Afanasy Nikitin made land in 1469, at Alibagh, just south of Bombay. A Russian, he had sailed out of Oman six weeks earlier, on a voyage that covered the Malabar coast. An impressive monument to him now stands in Revdanda town, built jointly by Russia and the Government of Maharashtra. Nikitin had visited Gulbarga and Vijay Nagar, but made no apparent effort to act on his nation's Saracen phobia ! eric.
