Afanasy Nikitin
Encyclopedia
Afanasy Nikitin (died 1472) was a Russia
n merchant and one of the first Europe
ans (after Niccolò de' Conti) to travel to and document his visit to India
. He described his trip in a narrative known as The Journey Beyond Three Seas
(Khozheniye za tri morya).
on a commercial
trip to India. He travelled down the Volga River
, reached Derbent
, then Baku
and later Persia by crossing the Caspian Sea
, where he would live for one year. In the spring of 1469, Nikitin arrived at the city of Ormus
and then, crossing the Arabian Sea
, reached the sultanate of Bahmani, where he would live for 3 years. On his way back, Nikitin visited Muscat
, the Arabian
sultanate of Fartak, Somalia
and Trabzon
, and in 1472 arrived at Feodosiya by crossing the Black Sea
. On his way to Tver, Nikitin died not far from Smolensk
in the autumn of that year.
During his trip, Nikitin studied the population of India, its social
system, government
, military (he witnessed war-games featuring war elephants), its economy
, religion
, lifestyles, and natural resources. The abundance and trustworthiness of Nikitin's factual material provide a valuable source of information about India at that time.
His loss of contact with Christianity and his life among Muslims (and apparent lapse from Christianity and conversion to Islam) bothered him and he mentions this several times in his account. Indeed, he begins his account calling it his "sinful voyage beyond three seas." He went on to explain that, while he continued to date events by Christian religious holidays and invoked the Mother of God and the saints("the Holy Fathers"), he could not remember when Christian holidays were, so he could not celebrate Easter and other movable feast days or keep the Christian fasts (Lent, the St. Peters' Fast, the fast during Advent, etc.). Thus, he kept the fasts of the Muslims and broke fast when they did. He also wrote that at Bindar in the third year of his journey he "shed many tears for the Christian faith." Very near the end of his account, he wrote of his wish to return home and to the Christian faith: "I, Afanasy, a damned servant of Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, pondered over the Christian faith, the Baptism of Christ, the fasts established by the Holy Fathers, and the apostolic commandments, and I longed to go [back] to Rus!"
Yakov Lurye, an editor of Nikitin's Journey, sees his conversion as doubtful, pointing out that a circumcised convert should be persecuted or even put to death in Rus', so if Nikitin had indeed become a Muslim, he would have avoided returning to his country, while in fact he died on his way back in Lithuania not far from the Muscovite border.
monument to Afanasy Nikitin on the bank of the Volga River. The sculptor was Sergei Orlov
. There is a folk legend, that this statue was raised because Nikita Khrushchev upon visiting India, told Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that there was a statue of Nikitin in Russia when in fact there was not (Nehru had asked if the Russians had honored the first Russian to visit India). So as not to be proven a liar, Khrushchev phoned back to Russia demanding that a statue of Nikitin be built immediately, before Nehru's state visit to Russia. The statue was featured on a Russian postage stamp in 2005 commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of the Tver region (oblast). Nikitin was also featured on a coin commemorating the 525th anniversary of his journey.
In 1958, Mosfilm
produced a film entitled The Journey Beyond Three Seas with Oleg Strizhenov
cast as Afanasy Nikitin.
In 2000, a black obelisk was erected in Nikitin's honor at Revdanda
, 120 km south of Mumbai
, the probable location where he first set foot in India.
In 2006, the Indian organization "Adventures & Explorers," with the support of the Embassy of India in Moscow and the Tver Regional Administration sponsored the "Nikitin Expedition", in which 14 travellers set out from Tver to retrace Nikitin's journey through Russia, the Middle East, and Central Asia to India. The expedition lasted from 12 November 2006 to 16 January 2007. The Indian national newspaper, The Hindu
, filed several reports of the expedition's progress. After reaching India, two members of the "Nikitin Expedition" set out in March 2007 from Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) in SUVs to retrace Nikitin's travels around India itself. The Calcutta Telegraph filed a report on its progress in one of its March editions.
Rock band Aquarium composed a song "Afanasy Nikitin Boogie". Power metal band Epidemia
composed a song "Хождение за три моря" about Nikitin's writings. A mark of Tver beer "Afanasy" is named after Afanasy Nikitin.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n merchant and one of the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans (after Niccolò de' Conti) to travel to and document his visit to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He described his trip in a narrative known as The Journey Beyond Three Seas
A Journey Beyond the Three Seas
A Journey Beyond the Three Seas is a Russian literary monument in the form of travel notes, made by a merchant from Tver Afanasiy Nikitin during his journey to India in 1466-1472....
(Khozheniye za tri morya).
The voyage
In 1466, Nikitin left his hometown of TverTver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
on a commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
trip to India. He travelled down the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
, reached Derbent
Derbent
Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...
, then Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
and later Persia by crossing the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
, where he would live for one year. In the spring of 1469, Nikitin arrived at the city of Ormus
Ormus
The Kingdom of Ormus was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz...
and then, crossing the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
, reached the sultanate of Bahmani, where he would live for 3 years. On his way back, Nikitin visited Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, the Arabian
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
sultanate of Fartak, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
and Trabzon
Trabzon
Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...
, and in 1472 arrived at Feodosiya by crossing the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
. On his way to Tver, Nikitin died not far from Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
in the autumn of that year.
During his trip, Nikitin studied the population of India, its social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
system, government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, military (he witnessed war-games featuring war elephants), its economy
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, lifestyles, and natural resources. The abundance and trustworthiness of Nikitin's factual material provide a valuable source of information about India at that time.
Nikitin, Christianity, and Islam
After studying Nikitin's account, and especially his references to Islam (at the time much of India was ruled by Muslim sultans and there were considerable numbers of Muslim merchants living along the coast), particularly the prayers he transliterates from Arabic and Turkic into Cyrillic letters, Gail Lenhoff and Janet Martin concluded that Nikitin probably converted to Islam while in India.His loss of contact with Christianity and his life among Muslims (and apparent lapse from Christianity and conversion to Islam) bothered him and he mentions this several times in his account. Indeed, he begins his account calling it his "sinful voyage beyond three seas." He went on to explain that, while he continued to date events by Christian religious holidays and invoked the Mother of God and the saints("the Holy Fathers"), he could not remember when Christian holidays were, so he could not celebrate Easter and other movable feast days or keep the Christian fasts (Lent, the St. Peters' Fast, the fast during Advent, etc.). Thus, he kept the fasts of the Muslims and broke fast when they did. He also wrote that at Bindar in the third year of his journey he "shed many tears for the Christian faith." Very near the end of his account, he wrote of his wish to return home and to the Christian faith: "I, Afanasy, a damned servant of Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, pondered over the Christian faith, the Baptism of Christ, the fasts established by the Holy Fathers, and the apostolic commandments, and I longed to go [back] to Rus!"
Yakov Lurye, an editor of Nikitin's Journey, sees his conversion as doubtful, pointing out that a circumcised convert should be persecuted or even put to death in Rus', so if Nikitin had indeed become a Muslim, he would have avoided returning to his country, while in fact he died on his way back in Lithuania not far from the Muscovite border.
Nikitin in modern memory
In 1955, the local authorities of Tver erected a bronzeBronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
monument to Afanasy Nikitin on the bank of the Volga River. The sculptor was Sergei Orlov
Sergei Orlov (sculptor)
Sergey Mikhailovich Orlov was a Russian painter, ceramicist and sculptor specializing in depicting Russian historical figures.Orlov worked in ceramics and porcelain for decades until his first large-scale commission, the 1954 equestrian statue of Yuri Dolgorukiy on Tverskaya Street, which he won...
. There is a folk legend, that this statue was raised because Nikita Khrushchev upon visiting India, told Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that there was a statue of Nikitin in Russia when in fact there was not (Nehru had asked if the Russians had honored the first Russian to visit India). So as not to be proven a liar, Khrushchev phoned back to Russia demanding that a statue of Nikitin be built immediately, before Nehru's state visit to Russia. The statue was featured on a Russian postage stamp in 2005 commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of the Tver region (oblast). Nikitin was also featured on a coin commemorating the 525th anniversary of his journey.
In 1958, Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
produced a film entitled The Journey Beyond Three Seas with Oleg Strizhenov
Oleg Strizhenov
Oleg Aleksandrovich Strizhenov was a Soviet and Russian film actor and a People's Artist of the Soviet Union.-Filmography:...
cast as Afanasy Nikitin.
In 2000, a black obelisk was erected in Nikitin's honor at Revdanda
Revdanda
Revdanda is a village near Alibag, India. It is 17 km away from Alibag and 125 km away from Mumbai.-Directions:Till a few years ago the coastal road that goes south from Alibag used to terminate at Revdanda where it encountered the Kundalika creek. A bridge now spans the creek and the...
, 120 km south of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, the probable location where he first set foot in India.
In 2006, the Indian organization "Adventures & Explorers," with the support of the Embassy of India in Moscow and the Tver Regional Administration sponsored the "Nikitin Expedition", in which 14 travellers set out from Tver to retrace Nikitin's journey through Russia, the Middle East, and Central Asia to India. The expedition lasted from 12 November 2006 to 16 January 2007. The Indian national newspaper, The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
, filed several reports of the expedition's progress. After reaching India, two members of the "Nikitin Expedition" set out in March 2007 from Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) in SUVs to retrace Nikitin's travels around India itself. The Calcutta Telegraph filed a report on its progress in one of its March editions.
Rock band Aquarium composed a song "Afanasy Nikitin Boogie". Power metal band Epidemia
Epidemia
Epidemia is a Russian power metal band famous for doing the Elven Manuscript metal opera in 2004. It was formed by guitarist Yuri "Juron" Melisov in 1993, with the first songs made in 1995. The band was once nominated for an MTV Europe Music Award....
composed a song "Хождение за три моря" about Nikitin's writings. A mark of Tver beer "Afanasy" is named after Afanasy Nikitin.
See also
- Daniel KievskyDaniel KievskyDaniel of Kiev, or in Russian Daniel Kievsky or Daniil Polomnik , was the first travel writer from Kievan Rus.Some have identified him as Daniel, Bishop of Suriev, that flourished 1115 CE to 1122 CE.-Travels:...
- Chronology of European exploration of AsiaChronology of European exploration of AsiaThis article attempts to list every significant event in the history of the European exploration of Asia. It proposes a chronological inventory of these events including every people involved and the places they helped to demystify ....
- Niccolò de' Conti (1385–1469) - another European who traveled to India a few decades before Nikitin
- some marginal notes on india:sergei d serebriany