eLibrary: Calicut 1498
Long before Vasco da Gama’s arrival, Calicut thrived as the Indian Ocean’s busiest port, drawing merchants from Arabia, Persia, Africa, and China. This exhibition presents the city through travellers’ eyes—capturing its cosmopolitan energy and trade. In 1498, everything changed, as Portuguese arrival reshaped centuries of maritime exchange and power.
This is the latest version of an electronic library of resources supporting the exhibition. It offers free and immediate access to online resources for anyone wanting to explore further the context of the museum’s artifacts. As the museum develops, more resources, in more languages, will be added.
NOTE: Some of these links come from Academia.edu and Researchgate.net. These require a free one-time registration. To research further yourselves, you may consider registering with Jstore.org which gives limited but free monthly access to its collections
Articles
History of Calicut, n.d., Calicut Heritage
Datta, K., 2017. Os Lusiads–The Portuguese Epic of Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India.
Garcia, J.M., 1998. Vasco da Gama in the land of India. Oceanos, 39, 93-114.
Ghazanfar, S., 2016. Vasco da Gama, the Explorer: Motivations and Myths. Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective, 11(1), p.8.
Ghazanfar, S.M., 2018. Vasco da Gama’s voyages to India: Messianism, Mercantilism, and sacred exploits. Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective, 13(1), p.3.
Halsall, P., 1998. Vasco da Gama: Round Africa to India, 1497-1498
Kriegel, M., Subrahmanyam, S., Disney, A. and Booth, E., 2000. The Unity of Opposites: Abraham Zacut, Vasco da Gama and the Chronicler Gaspar Correia. Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia, Delhi, pp.48-71.
Leão, DP, 2019. Through the Eyes of a Warrior, Traveler and Poet: Portugal, Malabar and Indian Traditions as Seen by Luís Vaz de Camões (Os Lusíadas VII, 17-85). Cracow Indological Studies , 21 (2), pp.159-178.
Manmadhan, U., 2020. The Rise and Fall of the Zamorins of Calicut
Mearns, D.L., Parham, D. and Frohlich, B., 2016. A Portuguese East Indiaman from the 1502–1503 fleet of Vasco da Gama off Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman: an interim report. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 45(2), pp.331-350.
Murrin, M., 2003. First Encounter: the Christian-Hindu Confusion When the Portuguese Reached India. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, pp.189-202.
Neelakandan Girija, A., 2023. Changing perspectives on Indian Ocean cityscapes: The port city of Calicut in the early modern period (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).
Nunn, P. and Kumar, R., 2022. ‘A once capacious haven': What happened to Calicut (Malabar coast of India), 1335-1887. International Review of Environmental History, 8(2), pp.29-49.
Rau, S., 2024. Walking through the streets of Calicut (IV).
Scheim, D., 2023. 1498: Der Roteiro zur Konfrontation Vasco da Gamas mit muslimischen Händlern in Calicut. Transmediterranean History, 5(1).
Videos
Vasco da Gama Incredible Sea Voyage Part-3, Calicut and way back to Lisbon (Critical History Times) 7.53mins
How did Vasco Da Gama reach India? (Knowledge) 10.32mins