🃏 Explorers and voyages

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⛵ Lothal’s dockyard — Harappan civilisation — Lothal, in Gujarat, had a huge dockyard, and Harappan seals show ships and boats — some of the oldest evidence of Indian seafaring.

⛵ Ports where sea routes began — Some early towns, such as Puhar on the Kaveri delta, stood near the coast, and sea routes began from them.

⛵ Ships on Satavahana coins — Many Satavahana coins show ships, which suggests that sea trade was an important part of economic life; their trade networks reached as far as the Roman Empire.

⛵ Indian traders on Socotra — Gupta era — In the Gupta era India traded with the Mediterranean world, Southeast Asia and China. Socotra Island in the Arabian Sea was a stop on the way to the Mediterranean markets, and finds there show Indian traders over several centuries.

⛵ A script carried across the sea — c. 4th century CE — India spread her traditions peacefully through trade, pilgrimage and culture. Around the 4th century CE, the region of present-day Malaysia adopted a script based on India’s Brahmi.

⛵ Rajendra Chola’s naval expedition — 1025 — Under the Cholas, trade with China thrived. One sea route ran through the Strait of Malacca, controlled by Shrivijaya; Rajendra Chola sent a naval expedition to Southeast Asia — a punitive expedition, with the support of many Indian merchant guilds.

⛵ Bali Jatra: the voyages of the Sadhabas — Every Kartika Purnima — Odisha’s largest open-air cultural festival, held on the banks of the Mahanadi in Cuttack from Kartika Purnima, remembers the voyages of Odia traders — the Sadhabas — to Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo.

⛵ Kanhoji Angre and the Maratha navy — Early 18th century — Europeans forced Indian ships to buy naval passes. Under Kanhoji Angre the Marathas won many naval battles and began demanding passes from the Europeans themselves.

☸ The Buddha’s message crosses the seas — The Buddha’s message spread through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and through Sri Lanka across the seas to Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

☸ Fa Xian comes from China — 399 — The Chinese Buddhist monk Fa Xian travelled from China to India around the fifth century CE in search of Buddhist texts.

☸ Xuan Zang and Nalanda — 7th century CE — The Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang came in search of Buddhist texts. Most of what we know about Nalanda comes from his records.

☸ Marco Polo — Late 13th century — Marco Polo (1254–1323), from Italy, visited China — and also India — from his home in Venice in the late thirteenth century.

☸ Ibn Battuta: from Tangier to Delhi and China — 1333–1354 — The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, born in Tangier, reached Sind in 1333. In 1342 the Sultan of Delhi sent him to China as his envoy; he returned home in 1354.

🧭 Columbus reaches the West Indies — 1492 — Sailing west from Spain, Columbus reached the West Indies in 1492.

🧭 Vasco da Gama reaches India — May 1498 — Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, landing at Kappad near Kozhikode (Calicut) — the first sea voyage from Europe to India around Africa.

🧭 The Portuguese take Goa — 1510 — The Portuguese captured strategic ports, including Goa in 1510, and with their passes for ships they controlled the spice trade between India and Europe for nearly a century.

🧭 Captain Cook sails around Antarctica — 1772–75 — Until the 17th century most explorers thought a voyage to Antarctica next to impossible. Captain James Cook circumnavigated the continent in 1772–75.

🧭 Darwin sails for the Galapagos — 1831 — Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific and the Galapagos Islands in 1831 — the voyage that led to his theory of evolution.

🧭 Amundsen reaches the South Pole — 1911 — In 1911 the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Only three weeks later the British explorer Robert F. Scott also reached it, but at the cost of his life.

🏔 Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on Everest — 29 May 1953 — Tenzing Norgay had been to Everest six times before he succeeded on his seventh attempt: as a member of the British expedition of 1953, he made the first ascent of the world’s highest mountain with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953.

🏔 The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute — 4 November 1954 — The ascent of Everest gave the impetus for mountaineering to grow as an organised sport in India. The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute was founded in Darjeeling, Tenzing’s home town, on 4 November 1954, and Tenzing was its Director of Field Training.

🏔 Nawang Gombu: Everest twice — 1965 — Nawang Gombu was the first person to reach the top of Everest twice — with an American team in 1963 and again with the Indian Everest Expedition of 1965.

🏔 Bachendri Pal: the first Indian woman on Everest — 23 May 1984 — The expedition had 6 women and 11 men; Bachendri Pal was the only woman in her group to carry on, and she reached the summit on 23 May 1984 at 1:07 pm.

🏔 Arunima Sinha — Arunima Sinha, who lost her left leg in 2011, became the first differently abled woman to climb Everest, and has unfurled India’s flag on five peaks: Everest, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Kosciuszko and Aconcagua.

🏔 Anshu Jamsenpa: Everest five times — 2011–2017 — Anshu Jamsenpa, from Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh, was the first Indian woman to scale Everest five times — twice in ten days in 2011, again in 2013, and a double ascent in May 2017.

🏔 Arati Saha swims the English Channel — 1959 — Arati Saha was the first Indian woman to swim across the English Channel — and the first Asian woman to do so — in 1959. In 1960 she became the first woman in India to receive the Padma Shri.

❄ The first Indian steps in Antarctica — 1981 — Indian scientists took their first steps on the frozen continent of Antarctica in 1981. The programme’s first station was Dakshin Gangotri, where Indians first spent a winter.

❄ Aditi Pant — The oceanographer Aditi Pant was the first Indian woman to reach Antarctica, and was given the Antarctica Award for being part of the expedition.

❄ Maitri — 1988 — In 1988 an ice-free, rocky area on the Schirmacher oasis was chosen for India’s second research station, Maitri — built on steel stilts, about 100 km from the shore.

❄ The first Indian expedition to the South Pole — 21 November 2010 — To mark thirty years of Indian presence in Antarctica, an eight-member team drove from Maitri, covering 2,300 km in nine days and reaching the South Pole on 21 November 2010.

❄ Bharati — 18 March 2012 — About 3,000 km east of Maitri, India’s newest research base, Bharati, was commissioned on 18 March 2012 for year-round research; it can hold 47 people in its main building.

❄ Bhakti Sharma in Antarctic waters — 2015 — In 2015 Bhakti Sharma set a world record by swimming 2.28 km in the Antarctic Ocean in 41.14 minutes — the youngest person and the first Asian woman to do so.

🚀 Astronauts on the Moon — 1969 — US astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969.

🚀 Rakesh Sharma: the first Indian in space — 1984 — Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian astronaut to go into space in 1984, aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission.

🚀 Chandrayaan-2 sets out for the Moon’s south pole — 22 July 2019 — Launched on 22 July 2019, Chandrayaan-2 carried an orbiter, a lander and a rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon; it entered lunar orbit on 20 August 2019.

🚀 Shubhanshu Shukla on the International Space Station — 26 June 2025 — Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force, pilot of the Axiom-4 mission, became the first Indian to reach the International Space Station — and the second Indian in space, 41 years after Rakesh Sharma.