More Ancient Indians in Roman Egypt? https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Dr-Raoul-McLaughlin/a/2340

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]My name is Dr. Raoul McLaughlin. I am an expert on the ancient world economy and especially trade beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire.

[00:00:09]I'm returning to a subject that was recently on the news and that is the discovery of Tamil and other ancient Indian graffiti in Roman Egypt.

[00:00:18]The graffiti was found in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings where the pharaohs were buried in ancient underground tomb complexes.

[00:00:27]So, I spoke about these findings in an earlier video and reviewed some of the details that had been revealed during an international conference.

[00:00:36]The discoveries have been made public, but there are still few theories explaining their significance.

[00:00:43]One academic has described the graffiti as evidence of ancient Indian integration into Roman society, but there are problems with this view.

[00:00:53]As one of you said in the comments to my last video, the graffiti could have been written by a small group of foreign traders and diplomats in perhaps a single visit.

[00:01:04]So, back to the evidence and its context.

[00:01:08]Not all these royal tombs would have been open to sightseers during the Roman era.

[00:01:14]You can imagine how difficult it would be to enter or explore these underground passages with simple oil lamps.

[00:01:21]And of course, any flame would also consume oxygen making the environment stuffier and more difficult to breathe.

[00:01:30]Modern surveys have cataloged close to 2,000 examples of ancient graffiti at the tombs.

[00:01:36]And about half of the graffiti were scratched by visitors in and around the tomb complex of Ramesses V.

[00:01:45]The vast majority of the ancient graffiti is in Egyptian Coptic, Greek, and Latin.

[00:01:51]And only about 30 graffiti texts are Indian.

[00:01:55]This would represent about one in a hundred examples.

[00:01:59]However, the Indian graffiti does not occur at 30 different locations randomly next to Greek and Roman texts.

[00:02:07]The Indian graffiti is grouped together at particular points.

[00:02:11]It is not a random sample of through traffic by visitors occurring over a long period.

[00:02:18]Instead, it fits the profile of a party of sightseers being led around and pausing to decorate a particular wall with their messages.

[00:02:28]The Indian scripts appear in five tombs and eight of the graffiti mention a particular individual called Sikai Kora, Sikai the chief.

[00:02:38]He was probably the leader of this Tamil group.

[00:02:41]His name appears higher up than the others confirming his dominance.

[00:02:47]The Tamil chief Sikai might have been a royal figure, but the title could also apply to the leader of a merchant group or even a military commander.

[00:02:57]The military explanation has been suggested by Professor Charlotte Smith who points out that merchant ships were sometimes attacked by pirates on sailings from India to Egypt.

[00:03:09]The Indians may have followed the Roman example and had a group of soldiers on board their vessels to deter attack.

[00:03:17]Of course, a few other Indian scripts have also been identified in the Valley of the Kings.

[00:03:24]These are in North Indian languages.

[00:03:27]These could be the records of another group of Indian visitors with a special purpose, perhaps even diplomatic.

[00:03:34]One text in Sanskrit refers to Indranandin, messenger of King Kshaharata.

[00:03:44]This was a representative of a Saka king in Northwest India.

[00:03:49]So, what is the explanation for this?

[00:03:53]Maybe it was a Roman governor taking a group of foreign envoys on a tour of monumental ancient locations.

[00:04:02]Okay.

[00:04:03]So, probably the most surprising aspect of this discovery is that nobody identified these graffiti texts as Indian until recently.

[00:04:12]And that raises another possibility.

[00:04:15]Are there Indian texts at other ancient Egyptian sites frequented by Greek and Roman sightseers?

[00:04:22]What about the pyramids, the Sphinx, or the Colossi of Memnon?

[00:04:27]I haven't had a chance to go through the records, but this is something you can do and perhaps make the discovery yourself.

[00:04:33]Most of the ancient graffiti at the leading Egyptian sites has been cataloged and published in modern records.

[00:04:40]These publications include drawings of the texts and even photographic plates.

[00:04:46]The main publication for the pyramids is by Goyon.

[00:04:51]His record includes drawings, plates, and descriptions of the graffiti on the pyramids carved from ancient to modern times.

[00:04:59]Another major tourist site in Roman Egypt was the so-called Colossus of Memnon.

[00:05:05]This was in fact two monumental statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep the third which was misnamed by the Greeks.

[00:05:13]Numerous pieces of ancient graffiti were scratched onto the statues.

[00:05:17]The texts were cataloged by Bernard in another French publication.

[00:05:23]These records were also recently reconsidered by Rawson and Meyer in a study called The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus 2018.

[00:05:37]You can find copies of these books online at sites such as the Internet Library.

[00:05:41]But in the digital downloads that I could access I found that the photographic plates are too fuzzy to be studied properly.

[00:05:49]Many older universities will have physical copies of these books in their libraries, but likely in special collections.

[00:05:57]Again, they would probably give you access to a download that might not be the sharpest and the clearest.

[00:06:04]The British Museum would be an obvious choice to access the physical books.

[00:06:09]Anyway, I will include some of the pyramid plates at the end of this video.

[00:06:14]Perhaps the Indians visited other tourist sites in Egypt.

[00:06:19]Let me know if you spot anything.

[00:06:22]Thank you for your attention.

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