📄 Revision sheet · YugMap

Explorers and voyages

Bharat goes to sea

Harappan civilisation	Lothal’s dockyard: 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.
Gupta era	Indian traders on Socotra: 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.
c. 4th century CE	A script carried across the sea: 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.
1025	Rajendra Chola’s naval expedition: 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.
Every Kartika Purnima	Bali Jatra: the voyages of the Sadhabas: 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.
Early 18th century	Kanhoji Angre and the Maratha navy: 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.

Monks, pilgrims and travellers

	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.
399	Fa Xian comes from China: The Chinese Buddhist monk Fa Xian travelled from China to India around the fifth century CE in search of Buddhist texts.
7th century CE	Xuan Zang and Nalanda: The Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang came in search of Buddhist texts. Most of what we know about Nalanda comes from his records.
Late 13th century	Marco Polo: Marco Polo (1254–1323), from Italy, visited China — and also India — from his home in Venice in the late thirteenth century.
1333–1354	Ibn Battuta: from Tangier to Delhi and China: 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.

Voyages that joined the world

1492	Columbus reaches the West Indies: Sailing west from Spain, Columbus reached the West Indies in 1492.
May 1498	Vasco da Gama reaches India: Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, landing at Kappad near Kozhikode (Calicut) — the first sea voyage from Europe to India around Africa.
1510	The Portuguese take Goa: 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.
1772–75	Captain Cook sails around Antarctica: Until the 17th century most explorers thought a voyage to Antarctica next to impossible. Captain James Cook circumnavigated the continent in 1772–75.
1831	Darwin sails for the Galapagos: 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.
1911	Amundsen reaches the South Pole: 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.

To the top of the world

29 May 1953	Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on Everest: 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.
4 November 1954	The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute: 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.
1965	Nawang Gombu: Everest twice: 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.
23 May 1984	Bachendri Pal: the first Indian woman on Everest: 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.
2011–2017	Anshu Jamsenpa: Everest five times: 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.
1959	Arati Saha swims the English Channel: 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.

India in Antarctica

1981	The first Indian steps in Antarctica: 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.
1988	Maitri: 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.
21 November 2010	The first Indian expedition to the South Pole: 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.
18 March 2012	Bharati: 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.
2015	Bhakti Sharma in Antarctic waters: 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.

Into space

1969	Astronauts on the Moon: US astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969.
1984	Rakesh Sharma: the first Indian in space: Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian astronaut to go into space in 1984, aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission.
22 July 2019	Chandrayaan-2 sets out for the Moon’s south pole: 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.
26 June 2025	Shubhanshu Shukla on the International Space Station: 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.

Next steps

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Years are from YugMap’s records; dates marked c. are approximate. Printed from yugmap.com.