Few weeks ago, I wouldn’t even have dreamed about writing on a subject like this. This question was raised by a gentleman I met at a scenic overpass near Echo lake in New Hampshire white mountains area. He started asking me how come he’s seeing so many indians in that area. I explained that there was a surge in Indian population due to the IT uprise in the past decade and this young indian generation travels a lot (Of course some of us still spend more time taking pictures of ourselves, than exploring what’s in there :-) , but that’s besides the point).
He introduced himself as a traveler from Israel and started talking about India in general… education, number of engineering graduates passing out every year, interesting places, etc. He has visited Trichy, my birthplace and likes it a lot. I thought, “Wow, finally I meet someone who’s talking good things about Trichy”. Moving on, he threw this question out and stunned me. I had no idea about the initial Muslim immigration into India, though I knew that a number of invaders came through the Himalayas sometime around 1100 –1300 AD. His exact question was, “When the Moghul kings invaded South India, there were a number of people who helped them in their conquest. How did this Muslims exist there already?”. I was dumbfounded and started a small research reading the “Vandhargal Vendragal” book by Madhan. But couldn’t find the answer. After some variation in my search finally stumbled upon the answer for it.
In fact Muslim traders migrated to South India (Which had sea-route trade relations with Persia, Greek and Arab) much earlier, around 1000 AD. They were welcomed by Rashtrakutas and other kings. They were given land and other facilities to develop trade in their region. They were manufacturing Catapults, paper, etc and the catapults started being part of every kingdom’s army.
Here’s a link to read more about this early migration:
http://www.indianetzone.com/38/early_muslim_advent_into_india.htm
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