lettered by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Place · region

India

What the sources say here: 4 passages

Daily lifeKasganj (Uttar Pradesh)c. 1835

A goat's blood on the bride's toe

Editorial contextAt the same wedding Vigne is allowed to watch a rite he says belongs only to the Timurid family. The bride pushes her bare, henna-dyed foot out of her palanquin and the groom, still in his wedding clothes, kills a goat and touches her great toe with its blood. Vigne presents this as something he saw with his own eyes and believes no European had seen before.

I was admitted, as a great favour, to see a custom peculiar, I believe, to the Timurians, and which, perhaps, no European ever saw before … she thrust her bared foot … through the sliding doors, and the bridegroom touched her great toe with the blood of a goat, which I saw him kill with his own hands

Godfrey Thomas Vigne (1842)
See the original page (p. 44)

About Mughal princes of Delhi (Timurids)

Keep in mind

Vigne's claim that the custom is peculiar to the Timurids is his belief, not something he checked.

Continue in this sourceVigne's travels in Kashmir and Little Tibet1830s · 7 passages
Strange talesCentral Asia ('India' of Prester John)c. 1200 (legend)

Prester John's son cut to pieces, his daughter wed to Chinggis

Editorial contextSanudo tells how the Tartars, once tributaries of 'David, son of Prester John, king of India', rose against him under Chinggis. Their best weapons were clubs with bows and arrows; most fought on foot, some rode oxen, a few rode asses and colts. David was cut limb from limb with all his family except one daughter, whom Chinggis took as wife. A blend of the Prester John legend with the real defeat of the Kereit ruler Toghrul.

Their best weapons were clubs, with bows and arrows: for the most part they were on foot; a smaller part sat on oxen; the smallest on asses and beasts of burden and colts. So King David, hearing of their coming ... was cut limb from limb with his whole family except his only daughter: which daughter Chinggis Khan took as his wife.

Working translation

Original wording

Potiora eorum arma, fuere claua cum arcubus, & sagittis: pedites in maxima parte erant; pars minor in bobus sedebat; minima asinis & iumentis & pullis equorum. Rex itaque Dauid eorum aduentum audiens … & cum tota familia, exceptâ vnicâ eius filiâ, membratim truncatur: quam quidem filiam, Cyngis Chaam vxorem accepit.

Marino Sanudo Torsello (Liber secretorum fidelium crucis, c. 1321; ed. Bongars, Hanau 1611)
See the original page (p. 235)

About Mongols under Chinggis Khan; 'David, son of Prester John'

Keep in mind

A legend repeated from older crusade-era books; the Mongols were famously mounted archers, not ox-riding foot soldiers.

Transcribed from the page image; long s normalized.

Continue in this sourceSanudo's crusade plan: the Secrets of the Faithful of the Crossc. 1300 to 1320 · 11 passages
The nameKasganj (Uttar Pradesh)c. 1835

'Timurians', not 'Moguls'

Editorial contextAttending the marriage of a Delhi prince, Vigne insists on calling the Indian imperial house 'Timurians', after their ancestor Timur (Tamerlane), rather than the usual 'Mogul'. It is a small but telling point: the word Mogul (Mongol) had become a name for an Indian Muslim dynasty that itself descended from Central Asian conquerors.

I was fortunate in being present at the marriage of his grandaughter with Unjim Shikoh, one of the Princes of Delhi, or Timurians, as they are generally called … a much more correct name for the Indian Emperors than that of Mogul.

Godfrey Thomas Vigne (1842)
See the original page (p. 41)

About Mughal princes of Delhi (Timurids)

Continue in this sourceVigne's travels in Kashmir and Little Tibet1830s · 7 passages
Strange talesNorthern Indialate 13th century

Eyes that could bore through brass: a captive poet's Tatars

Editorial contextElias quotes the Persian poet Amir Khusrau of Delhi, who had been a prisoner of Mongol raiders and describes them with hatred: narrow piercing eyes, faces set on necks, noses spreading from cheek to cheek. Elias warns that the poet was 'burning with dread and resentment' and omits 'offensive details'. On a later page Elias notes that Khusrau calls the same people Tatars, Turks and Moghuls.

There were more than a thousand Tatar infidels and warriors of other tribes, riding on camels, great commanders in battle, all with steel-like bodies clothed in cotton ; with faces like fire, with caps of sheepskin, with heads shorn. Their eyes were so narrow and piercing that they might have bored a hole in a brazen vessel

Amir Khusrau, quoted in Ney Elias's introduction (1895)
See the original page (p. 81 (introduction))

About Mongol ('Tatar') raiders of India

Keep in mind

Hostile caricature by a former captive, quoted in translation by the editor.

Continue in this sourceThe Tarikh-i-Rashidi: a Moghul prince's history of Central Asia1466 to 1566 · 12 passages

On the old maps

Maps that name India.

Map: World map (mappamundi) and portolan charts by Pietro Vesconte in a Sanudo manuscript…, Pietro Vesconte, c. 1320c. 1320Pietro VesconteWorld map (mappamundi) and portolan charts by Pietro Vesconte…Map: World map (mappamundi) of Andreas Walsperger, Konstanz 1448, Vatican Pal. lat. 1362 pt. B, Andreas Walsperger, 14481448Andreas WalspergerWorld map (mappamundi) of Andreas Walsperger, Konstanz 1448…Map: Carta marina, Carta marina, 15161516Carta marinaMap: Tabula superioris Indiae et Tartariae maioris, Fries, 15221522FriesTabula superioris Indiae et Tartariae maiorisMap: Tabula Asiae VIII, Gastaldi, 15481548GastaldiTabula Asiae VIIIMap: New and complete description of Russia, Muscovy and Tartary, London 1562, Jenkinson, 15621562JenkinsonNew and complete description of Russia, Muscovy and Tartary…Map: Da Qing wannian yitong tianxia quantu, Huang Qianren, 17671767Huang QianrenDa Qing wannian yitong tianxia quantu

29 sources and maps name this place

  1. 400–433within a century
    Record of Buddhist Kingdoms
    WFaxianfirsthandW107
  2. 646exact year
    Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World
    WXuanzangmixedW047
  3. c. 1120approximate
    Sharaf al-Zaman Tahir Marvazi on China, the Turks and India
    WMarvazicompilationW197
  4. c. 1230–1300approximate
    Ebstorf World Map
    MGervase of TilburycompilationM043
  5. 1245–1399within a century
    Collection of voyages and memoirs published by the Geographical Society, vol. 4
    WSociete de GeographiefirsthandW271
  6. c. 1262–1265approximate
    Psalter World Map
    MAnonymouscompilationM032
  7. c. 1300approximate
    Hereford Mappa Mundi
    MRichard of Haldingham and LaffordcompilationM038
  8. 1300–1328a range
    History of Vassaf
    WVassaf of ShirazmixedW200
  9. 1306–1321a range
    Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross
    WMarino Sanudo TorsellomixedW240
  10. 1307exact year
    The Flower of the Histories of the East
    WHayton of CorycusmixedW229
  11. c. 1320approximate
    World map (mappamundi) and portolan charts by Pietro Vesconte in a Sanudo manuscript, Vatican Pal. lat. 1362…
    MPietro VescontecompilationM036
  12. c. 1329–1330approximate
    The Wonders Described
    WJordanus Catalani of Séverac, Dominican, bishop of…mixedW245
  13. 1401–1404a range
    Book of Victory
    WNizam al-Din Shamiofficial or contemporary recordW187
  14. 1448exact year
    World map (mappamundi) of Andreas Walsperger, Konstanz 1448, Vatican Pal. lat. 1362 pt. B
    MAndreas WalspergercompilationM037
  15. c. 1450–1460approximate
    Catalan Estense world map
    MAnonymous CatalancompilationM039
  16. 1466–1499within a century
    India in the Fifteenth Century
    WAfanasy Nikitin and other travelersmixedW060
  17. c. 1467–1471approximate
    Rising of the Two Auspicious Stars and Junction of the Two Seas
    WAbd al-Razzaq SamarqandimixedW195
  18. 1500–1533within a century
    Memoirs of Zehir-ed-din Muhammed Baber
    WZahir al-Din Muhammad BaburfirsthandW074
  19. 1516exact year
    Carta marina
    MMartin WaldseemuellercompilationM044
  20. 1522exact year
    Tabula superioris Indiae et Tartariae maioris
    MLorenz FriescompilationM085
  21. 1548exact year
    Tabula Asiae VIII
    MPtolemycompilationM091
  22. 1562exact year
    New and complete description of Russia, Muscovy and Tartary, London 1562
    MAnthony JenkinsonmixedM081
  23. 1711exact year
    Travels through Muscovy, Persia and India, enriched with three hundred plates
    WCornelis de BruynfirsthandW251
  24. 1748exact year
    The Excellent Wish-fulfilling Tree
    WSumpa Khenpo Yeshe PeljorcompilationW150
  25. 1756–1758a range
    General history of the Huns, Turks, Mongols and other western Tartars before and after Christ down to the…
    WJoseph de GuignescompilationW255
  26. 1767exact year
    Da Qing wannian yitong tianxia quantu
    MHuang QianrencompilationM109
  27. 1820exact year
    Full Description of the Great World
    WThe Fourth Tsenpo Nomonhan, Jampel Chökyi Tendzin…compilationW152
  28. 1832–1838a range
    Geography in Relation to Nature and Human History, or General Comparative Geography, Part 2
    WCarl RittercompilationW302
  29. 1844exact year
    Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms
    WWei YuancompilationW136