Italian Nobleman Discovers Religious Harmony and Animal Compassion in 17th Century India
In a series of remarkable letters that provide a rare window into daily life in Mughal India, Italian nobleman and composer Pietro Della Valle has documented his extensive travels along India’s western coast during 1623-1624, revealing a society characterized by religious tolerance, moral strictness, and extraordinary compassion toward animals.
## A Romantic’s Journey to the East
Della Valle, born to an elite Roman family in 1586, was already an accomplished composer and musicologist when a disappointment in love prompted him to embark on an epic journey across the Middle East and Asia. Arriving on India’s western coast from Persia on an English ship, he first landed in Daman before proceeding to Surat during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir.
“The city of Surat is of a handsome greatness,” Della Valle writes in his letters to friend and physician Mario Schipano. “Tis very populous, as all other cities and places are in India, which everywhere abounds with people.” This observation suggests a thriving urban population that impressed even a visitor from Rome, one of Europe’s major cities.
## Religious Coexistence Under Mughal Rule
Perhaps most striking to European readers will be Della Valle’s account of the peaceful coexistence between Hindus and Muslims during Jahangir’s reign—a sharp contrast to the religious conflicts plaguing Europe during the Thirty Years’ War.
“The inhabitants are partly Gentiles [Hindus] and partly Mahometans [Muslims], and if I am not deceived, the former are the greater number,” he observes. “However they all live mixt together and peaceably, because the Gran Moghel [Emperor Jahangir]… makes no difference in his Dominions between the one sort and the other, and both in his Court and Armies, and even amongst men of the highest degree, they are of equal account and consideration.”
This policy of religious tolerance—remarkable for its time—allowed the Mughal Empire to effectively govern its predominantly Hindu population while maintaining stability across its vast territories.
## Strict Moral Codes Challenge European Assumptions
Della Valle’s observations about Hindu moral values challenge common European assumptions about “heathen” societies. He notes that Hindus consider “not only adultery, but even simple fornication a great sin,” unlike Muslims who permitted relations with female slaves.
Even more surprising to European readers may be his observation that Hindus “no-wise admit” slavery, “but hold it a sin; making use of free persons for their service and paying them wages as we do in Europe.” This wage-based employment system stands in stark contrast to the widespread practice of slavery in European colonies and trading posts during this period.
## Extraordinary Compassion Toward Animals
The Italian nobleman expresses particular fascination with Hindu and Jain attitudes toward animals. “In their religious rites, the Indians differ widely among themselves, for the most observant and the strictest neither eat nor kill any living thing,” he writes, describing how even insects “noxious to man, are taken between two fingers, as gently as possible and are softly thrown on the ground, care being taken that their necks should not be broken in the fall.”
In Cambay (modern Khambhat), Della Valle visited what may be the world’s first documented animal hospital, where birds that were “sick, lame, deprived of their mates or otherwise in need food or care” were “kept and tended there with diligence.” This institutional animal welfare predated similar European developments by centuries.
He also observed Hindus purchasing captive animals and birds from traders specifically to set them free—a practice of compassion that clearly moved the Italian observer.
## Weather Patterns and Agricultural Cycles
Demonstrating a naturalist’s curiosity, Della Valle documented the monsoon season in Gujarat, which he called “Pansecal” (likely a transcription of the local term). He noted that it lasted about three months beginning in mid-June, during which time “the rain is continual, and very great.”
This observation reveals his understanding of how this distinctive weather pattern shaped agricultural cycles and daily life throughout the subcontinent—a climatic feature entirely unknown in his Mediterranean homeland.
## A Valuable Historical Window
Della Valle’s detailed accounts provide a rare glimpse into daily life in 17th century India through the eyes of an educated European observer who approached his subject with genuine curiosity rather than merely seeking to confirm preconceived notions.
His observations on religious coexistence, moral values, animal welfare, and social practices offer valuable historical context for understanding India’s traditions of pluralism and compassion that continue to influence the subcontinent today.
*This historical news item is based on Pietro Della Valle’s letters to Mario Schipano documenting his travels in western India during 1623-1624.*
