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Did Vikings have contact with India and Indian traditions?

No.8472470 View ViewReplyOriginalReport
Vikings did not travel all the way to India, however they were in indirect contact as they would be buying Indian products. Norse traders would travel down the rivers of Russia all the way to Constantinople, the middle east and the Caspian sea. In these places they would visit the markets and sell their Scandinavian products such as furs, ivory (from walruses and narwhales, there's no elephants in the north) , amber and slaves. They would trade these items for spices, silk, glass, iron or silver. Many of these items would have been transported through the silk road in caravans all the way from China and India in the east to the markets of the middle east and Constantinople. From these markets Norsemen would be bringing home Indian spices and high quality iron from southern India (the Iron of southern Scandinavia is mainly bog iron which is of a pretty poor quality). Vikings also played board games similar to chess, which is also a game that originates in India. Now the Norsemen might have meet a few Indians that would have travelled west as well but they would not be the usual people that they would meet, we don't have any written accounts of Norsemen meeting Indians that I am aware of at least.

So there would mostly be an indirect contact and influence between Norsemen and Indians facilitated by other peoples (mostly Middle Easterns and Greeks) who would trade Indian commodities to the Norsemen.