ABSTRACT
Vasco da Gama’s opening up of the searoute from Europe to India was followed by the establishment of three empires, the Safavid in Iran, the Ottoman in Turkey, and the Mughal in India. e landmass extending from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the Bay of Bengal, coupled with the commonality of the religion of the ruling elites, and other factors created conditions which made travel and trade in the region attractive despite Portuguese surveillance over the Indian Ocean sealanes. Outsiders continued to pour into India in increasingly greater numbers; Indians did not give up foreign travels but their number was small. In the sixteenth
century their presence is noted on the eastern coast of Africa, in the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf region, Central Asia and eastern Asia.1
