Some of Tagore’s travel writings carried the imprints of the poet’s visions of historical progression and nationalism. Tagore’s Europe Provasir Patra (Letters of a migrant from Europe) or Europe Yatrir Diary (The diary of a traveller to Europe) contained a comparison between what he saw as a dynamic Western culture and a relatively static east. Accompanied by Suniti Chatterjee who described Southeast Asia as ‘island India’, Tagore’s search for the footprints of ‘our’ ancestors had given the travel piece a distinct historical cast. Tagore’s pilgrimage to Southeast Asia requires to be placed in the larger backdrop of the research activity of the Greater India Society in Calcutta. © Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla 2017.