“And here is the Indian country, and ordinary people walk naked, and their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, everyone walks with bellies, and children are born every year, and they have many children. Of the common people, men and women are all naked and all black. Wherever I go, there are many people behind me - they are amazed at the white man” (Afanasy Nikitin. Walking across the three seas).

Second half of the 15th century. became a decisive moment for the unification of Russian lands into a centralized state, which took place against the background of the final liberation from Mongol rule and under constant pressure from the West. The significantly strengthened Moscow, which gradually extended its power to the surrounding principalities, mainly northern and eastern, did not intend to stop there. And Moscow’s main rival in the struggle for primacy was not the Novgorod Republic, stretching from the Baltic to the Urals, which was only thinking about independence, but the small but wayward Tver Principality located nearby. From time to time, the Tver princes made peace with the Moscow princes and helped the latter defeat someone - for example, the Novgorodians, but then again broke with Moscow and, in search of an ally against it, flirted first with the Horde, and later with Lithuania.

However, this struggle did not have the character of constant confrontation - with regular military operations, offensives and mass destruction. If it had an effect on the economic life of the principalities, in particular on trade, it was to a small extent. The development of cities, trade and the growth of the merchant class, undermined by the Mongol invasion and resumed at the beginning of the 14th century, led to the emergence of merchant fraternities - rich and influential groups of “guests” (as merchants who traded with other cities and countries were called in Rus') in Novgorod, Moscow, Tver, Nizhny Novgorod and Vologda.

In the summer of 1466, two merchant ships set off from Tver on a long voyage down the Volga: their route lay to the Caspian Sea, or, as it was called in the old days, the Derbent Sea. The head of the caravan was Afanasy Nikitin (strictly speaking, Nikitin’s son, i.e. Nikitich) - apparently an experienced man, who had walked and swam a lot. From the first days of the journey, Afanasy began keeping diary entries. It is clear from them that the Volga route was well known to him. The caravan proceeded past Kalyazin, Uglich, Kostroma, Ples, and stopped for a long time in Nizhny Novgorod. Here the merchants were waiting for the caravan of Ambassador Shirvan (historical region on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea): he was returning from Moscow to his homeland. The Tver residents decided to join him: it was unsafe to sail further along the Volga because of the Tatars, but with the embassy it seemed somehow safer.

Without any problems, the merchants and the embassy passed Kazan, passed almost all the Tatar lands, but in one of the branches of the Volga delta they were attacked by a detachment of Astrakhan Tatars. Merchants at that time knew how to do a lot, including defending their property. A fight ensued. They would have gotten through, but unfortunately, one ship was stuck aground, and the other on a fishing boat. The Tatars plundered them and captured several people. Two ships, including a large embassy ship, on which Athanasius and ten other merchants were, managed to go to sea. Here another misfortune awaited them: a storm came and the smaller ship ran aground near Tarka (now Makhachkala). Local residents, kaitaki, and merchants were captured and their goods were plundered. Afanasy got to Derbent and immediately began to work for the release of the prisoners and the return of the goods. A year later, the people were released, but the goods were not returned.

The merchants returned to their homeland. Only a few - those who borrowed goods for trade - went anywhere in search of possible income: returning home without funds would mean shame and a debt trap. And what about Afanasy? He went south to Baku. According to one version, he also borrowed goods and did not want to fall into a hole. According to another, Afanasy did not owe anything to anyone, but still decided not to return empty-handed. From Baku in September 1468 he sailed to Persian Mazandaran and spent about eight months there. Then, having crossed the Elburz ridge, Afanasy continued his journey south. Gradually, from city to city, sometimes staying in them for a long time (in total, the merchant stayed in Persia for two years), he reached Hormuz, a port on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where busy trade routes from Egypt, Asia Minor, India and China converged.

Here Afanasy heard that horses are very highly valued in India. He bought a good horse, boarded the ship and a month and a half later arrived in Indian Chaul (south of modern Bombay). Apparently, India surprised the traveler quite a bit. This country was unlike any land he had seen before. Everything seemed amazing - the huge snakes crawling along the streets of the cities, and the hordes of monkeys jumping on the walls and heads of the inhabitants, whom the population treated with respect, and the gastronomic preferences of this very population, and the incredible number of religious beliefs widespread here... But what struck the merchant most of all was The local residents themselves are dark-skinned and completely naked, except for those who are richer, who covered their heads and hips with cloth. But everyone, including the poorest, wore gold jewelry: earrings, bracelets, necklaces. However, Afanasy quickly got used to the nakedness of those around him, but the abundance of gold did not give him peace.

The merchant could not sell the horse purchased in Hormuz - neither in Chaul, nor in Junnar, already in the interior of the country. Moreover, the governor of Junnar took the stallion from Athanasius by force. And having found out that the stranger was not a Muslim, the governor presented him with a difficult choice: either he converts to Islam and gets his horse back, and even money in addition, or he is left without a stallion, and he himself becomes a slave. Fortunately for Afanasy, in Junnar he met his old acquaintance Muhammad, who, having learned about the Russian’s misfortune, asked the governor to have mercy. The ruler turned out to be accommodating: he did not convert, did not enslave, and returned the horse.

After waiting out the rainy season, Athanasius led the horse to distant Bidar, the capital of the huge Bahmani state, and then to the fair in Alland. And it was all in vain: it was impossible to sell the stallion. Returning to Bidar, he finally got rid of it in December 1471 - almost a year after the purchase. From Bidar, Athanasius went to the holy city of Parvat, where he witnessed the majestic night festival dedicated to the god Shiva.

From Parvat he returned again to Bidar, and a year later he went to Kallur, a city in the diamond-bearing province, where he lived for about six months.

During the three years that Athanasius spent in India, he became an eyewitness to many events, including bloody wars, religious holidays and much more. The Sultan’s festive departure made a great impression on him: “...with him came twenty great viziers and three hundred elephants... Yes, a thousand riding horses in golden harness, and a hundred camels with drums, and three hundred trumpeters, and three hundred dancers, and three hundred concubines...”. He also collected valuable information about places where he himself had not visited: about the capital of the state of Vijayanagar and the port of Kozhikode, about the island of Sri Lanka, about the large port of Pegu at the mouth of the Irrawaddy, where Buddhist monks lived who traded in precious stones.

It’s hard for one in a foreign land, especially among people of a different faith. Apart from the mysterious Muhammad, Afanasy did not find any close people in all these years. After all, casual acquaintances, traders and women don’t count. Finally exhausted, he decided to return to his homeland. The commercial results of the trip, according to the traveler himself, turned out to be disappointing: “I was deceived by the infidel dogs: they talked about a lot of goods, but it turned out that there was nothing for our land.” In Dabul, located on the western coast of India, the merchant boarded a ship bound for Hormuz.

From Hormuz he went along the already familiar road to the Caspian Sea. Having passed through the possessions of Uzun-Hasan and lingering in his camp, the traveler moved to the Black Sea port of Trebizond, which belonged to the Ottoman ruler Muhammad II, who at that time was at war with Uzun-Hasan. Afanasy was suspected of spying for the latter. He was thoroughly searched and released, but “everyone stole the property.” Only in the late autumn of 1474 (according to other sources - 1472), with great adventures, he crossed the Black Sea and reached the Genoese Kafa (now Feodosia). It’s almost home, Russian speech can be heard here... At this point the traveler’s notes end. It can be assumed that he spent the winter in Cafe, and in the spring he went north. He went through the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, friendly to Tver, but hostile to Moscow. On the way, before reaching Smolensk, Afanasy died.

The notebooks, covered with his handwriting, ended up in Moscow, to the Grand Duke's clerk Vasily Mamyrev, who ordered their inclusion in the chronicle. Subsequently, the traveler’s notes, called “Walking across the Three Seas,” were rewritten several times. This is a valuable geographical and historical document containing information about the population, economy, customs, and nature of India and other countries.

In “Walking”, as in the journey itself, there is a lot of mystery. Almost nothing is known about Afanasy himself, not even his age. It is amazing that, having lost his goods, he managed to travel all over Persia, buy an expensive horse, and then, unable to immediately sell it, maintain it for a whole year. Who is Muhammad, who was always there in times of need for Athanasius and who had the gift of a genie in a bottle to take all troubles away from the traveler? In “Walking,” along with Christian prayers, equally numerous Muslim prayers are scattered. Perhaps, finding himself in a non-Orthodox country, Afanasy was forced to secrecy and follow local rules, but it is known that he put his notes in order already in the Cafe. Another mystery. The death of the traveler also seems mysterious.

In search of a sea route to India, Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, and five years later Vasco da Gama began the conquest of Hindustan. Afanasy's son Nikitin visited India 30 years before the Portuguese and left the best description of this amazing country for his time.

FIGURES AND FACTS

Main character: Afanasy Nikitin (Nikitich), Tver merchant
Other characters: Ambassador of Shirvan; Muhammad, patron of Athanasius; Vasily Mamyrev, clerk
Time period: 1466-1474. (according to other sources, 1466-1472)
Route: From Tver along the Volga to the Caspian Sea, from Derbent to India
Purpose: Trade and possibly some kind of secret mission
Meaning: The best description of India in the 15th century.

Interesting facts from the life of a Tver merchant and traveler are presented in this article.

Afanasy Nikitin interesting facts

1. Afanasy Nikitin was the first Russian traveler who visited Persia and India. Returning from these countries, the traveler visited Turkey, Somalia and Muscat.

2. Nikitin discovered the eastern countries 25 years before the travels of Vasco da Gama and many other travelers.

3. Afanasyev’s famous travel notes “Walking across Three Seas”, this is a wayward reference book, which describes in detail the life, as well as the political structure of countries in the East. In Rus', these manuscripts were the first to describe maritime ones for the purpose of narrating trade. It is interesting that the author considered his notes a sin.

4. Three years of travel for Afanasy Nikitin were not in vain - he learned foreign languages. In his notes there are Persian, Arabic and even Turkic words.

5. For scientists, Nikitin’s personal life still remains a mystery. It is unknown whether he had a wife and children.

6. Nikitin is not the traveler’s surname at all. There were no surnames then. This is his patronymic, that is, Afanasy, the son of Nikita.

7. He described Calcutta, Ceylon and Indochina, which were previously unknown.

8. Afanasia Nikitin came from a poor family. And the main reason why he went on travels was to improve the family’s financial situation through trade with foreign merchants.

Afanasy Nikitin is a famous Russian traveler, merchant and writer. He went down in history as one of the first Europeans who managed to make a long journey to Persia, Turkey and India. He described his amazing discoveries and achievements in the book “Walking across Three Seas” - the Caspian, Black and Arabian.

short biography

History has preserved very little information about the years of life of the historical figure, thanks to whom many interesting things about overseas lands became known in Rus'. The first records mentioning the merchant date back to the period of his journey to the East.

It is only known that Afanasy Nikitin was born in the mid-15th century in the city of Tver. His father was a simple peasant, but Afanasy managed to get on his feet and start trading. At a young age, he managed to see many countries where he established trade relations.

Rice. 1. Afanasy Nikitin.

Nikitin is not a surname, but a patronymic of the traveler, since in those distant times surnames simply did not exist. It is also noteworthy that the Tver merchant officially bore a patronymic name, while in the Moscow principality such a right belonged only to representatives of the highest nobility.

Travel of Afanasy Nikitin to India

In the spring of 1468, Nikitin equipped two ships to begin trading in new lands. His route ran through the Volga and Caspian Sea, where expensive Russian furs were especially valued in local markets.

But near Astrakhan, the ships were almost completely plundered by the Tatars. The ruined merchants could not return to their homeland, since many of them bought goods for sale on credit, and upon returning home they were faced with a debt trap. They had no choice but to travel around the world in search of a better life.

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Nikitin also headed south: having reached Derbent, and then to Persia itself, the merchant headed to the busy port of Hormuz, which was the crossing point of many trade routes of the East.

Rice. 2. Port of Hormuz.

The traveler learned that thoroughbred stallions are especially highly valued in India. With his last money he bought a horse, hoping to sell it profitably to Indian traders and get rich. So in 1471 Nikitin ended up in India, which by that time was already on the maps, but still remained a little-studied country.

Over the next three years, the Russian merchant traveled around India. Missing his homeland, he stocked up on Indian goods and set off on his way back. However, in one of the ports all his goods were arrested. After spending the winter in Feodosia, Afanasy Nikitin set out again, but in the spring of 1475 he died on the way home.

The legacy of Afanasy Nikitin

Throughout the journey, Nikitin wrote travel notes, which later compiled his famous book “Walking across Three Seas.” This was the first work in Russian literature that described in detail not the journey itself, but a business trip, with vivid and lively descriptions of the culture, religion, economic and political structure of other countries.

In his book, Nikitin described in detail the life of medieval India. He was incredibly surprised by the appearance of the Indians: the color of their skin, long braids on both men and women, an almost complete lack of clothing and at the same time an abundance of jewelry on their arms and legs. However, the traveler himself was a great curiosity - a “white” man in India was always followed on his heels by a crowd of onlookers.

Rice. 3. Medieval India.

Nikitin's work is replete with Muslim prayers and Arabic-Persian vocabulary. Scientists have repeatedly raised the question that the merchant could have converted to Islam during his trip to the East. In this case, upon returning to his homeland, he would have faced severe reprisals for changing his faith.

Start of activity of Afanasy Nikitin

Very little is known about the outstanding representative of the Russian people Afanasy Nikitin. There is no reliable information about his birth (date and place), about his childhood and adolescence. But the glory of a great traveler and explorer deservedly belongs to this brave man.

According to some reports, Afanasy Nikitin was born into the family of a peasant Nikita. This means that “Nikitin” is Afanasy’s patronymic, not his surname. Date of birth is also unknown. Some scholars date it to approximately $1430-$1440 years.

Note 1

It is known that he left peasant labor and joined the merchant class. At first, he was hired on trade caravans, as they would say now, as a “laborer.” But gradually he gained authority among the merchants and began to lead merchant caravans himself.

The beginning of the Indian campaign

In the summer of $1446, Tver merchants set off on a long voyage “to overseas countries” on several boats. The merchants appointed Afanasy Nikitin as the head of the caravan. By that time, he already had a reputation as an experienced man, who had traveled and seen a lot. Along the Volga, which already in those days played the role of an international trade route, ships were supposed to descend to the “Khvalynsk Sea”. That's what the Caspian Sea was called in those years.

Nikitin's travel notes on the road to Nizhny Novgorod are brief. This indicates that the path was no longer new. In Nizhny Novgorod, merchants joined the Shirvan embassy of Hasanbek, returning from Moscow.

In the Volga delta, the caravan was attacked by Astrakhan Tatars and was plundered. Four Russian merchants were captured. The surviving ships entered the Caspian Sea. But in the area of ​​present-day Makhachkala, the ships were broken during a storm and plundered by local residents.

Afanasy Nikitin, who had borrowed goods, could not return home. Therefore, he went to Baku, which was then a major commercial and industrial center. From Baku in $1,468, Nikitin sailed to the Persian fortress of Mazanderan, where he stayed for more than eight months. He describes Elbrus, the nature of Transcaucasia, cities and the life of local residents.

Afanasy Nikitin in India

In the spring of $1469 he arrives in Hormuz. More than $40,000 people lived in Hormuz at that time. Having bought horses in Hormuz, Nikitin is transported to India. He arrived in the Indian city of Chaul on April 23, 1471. It was not possible to sell the horses at a profit in Chaul. And Nikitin goes into the interior of the country. The merchant spent two months in Junnar. He then moved even further $400 miles to Bidar, Alland. During the journey, Afanasy Nikitin tries to learn as much as possible from the life of a foreign people (customs, legends, beliefs, architectural features). Nikitin spent a lot of time living with ordinary Indian families. He was nicknamed "Jose Isuf Khorosani."

In $1472, Afanasy Nikitin visits the sacred city of Parvat, where he describes the religious holidays of the Indian Brahmins. In $1473 he visits the diamond region of Raichur. After this, Nkitin decides to return “to Rus'.”

Note 2

Afanasy Nikitin spent about three years in India. He witnessed wars between Indian states, gives a description of Indian cities and trade routes, and the peculiarities of local laws.

The way home

Having purchased precious stones, Nikitin in $1473 headed to the sea in Dabul (Dabhol). From this port it is transported to Hormuz. Along the way, he describes the “Ethiopian Mountains” (the high shores of the Somali peninsula).

Nikitin chose the path home through Persia and Trebizond to the Black Sea and further to Kafa and through Podolia and Smolensk. He spent the winter of $1474-$1475 in the Cafe, putting his notes and observations in order.

In the spring of $1475, Nikitin moved north along the Dnieper. But he never made it to Smolensk. Afanasy Nikitin died on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His notes were delivered by merchants to the Moscow clerk of the Grand Duke Vasily Mamyrev.

The meaning of Afanasy Nikitin's journey

Over the next two centuries, Afanasy Nikitin’s notes, known as “Walking across Three Seas,” were rewritten several times. Six lists have reached us. This was the first description in Russian literature of not a pilgrimage, but a commercial trip, filled with observations about the political system, economy and culture of other countries. Nikitin himself called his journey sinful, and this is the first description of anti-pilgrimage in Russian literature. Nikitin’s scientific feat is difficult to overestimate. Before him there were no Russian people in India. From an economic point of view, the trip turned out to be unprofitable. There were no goods suitable for Rus'. And those goods that would bring profit were subject to a heavy duty.

Note 3

But the main result was that Afanasy Nikitin, thirty years before the colonization by the Portuguese, was the first European to give a true description of medieval India. In modern times, Nikitin's notes were discovered by N.M. Karamzin as part of the Trinity collection. Karamzin published excerpts in 1818 in notes to the History of the Russian State.

Nikitin Afanasy (? -1472) the first Russian traveler to India, merchant. For trading purposes, he set out in 1466 from Tver along the Volga to Derbent, crossed the Caspian Sea and reached India through Persia. On the way back (3 years later) he returned through Persia and the Black Sea. Notes made during the journey, known as Voyage across the Three Seas, contain information about the population, economy, religion, customs, and partly about the nature of India. There is no biographical information about the remarkable son of the Russian people, Afanasy Nikitin, but his travel notes Walking Beyond Three Seas (the exact name of the diary) are not only a most valuable and interesting geographical document, but also a wonderful literary monument. The author tells the story of his wanderings along the Caucasian coast of the Caspian Sea, Persia, India, Turkey, Crimea and southern Russia. In the summer of 1466, merchants from Tver on two ships set off for overseas trade on a long voyage: they were traveling down the Volga to the Derbenskoye Sea, or Khvalynskoye as the Caspian Sea was called in the old days. Afanasy Nikitin, an experienced man who had walked the earth in his time, was chosen as the head of the caravan. He took handwritten books with him and from the very first days began to keep a diary. The caravan sailed past Kalyazin, Uglich, Kostroma, Plyos. Short lines from the diary say that Nikitin was familiar with the path along the Volga. Long stop in Nizhny Novgorod. Sailing along the Volga at that time was unsafe: the Tatars attacked. In Nizhny Novgorod, Russian merchants joined the caravan of the Shirvan embassy, ​​led by Hasanbek, returning from Moscow to their homeland. The caravan, fearing an attack, sailed cautiously and cautiously. Kazan and other Tatar cities passed safely, but in the Volga delta they were attacked by a detachment of the Astrakhan Khan Kasim. The merchants, brave warriors at that time, took up arms. The Tatars shot one man from us, and we shot two from them, Nikitin reports. Unfortunately, one vessel became stuck on a fishing boat and the other ran aground. The Tatars plundered these ships and captured four Russians. The surviving two ships sailed into the Caspian Sea. A smaller ship, on which there were 6 Muscovite and 6 Tverich, was broken during a storm and washed up on a coastal shoal near Tarkha (Makhachkala). Residents of the Kaitaki coast plundered goods and captured people. Afanasy Nikitin with ten Russian merchants, while on an embassy ship, safely reached Derbent. First of all, through Vasily Papin and Khasanbek, he began to work for the release of prisoners. His efforts were crowned with success: a year later the merchants were released.

But the kaytaki did not return the goods: ... whoever has what in Rus', and he went to Rus', and whoever should, and he went wherever his eyes took him. Nikitin was among those merchants who borrowed goods for overseas trade, and therefore returning to his homeland threatened him not only with shame, but also with a debt trap. Afanasy went to Baku, where eternal fires, considered sacred in the east, burned at the outlets of oil gases. The city was widely known for its petroleum oils. These oils were used in medicine, used for lighting, and were widely traded in the east. From Baku, where the fire is unquenchable, in September 1468 Nikitin sailed to the Caspian Persian region of Mazanderan. He stayed there for more than eight months, and then, crossing the Elburz Mountains, moved south. Afanasy traveled slowly, sometimes living for a month in some village, engaged in trade. He went through many cities. Otherwise, if he didn’t write all the cities, there are many great cities. In the spring of 1469, he reached the refuge of Gurmyz, as he calls Hormuz, a large and busy port where trade routes from Asia Minor, Egypt, India and China intersected. Goods from Hormuz reached Russia; Gurmyzh grains (pearls) were especially famous. Nikitin, describing the city located on a small waterless island at the entrance from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, talks about sea tides; he writes that the sun here is so hot that it can burn a person. This large trading city had up to 40 thousand inhabitants; then they said about him in the East: If the earth is a ring, then Hormuz is the pearl in it. Nikitin stayed here for a month. Having learned that horses were exported from here to India, which would not be born there and were very highly valued, the Tveryak bought a good horse and from Gurmyz... he went across the Indian Sea... After more than two years in Persia, on April 23, 1471, Nikitin boarded a ship and after six weeks arrived by ship in the Indian city of Chaul. India amazed him. Not even the land itself, which was so different from his native places, but the people were dark-skinned, naked, barefoot. Only those who are richer and more knowledgeable wear a piece of cloth on their heads and hips, but everyone, even the poor, has either gold earrings or bracelets on their arms and legs, and around their necks the decoration is also made of gold. Nikitin was perplexed: if there is gold, why don’t they buy at least some clothes to cover their nakedness? But in Chaul he was unable to sell his horse profitably, and in June he set off through the Western Ghats inland, 200 miles from the sea, to the east, to a small town in the upper reaches of the Sina (Krishna basin), and from there to the northwest, to Junnar fortress, standing on a high mountain, east of Bombay.

A narrow path led to the fortress. However, wanderers, especially foreigners, were not allowed to enter the city gates, and they had to live in the courtyards, albeit for free. At the same time, Nikitin lost his stallion. Asad Khan, the governor of Junnar, was seduced by an excellent horse and ordered to take it by force. In addition, having learned that the stallion belonged to a foreigner, Asad Khan summoned the Rusyn to his palace and promised to return the stallion and give him a thousand gold coins in addition if the foreigner agreed to convert to the Mohammedan faith. But no, he won’t see the stallion, and he himself will sell into slavery. Khan gave him four days to think. However, Nikitin was saved by chance. It was precisely in those days that he met his old acquaintance Muhammad and begged Afanasy to beat his forehead in front of the khan so that he would not be converted into someone else’s faith, and so, apparently, he asked that he touched his soul. Khan showed that he could be merciful. And he did not force him to convert to his faith, and even returned the stallion. He spent two months in Junnar. Now Nikitin looked at India with different eyes. I came here in the hope of taking the goods to Rus', and then selling them profitably, but there is nothing for our land. Having waited for the roads to dry out after the rainy season, in September, he led the stallion even further, 400 versts, to Bidar, the capital of the Besermen (Muslim) state of Bahmani, which then owned almost the entire Deccan to the Krishna River in the south, a large, populous city. Then he went further to Alland, where a large fair was opening and where he hoped to sell the stallion profitably. But he counted on this in vain: twenty thousand horses gathered at the fair, and Nikitin failed to sell his stallion. But here inquisitiveness awakened in him again, the desire to learn and remember everything that was possible from the life of a foreign people, all sorts of legends and customs. Nikitin marvels at the numerous holidays, to which pilgrims flock, apparently and invisibly. Nikitin also has a lengthy record of the legend about the forest king of the monkeys, Prince of the Monkeys, who, if the monkeys complain about people, sends his army to punish the offenders. Where did this entry come from? In India, monkeys were revered as sacred animals; they were given fruits, boiled rice and other food; Even temples were built in honor of monkeys in India. A cycle of myths has been preserved about the monkey king, processed in the heroic epic Ramayana, where the monkey king Sugriv and his commander Hanuman are the allies and assistants of the hero of the epic, Prince Ram. Nikitin became very close to some Indian families. He told them that he was not a Muslim, but a Christian, and his name was Ofonasy (Athanasius), and not Jose Isuf Khorosani, as he was called here.

Without hiding anything from their Russian friend, the residents told him about their life and way of life. The traveler learned that their religious beliefs are different, of all existing faiths there are 80 and 4 faiths. And again Nikitin in Bidar. During the four months that he stayed here, Afanasy got to know the life of the city better. Nikitin now sees what previously eluded him, admires what he had not previously noticed - the winding corridors of the Sultan's palace, so that it would be easier to defend himself; the amazingly painted dome over the main gate; a stone covered with an ornate, relief pattern: And its courtyard is inhabited by velmi, everything is carved and painted in gold, and the last stone is carved and described in gold by velmi wonderfully... Not everyone can get here: a hundred watchmen and a hundred scribes sit at the gate, questioning everyone , who is coming, what business he came for. Day and night, a thousand horsemen in armor, with lamps in their hands, guard the palace... And on Thursdays and Tuesdays the Sultan goes out for fun with a magnificent retinue of two thousand horsemen, accompanied by fifty elephants, the Russian merchant marvels, standing in the crowd and looking at all this... But his festive departure of the Sultan is even more amazing. Nikitin writes in detail about everything, without forgetting or omitting the slightest detail: ... Three hundred elephants, dressed in damask armor and with towns, and towns are shackled, and in towns there are 6 people in armor and with guns, and with arquebuses; and on the great elephant there are 12 people, on each elephant there are two great pronors, and great swords are tied to the teeth along the centar, and great iron weights are tied to the snout, and a man sits in armor between the ears, and he has an iron great hook in his hands, and so he can rule... Here, in Bidar, in December 1471, he finally sold the stallion. Nikitin describes the magnificent trips of the local sultan, his courtyard, surrounded by walls with seven gates. He sees terrible poverty around, which other European travelers did not pay attention to: rural people are very poor, and the boyars are rich and luxurious; they are carried on a silver stretcher... Nikitin notes the discord between Hindus and Muslims (they do not eat or drink with the Besermen), and the differences in the life and food of individual castes; In 1472, from Bidar, Athanasius headed to the sacred city of Parvat, on the right bank of the Krishna, where pilgrims went to the night festival dedicated to the god Shiva (Siva). The traveler correctly notes that this city is as sacred for Indian Brahmans as Mecca is for Muslims and Jerusalem is for Orthodox Christians. Up to 100 thousand people gathered for this big holiday. The Tver merchant is observant. Thus, describing food, mainly plant-based (according to religious beliefs, no one ate cattle meat, many also did not eat pork and lamb), Nikitin notes the good custom of the people to wash their feet, hands and rinse their mouths before eating.

They eat twice a day, and on Sunday and Monday only one, he notes. The traveler was struck by the cremation of the dead. And whoever they have to die, burn them and sprinkle their ashes on the water, Nikitin reports. He also describes other customs: the father gives the name to the newborn son, and the mother to the daughter; when meeting and parting, people bow to each other, stretching out their hands to the ground. From Parvat, Afanasy Nikitin returned to Bidar again. From this moment on, mournful lines appear in the traveler’s diary: he remembers the books captured by the Tatars, and grieves that he confuses the calendar, and, therefore, cannot accurately observe Christian holidays. He left Bidar in April 1473, lived for five months in one of the cities of the diamond region of Raichur and decided to return to Rus'. Nikitin was disappointed with the results of the trip: I was deceived by the infidel dogs: they talked about a lot of goods, but it turned out that there was nothing for our land... Pepper and paint were cheap. Some transport goods by sea, while others do not pay duties for them. But they won’t let us transport it without duty. But the duty is high, and there are many robbers at sea. Athanasius spent about three years in India, witnessed the wars between the two largest powers of the subcontinent at that time, and his notes clarify and supplement the Indian chronicles characterizing the events of 1471-1474. In Hozheniya... he also gives brief but mostly reliable information about some havens where he himself did not end up: about the capital of the powerful South Indian state of Vijayanagar and its main port Kolekot (Kozhikode), about Sri Lanka as a country rich in precious stones, incense and elephants; about the considerable pier of Western Indochina Pegu (the mouth of the Irrawaddy), where Indian dervishes and Buddhist monks live who trade in precious stones, about the porcelain products of Chin and Machin (China). Exhausted in India, Nikitin at the end of 1473 (or 1471) set off on the return journey, which he described very briefly. He makes his way to the seashore. By land, through Muslim countries, the route was closed; people of other faiths there were forced to convert to their religion, and for Nikitin it was easier to lose his life than to accept infidelism. From Bidar he came to Kallur, stayed there for five months, bought precious stones and moved to the sea to Dabul (Dabhol). It took almost a year on this road. Dabul was at that time a large, rich city located on the west coast of India. Here Nikitin soon found a ship going to Hormuz, paid two gold pieces and again found himself in the Indian Sea.

And I sailed... on the sea for a month and did not see anything, only the next month I saw the Ethiopian mountains... and I was in that Ethiopian land for five days. By the grace of God, evil did not happen; we distributed a lot of rice, pepper, and bread to the Ethiopians, and they did not plunder the ships. The Ethiopian Mountains refers to the northern high coast of the Somali Peninsula. Afanasy really did not expect to see Africa... The ship reached Muscat, having traveled about 2000 kilometers against the wind and current and spending much more time on this journey than noted in the text of the Walking... After nine days of sailing, the ship landed safely in Hormuz. Soon Nikitin moved north, to the Caspian Sea, along an already familiar road. From Tabriz he turned west to the Horde with the camp of Uzun-Hasan, who at that time was waging a war against Muhammad II, the ruler of the Ottoman kingdom. Nikitin stayed in the Horde for ten days, but there was no way to go anywhere, battles were in full swing, and by the beginning of 1474 he moved to Trebizond, a city on the southern coast of the Black Sea. But in Trebizond they suspected him to be a spy Uzun-Hasan, they took all the rubbish to the city on the mountain and searched everything... apparently, they were looking for secret letters. They didn’t find any documents, but they plundered everything that was there, all that was left was what he kept with him... For two gold pieces, he agreed to cross the Black Sea. Five days later, a strong storm drove the ship back, and the travelers had to wait for more than two weeks in Platan, not far from Trebizond. They decided to transport him for the gold to the Genoese Cafa (Feodosia), but due to strong and angry winds, the ship reached it only on November 5th. In the Cafe he hears Russian speech and speaks his native language. Nikitin kept no further notes. Here he spent the winter of 1474/75 and probably put his observations in order. Afanasy Nikitin left three seas behind him; and only a wild field now separated him from Rus'. However, he did not dare to go directly, but followed the well-trodden road of the Surozh residents of Moscow guests trading with the Crimean city of Surozh, through the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For him, this road was safer: Tver, unlike Moscow, was on friendly terms with Lithuania, and the residents of Tver had nothing to fear here. In the spring of 1475, together with several merchants, Afanasy moved north, most likely along the Dnieper. From the brief introduction to his Walk..., included in the Lviv Chronicle in 1475, it is clear that he died before reaching Smolensk [at the end of 1474, beginning of 1475], and wrote the scripture with his own hand, and his handwritten notebooks were brought by guests [merchants] to Moscow…

The notebooks, covered with Nikitin's handwriting, ended up in Moscow, to the clerk of the Grand Duke Vasily Mamyrev. He immediately realized how valuable they were because Russian people had not been to India before Nikitin. In the 16th-17th centuries, the Hozhenie... was rewritten several times: at least six copies have reached us. But until the 17th century, we are not aware of any new attempts in Rus' to establish direct trade with India. And it is unlikely that those Russians who read the Hozhenie... could be prompted to travel to India by the words of the truthful Nikitin that there are no goods there on the Russian land. His journey from an economic point of view turned out to be an unprofitable enterprise. But Nikitin was the first European to give a completely truthful description of medieval India, which he described simply, realistically, matter-of-factly, without embellishment. With his feat, he convincingly proves that in the second half of the 15th century, 30 years before the Portuguese discovery of India, even a lonely and poor, but energetic person could travel to this country from Europe at his own risk. Nikitin did not have the support of the secular sovereign, like the Portuguese Covilha, who traveled shortly after him. Nor did he have powerful church power behind him, like his predecessors, the monks Montecorvino and Odorico of Pordenone. He did not renounce his faith, like the Venetian Conti. The only Orthodox Christian among Muslims and Hindus, Nikitin could not hope for the help and hospitality of his fellow believers, like Arab merchants and travelers. Afanasy Nikitin was completely alone, very homesick and longed to return home. And may God save the Russian land... There is no country like it in this world, although the beglyari [princely governors] of the Russian land are unjust. Let the Russian land be well-maintained, for there is little justice in it.