My SO’s roomate and his friends have a pet theory that the Vikings landed frequently in India, hundreds of years before the passage around Africa was managed by other Europeans. They mentioned “viking runes” written on stones in India as proof.
The SO didn’t find this terribly convincing, and I’ve told him often enough about the wonders of SDMB, so he asked me to seek opinions here. The best I got out of google was about vikings inventing pizza.
Has anyone here heard of Vikings in India? Ever in India, let alone making frequent trips to leave the Viking equivilant of “Kilroy was here” on some rocks?
It’s certainly possible, I’m not aware of any specific information regarding norse travels to India and I doubt it happened with any regularity (if at all) but they were some Awesome travelers. Let’s see… the Rus traded pretty heavily with the Byzantines and the rest of the middle east, slaves furs and amber. The only indirect evidence I can think of for norse contact or trade with india would be the norse ‘buddha’ found at the Oseberg site, you can see it here.
It should be noted that there is no agreement on where it comes from, some say it’s actually celtic. Looks like a lotus seated Buddha to me though. ;> If they could make it to Newfoundland I think a couple may have gotten a hair up their butts and went east from Constantinople.
There were definitely vikings on the Caspian Sea. The Arab historian Masudi describes them as raiding all around the Caspian in the 10th century. There is a Norse saga Yngvars saga víðförla (The Saga of Ingvar the Far-traveler) about an 11th century Swedish prince who raided (and died) in “Sarkland”, probably the area around the Caspian.
So the Caspian coast of Iran is probably as close as they ever got. That’s short of India by about 1,000 miles.
Well, in the sense that hiking doesn’t normally involve dragging a boat across the landscape, no, they weren’t very big on hiking. But they did get to the Black Sea by following the rivers when they could and crossing land to hop from river to river. They didn’t only follow obvious sea routes.
However, no, I’ve never heard anything about Vikings getting as far east as India. That’s a mighty long way to drag a boat.
Looks to me like just another some-people-look-different-from-us - so-they-must-be-descended-from-mysterious-strangers - from-a-far-distant-land - who-were-washed-ashore-long-ago theory.
First, the presence of “Vikings” in Anatolia (THERE WAS NO SUCH PLACE AS “Turkey” AT THAT TIME) is easy to explain, since the Kievan Rus intermarried with the nobility of the eastern Roman Empire. They were not just raiders but were very successful and wide-ranging merchants. Whether they got as far as India, I would say that only through the Silk Road, and that’s generally not an effective way to do mass migrations.
This theory is highly unlikely. If there was even a bit of truth in it you would think some of the Viking fansites like viking.no would at least mention that possibility.
To see why this wouldn’t work just get a good map and compare Russia to Middle East. Swedish Vikings went along major Russian rivers, and had to drag their boats only through few kilometers’ land journeys on mostly flat land to get to Caspian Sea and Black Sea, eventually Constantinople too. Same time Danish Vikings reached Constantinople by Mediterranean Sea. However there is no way you could cross the Iranian mountain ranges and manage to Arabian Sea and India any better than now. Of course you could get through Egypt, but it was occupied by Arabs, so no luck there. Alternative would be going around Africa, but although Phoenicians apparently did it already 2500 years ago, what would have been the motive for Vikings to do the same? Doesn’t sound too plausible.
So if any Vikings ever visited India, they almost certainly did so only as individual traders or adventurers, perhaps with regular Silk Road caravans. Most likely first Europeans to sail the Indian Ocean were Portuguese in the late 1400s.
I think its Koknastha (as opposed to Kokanash). Nonetheless, we don’t look too different from the rest of the people in the area. Green eyes don’t a Viking make.
I have studied Indian history, and not just in school, but out of personal interest as well. No accounts of Vikings in India as far as I can tell. It also seems unlikely that a seafaring people would make such a land journey. And they wouldn’t have strayed as far south as India (even North India)…it would just have been too hot for them :).
Hmm. So I suppose the tale of an “Indian Emporer” who hired all Viking body guards because they had no other local loyalties is probably not going to hold up under scruteny, either?
I’ll see if I can get some cites for where these fellas came up with this “theory”.
No, of course not. Both versions of the theory sound complete bollocks to me, but the only way of getting a full answer to the OP is to work out where the ‘Vikings in India’ idea comes from. The wackier a theory, the more fruitful such an approach tends to be. The pezarker.com site is therefore a potentially important clue (1) because it confirms that WaryEri’s friends have not been alone in suggesting this theory and (2) because the theory mentioned there and from which the similar theory mentioned in the OP may ultimately derive seems so lame.
I’m afraid all that I’ve gotten in the way of cites for this is that the SO’s roomate may have read a book on it once ( no title provided), and thinks he saw a map in National Geographic that showed vikings sailing around Africa.
SO and I have decided that at this point we can call bullhockey on this theory with clear consciences. He figures the only way this might work out is by the Vikings having contact with the Byzantium empire. The Byzantium empire most likely had contact with India. Roomate might be confusing the idea that an Indian emperor having Viking bodyguards with a Byzantium emperor having Viking bodyguards.
I guess this is too dear a subject to be threatened by lack of proof, so roomate and his friends aren’t interested in hearing that their ideas about vikings are full of holes. But thank you for enlightening the SO and I, at any rate.
I’m picturing an epic battle a la B.R.Chopra’s Mahabharata. The Indian host yells “Aakraman!!” and charges. All sorts of special-effects-y arrows fly through the air. The Vikings are wearing their normal horned head-gear, which, according to popular Indian mythology, was done only by the asuras; They charge forward with pigtails flying and swords aloft.
What a canvas! Just imagine how much the Chopras could have made of it, if the Vikings had actually come down to India!
Perhaps he’s confusing vikings with Phoenicians. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that king Nechos II of Egypt sent an expedition under the Phoenician and Carthaginian mariners that successfully circumnavigated Africa in three years. I don’t know if any Phoenicians or Carthaginians ever reached Indian, but I wouldn’t be too surprised.
An ironpott was find in thr middle of sweden(region närke city örebro).this is the oldest artefact made of iron .and it is imported from north part of india.the age of it is 3500 years .in same region the oldest iron manufacturing is 3000 years old ,and in large scale both iron and steel was produced .the location was in Viby.most of the bronze artefacts was imported from india but these are musch older, around 4500 years ago.spread all over sweden.
sorry for my bad english!
