Who discovered India?

谁发现了印度?

 以下是Quora读者的评论：

Vicky Singh

Vasco Da Gama as we all have learned in our schools in India.Vasco Da Gama arrived on the port of Calicut in 1499.He is now considered as the founder of India.But it must be better to consider him as an Invader our plunderer since India was not lost before 1499. Nearly 800 years before Alexander invaded India and conquered Sind . It is obvious that he knew India and how he could reach here. Even the Mughals knew about India . Then how can we say that Vasco Da Gama discovered India. So you may have understood my objective that no one discovered India but they knew this place only because of its gold and glory. Invaders have invaded India from time to time and therefore no one can be considered as the founder of India since it was visited by numerous tribes and was known as the “golden bird”.

我们都在印度的学校里学过瓦斯科·达·伽马。瓦斯科·达·伽马于1499年到达卡利卡特港。他现在被认为是印度的创建者。但最好把他看作是侵略者，因为印度在1499年之前并没有灭亡。近800年前，亚历山大入侵印度并征服了信德。很明显，他了解印度，也知道他如何能够到达这里。甚至莫卧儿人也知道印度。那么我们怎么能说瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了印度呢？所以你可能已经理解我的目的，没有人发现印度，但他们因为印度的黄金和荣耀知道这个地方。侵略者不时地入侵印度，因此没有人可以被认为是印度的创始人，因为许多部落都到过这里，被称为“金鸟”。

Maple Press Pvt. Ltd., lives in India (2009-present)

Vasco da Gama discovered India.

Portugal and other European empires had been trading with communities in India and throughout Southeast Asia for centuries. The legendary Silk Road was an overland trade route that linked the fabled spice markets of the east with the bustling commerce of the west. However, traveling through disputed territories in the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Peninsula was dangerous and time-consuming.

Da Gama and his fleet used well-traveled routes to navigate down the western coast of Africa. After re-supplying in the Canary Islands, da Gama took a chance and sailed west into the Atlantic Ocean—the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. He took advantage of the strong, reliable winds called Westerlies to quickly steer him to the southern coast of Africa. Da Gama and his fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope in December 1497, and named the nearby coast Natal, after the Portuguese word for Christmas. (The South African province of KwaZulu-Natal retains this name today.) Da Gama established poor relations with leaders in what are now the coasts of Mozambique and southern Kenya—the Europeans became pirates of Arab trading ships in the region.

瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了印度。

几个世纪以来，葡萄牙和其他欧洲帝国一直与印度和整个东南亚的社区有着贸易往来。传说中的丝绸之路是连接东方香料市场和西方繁华商业的陆路贸易路线。然而，穿越地中海和阿拉伯半岛有争议的领土既危险又费时。

达·伽马和他的船队沿着人迹罕至的路线沿着非洲西海岸航行。在加那利群岛补给物资后，达·伽马冒险向西航行进入大西洋——这与他想去的方向正好相反。他利用强劲、可靠的西风，迅速将自己带到非洲南部海岸。1497年12月，达·伽马和他的舰队绕过好望角，并以葡萄牙语中的“圣诞节”命名附近的海岸纳塔尔。(今天南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省依然保留了这个名字。)达伽马与莫桑比克和肯尼亚南部沿海地区的领导人关系很糟糕，欧洲人成了往来该地区的阿拉伯商船的海盗。

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/48417.html 译者：Joyceliu

In what is now the port of Malindi, Kenya, da Gama met and interacted with Indian merchants and sailors. They advised him on the favorable monsoonwinds of the western Indian Ocean. In fact, da Gama actually hired an experienced Indian navigator to guide his fleet to the trade center of Calicut (now known as Kozhikode).

Da Gama’s sea route to India allowed Portugal to establish a rich trade with India and southeast Asia. Portugal was also able to expand its empire to include provinces from India (centered around the state of Goa, whose largest city is Vasco da Gama) to (the island of Macau).

在现在的肯尼亚马林迪港，达伽马与印度商人和水手见面并进行了交流。他们建议他留意印度洋西部的有利季风。事实上，达·伽马雇佣了一位经验丰富的印度航海家，带领他的船队前往卡利卡特贸易中心(现在称为科日科德)。

达伽马开辟的通往印度的海上航线使葡萄牙得以与印度和东南亚建立起密切的贸易往来。葡萄牙还因此将其帝国扩展到包括从印度(以果阿邦为中心，果阿邦最大的城市是瓦斯科·达·伽马)到(澳门)的多个省份。

Harsha

Nobody discovered India, it was there from long back and will be there forever.

Our ancestors don't know how to portray themselves for future generations, because of that western country people came here and wrote history as they want, like

没有人发现印度，它从很久以前就存在在那里，而且将永远存在。

我们的祖先不知道如何为后代描绘自己，西方国家的人们来到这里，按照他们的意愿书写历史。

1.They taught us to wear clothes

2.They taught us to brush our teeth

3.They gave a purpose to live here

4.They have shown us some land called India to live

5.They invented zero for mathmatics

6.They educated us that Earth is round in shape(my God this is utter bullshit, our puranas called Earth as bhoogol, which means round ball)

7.They taught us trading diamonds

C'mon guys give some respect to our country, please do some background verification before even asking question.

1.他们教我们穿衣服

2.他们教我们刷牙

3.他们给出了在这里定居的目的

4.他们给我们展示了一些叫印度的土地

5.他们为数学发明了零

6.他们教会我们地球是圆形的(天哪，这完全是胡扯，我们的印度史诗里就称地球为bhoogol，意思是圆球)

7.他们教我们交易钻石

来吧，伙计们，请尊重我们的国家，在提问前请先做好功课。

Kumud Raj, former Retired School Principal

Who discovered India? That's a strange question. No one discovered it.... it's always been there. Since ancient times people have come here and made their home here. Some of them found it in their wanderings, some of them heard of her wealth and plundered her, some of them hearing of her wealth came here to share in it and stayed on, some of them heard of her silks and textiles, of her pepper and spices and other commodities and came to trade. Some came by sea, others by land. Some sought refuge here as they were persecuted in their own lands.

Those who came here found a strange and mysterious land, strange customs and stranger traditions, different religions, holy rivers and mountains and a warm people who were welcoming and accommodating.

谁发现了印度？这是个奇怪的问题。没有人发现它……它一直就在那儿。自古以来，人们来到这里，在这里安家。有些人是四处游历时发现的这里，有些人听说过她的财富，因此到此掠夺，有些人听说过她的财富，因此来这里分一杯羹并在此定居下来，有些人听说过她丝绸和纺织品、胡椒和香料和其他商品，因此来这里做生意。有些人从海上来，有些人从陆上来。有些人因为在自己的土地上受到了迫害，因此来这里避难。

来到这里的人们发现了一片陌生而神秘的土地，有着陌生的风俗习惯和陌生的传统，不同的宗教，神圣的河流山脉以及热情好客的人民。

Mekey Salaria, I develop Websites & Mobile Applications

Well no one did. Atleast if some one did, it was done by the people of Indus Valley.

I totally disagree with the term that “Columbus” discovered America as well.

India being an oldest civilization was already known to Greeks, Persians, Turks, Africans etc. Gujarati’s were known for their trades with South Africans of those times before Britishers could ever reach India & It was a Marwari who took one of the Britisher to India showing him the exact sea route.

People call it “Vasco Da Gama” who discovered India. Really? He just managed to find out a sea route at times we were trading all over asia over sea. Its not fair to call it a discovery. Or maybe it could be just a discovery for themselves but not for the world already trading with India.

没有人知道。即便有人发现了印度，也是印度河流域的人们发现的。

我完全不同意“哥伦布”发现美洲的说法。

印度作为一个最古老的文明已经为希腊人、波斯人、土耳其人、非洲人等所熟知。古吉拉特人在英国人到达印度之前就以与南非人的贸易而闻名，一位马尔瓦里人带着一名英国人去印度，向他展示了明确的海上航线。

人们称之为“瓦斯科·达·伽马”，他发现了印度。真的吗？他只是找到了一条海上航线而已。称其为发现是不公平的。或许这只是他们自己的一个发现，而不是对已经与印度进行贸易的世界的发现。

Khushbu Sah, worked at ECGC - Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Limited

Q: Who discovered India?

Ans: This is the biggest distorted question on the planet. The actual question is “Who discovered sea route from Europe to India?” The Europeans were having trade with India since way before through Red Sea. However after the fall of Roman Empire in 7th century, the trade between Europe and India got disturbed since Arabs established their domination in Egypt and Persia. Moreover, the trade with India channelized through Muslim middlemen were 10 times costly which was discovered when in quest to find direct sea route to India, Vasco da Gama a Portuguese explorer and merchant finally found India and reached Calicut (Present Kozhikode) in 1498 AD. After staying in India for three month, he returned to Portugal with a rich cargo and sold the merchandise in European market with huge profit.

问：谁发现了印度?

答：这是这个星球上最扭曲的问题。真正的问题应该是“谁发现了从欧洲到印度的航线？”欧洲人很早以前就通过红海与印度进行贸易。然而，公元7世纪罗马帝国灭亡后，由于阿拉伯人在埃及和波斯建立了统治地位，欧洲和印度之间的贸易受到了干扰。此外，通过msl中间人与印度进行贸易的成本是原来的10倍。葡萄牙探险家和商人瓦斯科·达·伽马最终发现了印度，并于公元1498年到达卡利卡特(现在的科日科德)。在印度呆了三个月后，他带着丰富的货物回到葡萄牙，在欧洲市场上销售商品，获得了巨大的利润。

ReyoMind

who discovered India ? You must have heard this question in many places. And many people may have also heard saying that India was discovered by Vasco da Gama , and you must have seen it in many books. Nowadays this question is very much discussed. But it would not be right to say that India was discovered by Vasco da Gama. Nobody had discovered India. Because the people of India and India already exsted and the world knew about it. And India was already present in the world map . But he was quoted in many books and it says many historians would be that India discovered Vasco da Gama had.

谁发现了印度？你一定在很多地方听到过这个问题。很多人可能也听说过印度是由瓦斯科·达·伽马发现的，你一定在很多书中见过。现在这个问题被广泛讨论。但是，说印度是被瓦斯科·达·伽马发现的就不对了。没有人发现过印度。因为印度人和印度人早就已经存在了，全世界都知道。印度已经出现在世界地图上。但很多书中都说很多历史学家认为瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了印度。

Nivas Jayaseelan, lives in India

No one "discovered" India.

India was first inhabitted by early humans who migrated from east africa. 

They crossed India and south east Asia to reach Australia. The tribals of Andaman are some of the people who first crossed India. 

Many people arrived in diffenet waves during different times. Then the first planned cities were built, which is the Indus Valley Civilization. More people arriving led to fall of the civilization and people occupied the whole of India.

没有人“发现”印度。

印度最初是由从东非移民过来的早期人类在此定居的。

他们越过印度和东南亚到达澳大利亚。安达曼部落是最早进入印度的民族之一。

许多人在不同的时间到达不同的地点。然后建成了第一批规划的城市，这就是印度河流域文明。来的人越来越多，导致了文明的衰落，人们占领了整个印度。

Rishabh Verma, works at Ericsson

To have insight view of India's History, start following Balaji Viswanathan. He's a perfectionist in this domain and all his answers are master class. Start following all his blogs and posts.

As far as the discovery of the name "India" is concerned, The name India is derived from Indus which is a Greek word derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit, Sindhu, the historic local name for the Indus River.

Aryans called the Indian areas adjoining their country as Hapta Hindhu - land of seven rivers; Greeks  borrowed it; hence the name.

要想深入了解印度历史，可以关注巴拉吉•维斯瓦纳坦。他是这个领域的完美主义者，他所有的答案都是大师级的。赶紧关注他所有的博客和帖子吧。

就“印度”这个名字的发现而言，“印度”这个名字来源于古波斯词“兴都”的希腊语单词“印度河”，源于梵语“Sindhu”，这是印度河历史上的当地名字。

雅利安人把毗邻他们国家的印度地区称为哈帕德胡——七河之地；希腊人借用了这个说法，因此有了这个名字。

Abhishek Kumar Tripathi, Director (2014-present)

No one discovered India and no one discovered America as well. i.e. for Asian continent there was always trading with India while before many times there was no quick way of reaching there in remote countries.

So as for Portuguese Vasco da Gama discovered India in 1498. By the way this discovery was for many countries.

没有人发现印度，也没有人发现美洲。例如，对于亚洲大陆来说，与印度之间的贸易一直存在，而在此之前，人们没有迅速抵达偏远国家的方法。

所以对于葡萄牙人瓦斯科·达·伽马来说，他在1498年发现了印度。顺便说一下，很多国家都是这样被发现的。

Divaker V Vittal, Expert In Tradition, Culture, Folklore, History, Hinduism

I think you want to know, who called our country India for the first time.

Herodotus, the Greek historian in 5th Century BC mentions our country men as ‘Indos’ and lists part of our land governed by the persian emperor Darius I.

Again Lucian, a historian from France who would write in Latin mentions the term ‘Ynde’ or ‘India’ in his texts when he writes about Syria, this happens at 120 AD.

From 17th Century onwards, the English the present ‘India’ with the same spellings are being used.

我猜你想知道，历史上是谁第一个把我们的国家称为印度的。

公元前5世纪的希腊历史学家希罗多德把我们国家的男人称为“Indos”，并列出了波斯皇帝大流士一世统治的部分土地。

卢西恩，一位来自法国的历史学家，他会用拉丁语写作，在他编写关于叙利亚的的文章中提到了“Ynde”或“India”，这发生在公元120年。

从17世纪起，英语中就开始使用跟现在相同的拼写“India”。

Kirti Neotia, Home Maker

Who discovered India first?

Now that depends on what you mean by 'discovered’..

The dictionary definition is too see, find or become aware of something for the first time.

So going by this definition, nobody discovered it!

People have been living on this land for God knows how long. So, we don't know who saw it for the first time. Who found it for the first time.

We have had trade relations and other kind of cultural and knowledge exchange with so many countries (read Arabia, , Iran, other south Asian countries) that we can't be sure who outside of this land saw or became aware of India for the first time.

谁首先发现了印度?

这取决于你所说的“发现”是什么意思。

字典的定义是第一次看到、发现或意识到某事。

根据这个定义，没有人能发现它！

天知道人们早已在这片土地上生活了多久。所以，我们不知道谁第一次看到它。是谁第一次发现它。

我们与这么多国家(如阿拉伯、、伊朗和其他南亚国家)建立了贸易关系，并进行了文化和知识交流，以至于我们无法确定在这片土地之外谁第一次看到或了解印度。

Prabal Sharma, Bcil Trainee

Vasco digama discovered India in 1498.

瓦斯科·迪加马于1498年发现了印度。

Vandana Anand, lives in India

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route to India in 1497-1498.

葡萄牙探险家瓦斯科·达·伽马于1497年至1498年发现了一条通往印度的海上航线。

Surya Aggarwal, Student at Fountainhead School Surat (2007-present)

Well,according to me,till I have learnt till now,the first person to discover India was famous traveller Vasco-da-gama ,thinking that there would be a good amount of spices here….well he was perfectly right,did you know,40% of the spices in the whole world are generated at India!And well,if my answer sounds incomplete,there is always Google you can look up to! Good luck!

嗯，据我所知，第一个发现印度的人是著名的旅行家瓦斯科-达-伽马，他认为这里有很多香料……他想得没错，你知道吗，全世界40%的香料都是在印度生产的！好吧，如果我的答案听起来不完整，你还可以在谷歌上搜索一下！好运！

Uday Vaiyata

India never needed to be "discovered." A land route known as the the Incense Road was used in ancient times by the Egyptians and Romans, connecting the Mediterranean to India.

India has been a well known country among many other countries for many thousand years. How and when people in each of these countries discovered India is not known to historians. All that is known is that India started trading with other countries many thousand years back. Indications of India's trading links are available in its ancient books. For example Mahabharata the biggest epic in the world written many thousand of years back, has mentions of many countries and the goods that India imported from them.

In 1497 Vasco da Gama set off on the first ocean journey directly from Europe to India. Other explorers had made it around the Cape of Good Hope, but Gama was the first to successfully cross the Indian Ocean and make port in Calicut. In that sense, Vasco da Gama was the first to discover a sea route to India.

印度从来就不需要被“发现”。古埃及人和罗马人曾使用一条名为“香路”的陆路，连接地中海和印度。

几千年来，印度在许多国家眼中一直是个著名的国家。历史学家不知道这些国家的人是如何以及何时发现印度的。众所周知，印度早在几千年前就开始与其他国家进行贸易了。在印度的古籍中可以找到印度贸易活动的迹象。例如，世界上最大的史诗《摩诃婆罗多》写于几千年前，就提到了许多国家以及印度从这些国家进口的商品。

1497年，瓦斯科·达·伽马开始了第一次直接从欧洲到印度的海上旅行。其他探险者已经成功绕过好望角，但是伽马是第一个成功穿越印度洋并在卡利卡特港的人。从这个意义上说，瓦斯科·达·伽马是第一个发现通往印度的海上航线的人。

Sneh Chakraburtty, Lifetime Student of Vedanta & Practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga

Merchants from Arab and European Countries were trading with India long before the Colonialists arrived.

早在殖民者到来之前，阿拉伯和欧洲国家的商人就开始与印度做生意了。

Aarul Jain, studied at St. Xavier's Senior Secondary School, Jaipur

No one discovered India , Vasco Da Gama discovered the route to India on from Europe on 20 May 1498.

没有人发现印度，1498年5月20日瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了从欧洲到印度的路线。

Duvvuri Venkataramakrishna, studied at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

The word ‘India’ I think is coined by the British much later to the geological formation of the country. What is the point in discovering something which is already there. It is just a matter of naming.

我认为“印度”这个词是英国人在这个国家的地质形成之后很久才创造出来的。发现已经存在的东西有什么意义呢？这只是取名的问题而已。

rSk Singh, former Lecturer at National Medical College & Teaching Hospital, Birgunj, Nepal (2002-2014)

Portuguese explorer VASCO DA GAMA is credited with discovering the country INDIA. The explorer sailed from Lisbon (Portugal) in 1497, arriving in Calicut (India) in May 1498.

葡萄牙探险家瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了印度。这位探险家1497年从葡萄牙里斯本出发，1498年5月到达印度卡利卡特。

Adesh Patel, PhD computer science Computer s & India, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (2010)

It was the Aryans. Indians are aryans that moved to India and built the greatest civilization. We had the largest GDP for 90% of the civil history

是雅利安人。印度人是雅利安人，他们移居印度，建立了最伟大的文明。我们的国民生产总值在整个文明史90%的时间内一直占据第一的位置。

Beatrix George, studied Science & Language at Singapore

Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama.

He arrived in Calicut by sea and came to India a total of three times. He passed away in Kochi, Kerala and was buried in a church there before his remains were sent to Portugal.

葡萄牙的探险家瓦斯科·达·伽马。

他乘船到达卡利卡特，先后来了三次印度。他在喀拉拉邦的高知县去世，遗体被送往葡萄牙之前，他被安葬在那里的一座教堂里。

Anand Prakash

People have been living in India since like 5000 b.c. or probably even way before that.  There is not a single person that discovered it.  When it was discovered it wasn't even called India, so a better question would be.. When was India called "India".

大约从公元前5000年，甚至更早的时候，人们就开始在印度生活了。没有人发现印度。当它被发现时甚至都不叫印度，所以这个问题应该这么问…印度什么时候开始被称为“印度”？

Akshay 'Apogee' Das, History nerd

Those who says that Vasco Da Gama had discovered India are completly wrong,India exsted for a long time even before his arrival. He actually discovered the direct sea route to India.

那些说瓦斯科·达·伽马发现了印度的人完全错了，印度在他到达之前已经存在很长时间了。他只是发现了通往印度的海上直航。

Robert Spencer, Indian.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru discovered India. He wrote a book called “Discovery of India”. Since he has discovered the India, his decedents have the right to enjoy it as they deem fit. Till today it is like that.

潘迪特·贾瓦哈拉尔·尼赫鲁发现了印度。他写了一本名为《印度的发现》的书。自从他发现了印度，他的祖先就有权按照他们认为合适的方式享受它。直到今天还是这样。

Hemant Rangan

The question is who is asking this question. Would an Indian ask this question? And if an Indian did, why? Cultures bred in different geographies and developed over time. The question of ‘discovery’ would be relative to those that did not know that specific culture.

问题是谁提问了这个问题。印度人会问这个问题吗？如果是印度人，为什么会这么问？文化孕育于不同的地域，并随着时间的推移而发展。“发现”的问题跟那些不了解特定文化的人有关。

Rahul Sinha, Research and Development at Ministry of Defence, India

No body discoverd India. Indian culture us very old and its main land was connected with eurasian plate.

So there is nothing like discovery of India..

Yes..The sea route was discoverd be vasco da gama in 1498

没有人发现印度。印度文化非常古老，其主要陆地与欧亚板块相连。

所以并非是印度被发现…

是的. .这条海上航线是瓦斯科·达·伽马于1498年发现的。