In December 2004 the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and India was marked. This figure does not disclose the real depth of the relations between the two ancient peoples, the Bulgarian and the Indian, which date from millennia. They were in contact in different historical periods, one of which is the Empire of the Kushans. Evidence of close links is found in architecture, culture and language, as well as in the ancient scripts. Linguistic similarities are not based only on the fact that Bulgarian, as a member of the Indo-European family of languages, is related to Sanskrit. In the old Bulgarian alphabet, the Glagolitic, there are elements very similar to the Indian script Brahmi preceding the Devanagari.

Archaeological excavations in Northeastern Bulgaria, where the cradle of the First Bulgarian Kingdom was, uncovered objects related to the cult of Buddha, Buddha statuettes, and also statuettes of the Hindu god Ganesha, of the creator of Jainism, Mohavira, etc. Even in the iconography of the remarkable medieval Bulgarian monument The Madara Horseman certain features of a Tibetan-Buddhist deity can be discerned. According to the great Bulgarian scholar Ivan Duychev, these were brought by the proto-Bulgarians and their related peoples. The presence of such monuments in the Bulgarian lands indicates that the initial knowledge of the Bulgarians about India and the early penetration of Hindu culture was the result of direct communications and not only through Byzantium.

Interesting information about India can be found in the medieval Bulgarian literature. In the work of Yoan Exarch “Heavens” from the late 9th c. the “Indian Sea” is mentioned. Ioan Exarch was also familiar with the great sacred Indian river the Gang. The “Six days…” by the same Old Bulgarian writer tells about the fish “swimming in the Indian Sea”. The translated during the reign of Tsar Simeon “Dialogues” by Pseudocaesarius (compiled in mid-6th c.) give an account of the Indian Brahmins, who “do not kill and do not eat anything animated, nor take wine”. Sporadic information about the Brahmins is also found in other Slavic and Old Bulgarian manuscripts from the Middle Ages.

This tradition in Bulgarian literature continues in the late Middle Ages. At the close of the 14th c. Konstantin Kostenechki translated a short description of a journey, giving general information about the road from India to Gallia. An Old Bulgarian literary collection of the 14th c., kept at the “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library in Sofia, contains “Stories of the Indian Kingdom” with interesting accounts about the riches and wonders of the Indian land. Information about India is also found in “The Lovchanski Collection”, compiled in the 16th c., where the country is called “Great India”.

A favorite reading of the Bulgarians in the Middle Ages and later, all the way to the Revival, was “Alexandria”, describing the march of Alexander the Great to India. The book abounds in bizarre adventures, encounters with wise Brahmins, battles with elephant-mounted troops, etc. The Old Bulgarian literature borrowed from India the plot of the novelette “Stefanit and Ihnilat”, an amusing story of human behavior and deeds through examples from the wildlife. Widest popularity during the Bulgarian Revival acquired the novelette “Barlaam and Joasaph”, based on the life of Buddha. The Indian king Avenir, his son Joasaph (Buddha), and the sage Barlaam can be also recognized among the personages in the medieval Bulgarian church murals, although modified in the spirit of Christianity.

In the works of Georgi Sava Rakovski on the origin of the Bulgarians a considerable space is given to the ancient links with India. The ideologist of the national liberation movement wrote many articles, intended to raise the national self-esteem of the Bulgarian people, fighting for spiritual and political liberation, with examples from its history bearing on the ancient Indian culture. He discovered and described many instances of kinship between the Bulgarian language and Sanskrit, as well as analogies in the contemporary Bulgarian folklore with deities and personages from Indian mythology. In his opinion, few European peoples could boast of such treasure. The interest of the revolutionary Rakovski in India was not limited to its ancient history and rich cultural heritage. As a humanist, he sympathized with the Indian people struggling for its independence. Back in 1857 G. S. Rakovski raised his voice in support of this struggle. The Bulgarian intelligentsia at the time was faced with similar problems, fighting for spiritual independence from the Greek Patriarchate and for political liberation from the rule of the Turkish Sultan, and strongly sympathized with the struggle of the Indian people. The Revival Period press regularly informed readers about the events in India. In 1857 the Bulgarian Istanbul Gazette published several reports from the British press about the seizure of Delhi, which was the heart of the uprising, and the assignment of British warships to Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and other cities. The newspapers Adviser, Century and Right reported with compassion about epidemics, famine and natural calamities in India in 1864 and 1866.

In the 1870s the interest in India strengthened and in 1872 the Bulgarian journal Cultural Club published an extensive article on India and the Indians. The country was described as a land of wonders, where “gold, diamonds and rubies are scattered on the ground as pebbles in our country”, where “aromatic plants brightened your existence with their pleasant taste and fragrance”, where live “the most majestic animals, awe-striking with their size, power and beauty, such as the big elephant, the royal tiger, the proud lion, the gigantic boa”, etc. Despite all these riches, the author of the article went on, the Indian people is suffering. “Although India is the cradle of human education, from where the Egyptians and then the Hellenes acquired it and took it to Rome, and via Rome to all western peoples who are now at the top of human civilization, the Indians, those tutors of humankind, are now lagging behind…” The reason for this historical injustice and sad phenomenon the author sees in “the wrong social relations” and the fact that “30,000 Brits keep under subordination a population of 120 million and a space of land as large as Europe”. The Bulgarians at the time, being the largest ethnicity in the European part of Turkey, were also forced to endure a state administration foreign to their culture.