Mahmud Wali Balkhi
Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"
Meaning
Mahmud Wali Balkhi was a traveller from Balkh in Central Asia. He travelled widely in India between about 1626 and 1631, in Mughal times. His account is part of Indo-Persian travel writing, the Persian travel accounts about India written between 1400 and 1800. He matters because he shows a very different reaction from travellers who looked down on India. India fascinated him so much that he even took up a holy man's way of life for a while.
Example
In the 1620s Balkhi became so taken with India that for a time he became "a sort of sanyasi" (a Hindu holy man who gives up worldly life).
Don't confuse with
- Shaikh Ali Hazin: another Persian-writing traveller, who came to north India in the 1740s. He was disappointed, even disgusted, because he had expected a grand welcome. Balkhi was charmed by India.