Accounts of Foreign Travellers to India: Books and PYQs

The correct answer is A, Hsuan Tsang. Hsuan Tsang, also written Hiuen Tsang or Xuanzang, reached India in the seventh century and spent years in the empire of Harshavardhana of Kannauj, who received him with honour; he studied at the monastery of Nalanda under Shilabhadra, attended the great religious assemblies at Kannauj and at Prayag, and recorded what he saw in the Si-Yu-Ki, or Records of the Western World. He is remembered as the prince of pilgrims. Option B is wrong because I-Tsing, spelt Etsing here, came later in the same century, after Harsha's death, and wrote chiefly on monastic discipline at Nalanda. Option C is wrong because Faxian, that is Fa-Hien, came far earlier, in the reign of Chandragupta the Second Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty. Option D is wrong because Ibn Battuta was not Chinese at all but a Moroccan judge of the fourteenth century who came in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

The correct answer is C, Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Ibn Battuta, a qazi from Tangier in Morocco, reached Delhi in the 1330s, and the Sultan, impressed by his learning, appointed him qazi of the capital and later sent him as an envoy to the court of China. His book, the Rihla, written in Arabic, describes the Sultan's court, the postal relay system, the coconut and the betel leaf, and the movement of the capital, and it is a first hand source for the reign. Option A is wrong because Alauddin Khalji ruled at the turn of the fourteenth century, a generation before Ibn Battuta arrived, and is associated with market control regulations. Option B is wrong because Jalaluddin Khalji, the founder of that dynasty, ruled even earlier. Option D is wrong because Feroz Shah Tughlaq succeeded Muhammad bin Tughlaq; Ibn Battuta had left India before his reign began. Fix the pairing in memory as Ibn Battuta with Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Al-Biruni with Mahmud of Ghazni.

The correct answer is C, Al-Biruni. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was born in Khwarezm, a region that lies in modern Uzbekistan, and came to India in the eleventh century in the train of Mahmud of Ghazni. He learned Sanskrit so that he could read Indian works himself and wrote in Arabic the study known as Kitab-ul-Hind or Tahqiq-i-Hind, covering religion, philosophy, astronomy, law and custom; his practice of stating a belief as its own believers hold it has earned him the title of founder of Indology. Option A is wrong because Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, though he too came from Central Asia, arrived in the fifteenth century as the envoy of Shah Rukh to Vijayanagara. Option B is wrong because Ibn Battuta came from Morocco in the fourteenth century. Option D is wrong because Francois Bernier was a French physician of the seventeenth century, attached to the Mughal court. The century in the stem is the quickest way to eliminate three of the four.

The correct answer is D, Venice. Marco Polo belonged to a family of merchants of the Republic of Venice, then the leading trading city of the Mediterranean, and he travelled overland to the court of Kublai Khan in China, returning by sea at the end of the thirteenth century. On that return voyage he touched the Pandya country of southern India and wrote of its pearl fishery, its horses brought by sea and its temples, and his book of travels became Europe's chief source on Asia for two centuries. Option A is wrong because Zurich is a Swiss city with no part in this story. Option B is wrong because Paris was the capital of France, whose travellers to India, Tavernier, Bernier and Thevenot, came four centuries later. Option C is wrong because Istanbul, then Constantinople, was the Byzantine and later Ottoman capital, a city Marco Polo's trade passed through but not his home. Remember Venice for Marco Polo and Tangier in Morocco for Ibn Battuta.

The correct answer is C, Francois Bernier. Bernier was a French physician who spent about twelve years in India in the middle of the seventeenth century and was attached to Prince Dara Shikoh as his physician, later serving the noble Danishmand Khan; he therefore watched the war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons from close quarters. His book, Travels in the Mogul Empire, compares Indian conditions with European ones page after page and argues that the crown's claim on all land discouraged improvement in agriculture, a view that shaped European writing on India for a long time. Option A is wrong because Hakim Afzal Khan is not the name recorded in this connection. Option B is wrong because Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan judge of the fourteenth century in the Delhi Sultanate, three centuries too early for a Mughal prince. Option D is wrong because Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese writer on Vijayanagara and the western coast, not a court physician.

The correct answer is A. After Alexander's death his general Seleucus Nicator took the eastern part of the empire, was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya and made peace with him, and sent Megasthenes to his court as ambassador. Megasthenes wrote Indica, which does not survive as a whole book but is known from the passages quoted by Arrian, Strabo and Diodorus; he described the walls and moat of Pataliputra, the king's routine, the administration of the city and a land free of famine, and he divided Indian society into seven classes, a division found in no Indian source. Option B is wrong because it was Deimachus who was sent to Bindusara and Dionysius, sent by Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, who came to Ashoka. Option C is wrong because Alexander fought Porus in person and sent no such envoy. Option D is wrong because Darius the Persian belongs to a much earlier age and sent no ambassador to Bimbisara.

The correct answer is B, Chandragupta the Second Vikramaditya. Fa-Hien travelled overland into India at the close of the fourth century and stayed for several years, coming chiefly to collect the texts of Buddhist monastic discipline; his account, known as the Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms, notes the charitable rest houses and hospitals, the mildness of punishments and the safety of the roads, and it is a valued picture of Gupta society. He is remarkable for never naming the emperor in whose realm he travelled. Option A is wrong because Samudragupta, the father of Chandragupta the Second, ruled earlier and is known from the Allahabad pillar inscription of Harisena. Option C is wrong because Harshavardhana of the seventh century was the host of Hiuen Tsang, not of Fa-Hien, and mixing up these two pilgrims is the commonest mistake here. Option D is wrong because Kanishka of the Kushanas ruled in the second century and is linked with the fourth Buddhist council.

The correct answer is B, Al-Biruni. Al-Biruni wrote this work in Arabic in the eleventh century as a careful account of Indian religion, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, law, custom and measurement, setting out each belief as its own followers held it and comparing it with Greek and Islamic learning; he had learned Sanskrit for the purpose, and the book is why he is called the founder of Indology. Option A is wrong because Amir Khusrau was a poet of the Delhi Sultanate who wrote in Persian, and his works include the Tughlaq Nama and the Khazain-ul-Futuh. Option C is wrong because Ziauddin Barani wrote the Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, a Persian history of the Sultanate sultans. Option D is wrong because Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, the chief source for the reign of Iltutmish and Razia. Pair the books with their authors: Indica with Megasthenes, Si-Yu-Ki with Hiuen Tsang, Kitab-ul-Hind with Al-Biruni and Rihla with Ibn Battuta.

The correct answer is B, Devaraya the Second. Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi came from Herat in the fifteenth century as the envoy of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh, and his account, part of the work Matla-us-Sadain, describes the great fortifications of Vijayanagara in seven concentric walls, the crowded bazaars, the jewel market and the court ceremony, and it is among the fullest descriptions of the city that survive. Option A is wrong because Harihara the First was a founder of the kingdom in the fourteenth century, long before this embassy. Option C is wrong because Krishnadeva Raya, the most famous of the Vijayanagara kings, ruled in the early sixteenth century and hosted the Portuguese writers Domingo Paes and Duarte Barbosa. Option D is wrong because Achyuta Deva Raya, who followed Krishnadeva Raya, was visited by the Portuguese Fernao Nuniz. The ordered list to remember is Nicolo Conti under Devaraya the First, Abdur Razzaq under Devaraya the Second, and Paes and Barbosa under Krishnadeva Raya.

The correct answer is B, James the First, to the court of Jahangir. Sir Thomas Roe reached India in the second decade of the seventeenth century as the formal ambassador of James the First of England and spent about three years at Jahangir's court, seeking a firm commercial treaty for the East India Company; he obtained trading concessions but not the treaty he wanted, and his journal, with the writings of his chaplain Edward Terry, is a close account of the court. Option A is wrong because Charles the First reigned later, in Shah Jahan's time, and sent no such embassy. Option C is wrong because Elizabeth the First did write to Akbar and her letter was carried by John Mildenhall, but Roe was not her envoy; the earlier Englishman received at Jahangir's court was William Hawkins. Option D is wrong because George the First reigned in the eighteenth century, after Aurangzeb's death. Fix the sequence as Hawkins first, then Roe as ambassador, both at Jahangir's court.