In one he is a glowering, low-browed, grouchy, fierce fellow. Sanjay reproduces three portraits of him, which look utterly different. History is what happened and the consequences of Vasco Da Gama's arrival in India have been so portentous for our country that he deserves at least one headline.Р”Р„s it happens, Sanjay Subrahmanyam has just published an outstanding biography (The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama, Cambridge 1997) which makes it easy to follow Vasco Da Gama's career. But 1998 also happens to be the (delayed) 50th anniversary of India's Independence, where our ruling classes have tried to capture some brand equity by reviving the resentments of colonial times. There he is a great hero, and his anniversary was celebrated with enthusiasm. There is no such ambiguity about the name of Vasco Da Gama, however, who was born in Sines, lived and died in Portugal in the service of its kings. They finally financed his voyage he went and discovered America in 1492. So after cooling his heels for eight years at Afonso's court, Columbus went over to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, who ran a co-regency in Castile, a couple of hundred miles away from Lisbon, where he would be known as Cristoval Colon.

Afonso I somehow did not finance Columbus's voyage as I shall relate later, a less speculative route beckoned. Known in India and the English-speaking world as Christopher Columbus, Colon was a Genoese and would have been known as Cristoforo Colombo.

Hearing of his interest, Cristoval Colon went to his court in 1774. King Afonso I of Portugal thought of finding this new passage to India, and sought information, such as it was, on global geography. If it was round, then a European could reach India by going west as by going east. The idea that the earth is round goes back a couple of centuries before Christ at least. This year is the 500th anniversary of Vasco Da Gama's 'discovery' of India.

Reallusion crazytalk 8 2019