Everything has a beginning- a history and so does travelling. Travelling has become viral with people flocking to hill stations and sea beaches during the vacations and others running behnid exploring the unexplored. But many forget to note that travelling began with the beginning of civilisations. Imagine the world if Columbus had not dicovered America, we would not have known beautiful places like the Niagara falls and Amazon basin! To the world, India would have been unknown had it not been for Vasco da Gama...
Right from the time when only three civilisations existed- The Harappan, The Mesopotamian and The Roman Civilisation, travelling had begun! Apart from land, culture and histories of the world unfolds itself through the accounts of the travellers. The great traveller Fa Hien, Hieun Tsang travelled to India in search of Buddhism and gave to India their invaluable accounts which became the major source of reconstructing the Mauryan Dynasty. Gradually, the thirst for money,land and power produced great conquerers like Alexander and Chenghiz Khan who also became great travellers. Alexander is said to have captured more than half the globe and so did Khan. The people who travlled with them wrote histories in form of travalogues. Had it not been for the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazna, Al Beruni's Kitab ul Hind would not have been written. There had been uncountable travalogues about India and its culture be it written by Bernier or Tavernier or Manucci. The list is endless and each travlogue gives to us an altogether new perspective of looking at a culture. These travalogues have been the forerunners of what we have now in the form of magazines,newspaper columns or websites.
Travelling and its stories are much beyond books. Paintings then and photographs todays are visual stories conveying to the beholder an experience which can either not be described enough in words or for which a mere glance completes the story. These memories are a great source of history!
Travelling since ages have given birth to completely new cultures like the Indo Persian, Indo Western, Indo Chinese and so on and so forth. Now you can find a Sushi in India or a Persian Carpet in Japan but the essence experiencing the untouched and untampered culture is only through travelling to that particular place.
Though there are obvious differences in travelling then and travelling now...one should always...KEEP TRAVELLING!
