Did Vasco da Gama really land at Kappad? MGS Narayanan pulled curtain on textbook tale

Kozhikode: As India mourns the passing of eminent historian MGS Narayanan, his legacy of challenging long-accepted historical narratives continues to echo—none more powerfully than his assertion that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama never landed at Kappad beach, contrary to what generations have read in history textbooks.

Once, while speaking at the  Kerala Literature Festival during a session titled ‘Re-reading Kerala History’, Narayanan made a striking claim backed by Portuguese royal chronicles: Vasco da Gama, the celebrated European navigator credited with discovering the sea route to India, never stepped foot on the shores of Kappad, a site long marked by a commemorative stone and enshrined in Indian history books.

“According to the records of Portuguese court chroniclers, such an event did not take place at Kappad,” Narayanan said.

“No one has tried to clear that misconception. The government has even installed a memorial stone at the Kappad beach. Actually Gama landed at Panthalayini near Kollam in the district because there was a port there and Kozhikode did not have one. It does not have a port even now.”

Narayanan traced Gama’s route from Lisbon, around the Cape of Good Hope—then ominously called the Cape of Storms—and onward to the east coast of Africa. There, a local king provided Gama with an Arab guide who knew the route to India. However, stormy weather led the ship off course. When the sailors saw lights on the shore, they believed it to be Calicut.

Narayanan recounted how local rowers eventually connected the crew with the Zamorin, then stationed at Ponnani. “Only days later was the Portuguese group allowed to disembark—at Panthalayini, not Kappad,” he explained.

M.G.S. Narayanan’s passing earlier today marks the loss of not just a scholar, but a fearless voice in Indian historiography.