India’s ties with Iceland reach back four centuries

India and Iceland have maintained cultural links for centuries, R. Ravindra writes in an opinion article published by mbl.is, highlighting historical connections ranging from a 17th-century Icelandic traveller to the influence of Indian literature and philosophy in Iceland.

Speaking at the third India Nordic Summit in Oslo on May 19, 2026, Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir placed particular emphasis on the Icelandic word “samband”, meaning connection or relationship. In an Icelandic translation of her remarks, she said that people needed more “samband” in modern times.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken in Hindi about the cultural ties between India and the Nordic countries. He explained that the Hindi word “sambandh” means connections, bonds and relationships.

The links between India and Iceland are not new. Existing sources trace them to the 17th century, when Jón Ólafsson Indíafari travelled to India in 1622.

Ólafsson was a sailor from Iceland’s Westfjords. He travelled to India aboard a Danish ship and stayed from October 1622 until September 1624 in the Danish settlement by the fort at Tharangambadi. In 1660, he wrote his autobiography, describing his experiences in India, including its temples, dancers and the rule of the king in the Tharangambadi region. His autobiography is therefore the first eyewitness account of India written in Iceland.

Interest in India continued in Iceland throughout the 19th century with the spread of printing and the publication of Icelandic magazines and books. Journals including Fjölnir, Skírnir and Þjóðólfur published extensive coverage of developments in India, military expeditions, the war in Afghanistan, the Opium Wars and the 1857 uprising against British rule.

19th-century articles and accounts also explored Indian festivals such as Holi, wild animals including elephants, and Sanskrit. These writings are available through timarit.is.

By the end of the 19th century, interest in India had expanded to philosophical ideas such as Vedanta and yoga. The Vedanta philosophy of Swami Vivekananda influenced the Icelandic writers Þórbergur Þórðarson and Jón Thoroddsen, who translated his lectures under the title Starfskraftur.

The Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore also had a visible influence on Iceland’s literary world in the early 20th century. Tagore became the first Asian recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1913. His work Gitanjali was published in Icelandic translation under the title Ljóðformur in 1919.

Icelandic writer and Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness attended a lecture by Tagore in Vancouver in 1929. He later wrote the essay “Rabindra Nath Tagore í Vancouver”, in which he discussed, among other things, the views of the “dreamy Eastern sage” and described Tagore’s voice as “distinctly Gregorian”.

Laxness visited India in 1958 and was a state guest at Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. He also met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. For the centenary of Tagore’s birth in 1961, Laxness wrote a second essay in English, “Gitanjali in Iceland”, about the importance of Tagore’s poetic prose to Icelandic writers.

In 2026, Tagore remains part of Icelanders’ literary memory.