Afanasy Nikitin (russian: Афана́сий Ники́тин; died 1472) was a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
merchant from
Tver and one of the first
Europeans (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'' (russian: Хождение за три моря, ''Khozhdeniye za tri morya'').
The voyage
In 1466 Nikitin left his hometown of
Tver on a
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
trip to India. He travelled down the
Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...
, and although
Tatars attacked and robbed him near
Astrakhan
Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the C ...
, he succeeded in reaching
Derbent, where he joined Vasili Papin, the envoy of
Ivan the Great (the Grand Prince of All Rus') to the shah of
Shirvan
Shirvan (from fa, شروان, translit=Shirvān; az, Şirvan; Tat: ''Şirvan''), also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical Iranian region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both pre-Islam ...
. At Derbent, Nikitin vainly endeavoured to find means of returning to Russia; failing in this, he went on to
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world ...
and later to
Persia proper by crossing the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asi ...
.
[ This provides a more detailed itinerary of his outward and return journeys.] He lived in Persia for one year. In the spring of 1469, Nikitin arrived at the city of
Ormus
The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Hormoz; fa, هرمز; pt, Ormuz) was located in the eastern side of the Persian Gulf and extended as far as Bahrain in the west at its zenith. The Kingdom was established in 11th century initially as a depe ...
and then, crossing the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel a ...
, and making several prolonged stays along the way, reached the sultanate of
Bahmani
The Bahmani Sultanate, or Deccan, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim Indian Kingdom located in the Deccan region. It was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan, , where he would live for three years. From what he tells us, he appears to have made his living by horse-dealing. During that time he visited the Hindu sanctuary of Perwattum, which he called "the Jerusalem of the Hindus".
On his way back, Nikitin visited
Muscat, the
Arabian
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
sultanate of
Somalia, and
Trabzon. In 1472 he arrived at
Feodosiya
uk, Феодосія, Теодосія crh, Kefe
, official_name = ()
, settlement_type=
, image_skyline = THEODOSIA 01.jpg
, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption = Genoese fortress of Caffa
, image_shield = Fe ...
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
In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. A ...
,
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, and his remarks on the trade of
Hormuz,
Cambay,
Calicut
Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...
,
Dabhol
Dabhol (Marathi pronunciation: ̪aːbʱoɭ, also known as Dabul, is a small seaport town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in India. It is located on the northern and southern sides of the Vashishthi river that later flows by Chiplun ...
,
Ceylon,
Pegu
Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon.
Etymology
The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langu ...
and
China; on
royal progresses and other functions, both ecclesiastical and civil, at
Bahmani
The Bahmani Sultanate, or Deccan, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim Indian Kingdom located in the Deccan region. It was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan, , and on the wonders of the great fair at Perwattumas well as his comparisons of things Russian and Indiandeserve special notice.
,
Religion
After studying Nikitin's account, and especially his references to
Islam (much of India was ruled by Muslim sultans, and many Muslim merchants lived along the coast), particularly the prayers he transliterates from Arabic and Turkic into Cyrillic letters, Gail Lenhoff and Janet Martin speculated that Nikitin might have converted to Islam in India.
His loss of contact with Christianity and his life among Muslims (and apparent lapse from Christianity and conversion to Islam) bothered him, as he mentioned several times in his account. Indeed, he began his account calling it his "sinful voyage beyond three seas." He went on to explain that 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 and 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
Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity.
The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''.
In ...
, etc.). Thus, he kept the fasts of the Muslims and broke fast when they did so. 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 baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is a major event in the life of Jesus which is described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghtas (also called Betha ...
, the fasts established by the Holy Fathers, and the apostolic commandments, and I longed to go
ackto 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
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
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
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 2 ...
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, the Russian state-owned
Mosfilm Studio and Indian director
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas' "Naya Sansar International" production house co-produced a film entitled ''The
Journey Beyond Three Seas
''A Journey Beyond the Three Seas'' (russian: Хожение за три моря, ''Khozheniye za tri morya'') is a Russian literary monument in the form of travel notes, made by a merchant from Tver, Afanasiy Nikitin during his journey to Ind ...
'' with
Oleg Strizhenov cast as Nikitin.
In 2000, a black obelisk was erected in Nikitin's honor at
Revdanda
Revdanda is a village near Alibaug, Raigad District, Maharashtra. It's the site of the medieval 'Chaul harbor'.
Directions
India. It is connected through a coastal highway (Sagari Mahamarg) away from Alibag, away from Mumbai, 37km away fr ...
, 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 a Nikitin Expedition, in which 14 travelers 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 newspaper ''
The Hindu'' filed several reports on the expedition's progress. After reaching India, two members of the expedition set out in March 2007 from Mumbai in SUVs to retrace Nikitin's travels around India itself.
The Afanasy Nikitin Seamount in the Indian Ocean is named in his honor.
On 17 April 2022,The Kozhikode Corporation paid tribute to Afanasy Nikitin, commemorating the 550th anniversary of his visit to Kozhikode. Moreover, Customs Road in the city was renamed after Nikitin, also establishing a ‘twin city’ status with Tver, the birth place of Nikitin.
In culture
Rock band
Aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
composed a song "Afanasy Nikitin Boogie". Power metal band
Epidemia
Epidemia (russian: Эпидемия, sometimes referred to as 'Epi' by fans) 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 ...
composed a song "Хождение за три моря" (Khozhdeniye za tri morya – "Walking the Three Seas") about Nikitin's writings. A brand of Tver beer, "Afanasy", is named after Afanasy Nikitin.
Торговая марка пива "Афанасий"
/ref>
See also
*Daniel Kievsky
Daniel the Traveller, known also as Daniel the Pilgrim (russian: Даниил Паломник), Daniel of Kiev, or Abbot Daniel, was the first travel writer from the Kievan Rus.Anzovin, p. 201, item 3391: "The first Russian travel-writer was Da ...
*Chronology of European exploration of Asia
This is a chronology of the early European exploration of Asia.
First wave of exploration (mainly by land)
Antiquity
* 515 BC: Scylax explores the Indus and the sea route across the Indian Ocean to Egypt.
* 330 BC: Alexander the Great conquer ...
* Niccolò de' Conti (1385–1469) - another European who traveled to India a few decades before Nikitin
some marginal notes on india:sergei d serebriany
References
Sources
*
*
* M. J. Maxwell. Afanasii Nikitin: An Orthodox Russian's Spiritual Voyage in the Dar al-Islam, 1468-1475. Journal of World History. Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 2006)
* J. Speake (ed.) Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia. Volume 1, A to F. Routledge. 2013
* C. H. Whittaker. Russia engages the world, 1453-1825. Harvard University Press, 2003. P. 141
* The new Encyclopædia Britannica: in 32 vol. Macropaedia, India - Ireland, Volume 21. 1992. P. 183
* Afanasy Nikitin's Voyage Beyond Three Seas: 1466-1472. Raduga, 1985
* J. Burbank, M. Von Hagen, A. V. Remnev. Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930. Indiana University Press. 2007. P. 240
* A. V. Riasanovsky. Afanasii Nikitin's Journal. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 81. 1961.
* J. R. Millar. Encyclopedia of Russian History, Volume 1. Macmillan Reference, 2003. P. 93
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikitin, Afanasiy
Explorers of Asia
Russian explorers
Russian travel writers
1472 deaths
Year of birth unknown
People from Tver
15th-century Russian people
15th-century writers
15th-century Russian writers
15th-century merchants
Russian merchants
Explorers of India
Russian expatriates in India