rural agriculture) are as significant as what is included.

Common mistakes

Students often treat travel accounts as straightforward facts about India. Remember that every traveller is a biased observer shaped by their culture and purpose. Al-Biruni focused on elite Sanskrit texts; Ibn Battuta on Islamic court culture; Bernier on European political philosophy. None of them gave a complete or neutral picture of Indian society. Also avoid confusing Al-Biruni's 11th-century account with Ibn Battuta's 14th-century one — they describe very different periods (pre-Sultanate and during the Delhi Sultanate respectively).

Summary

Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta, and Francois Bernier each provide invaluable but partial and biased windows into Indian society across three different centuries (11th, 14th, and 17th CE). Al-Biruni was the most systematic and scholarly, engaging deeply with Sanskrit texts. Ibn Battuta gave the most detailed social description of the Delhi Sultanate. Bernier's Enlightenment framework led him to influential but often distorted comparisons between Mughal India and Europe. Together, read critically, these accounts enrich our understanding of Indian history in ways that purely internal sources cannot.