Which foreign traveller liked the climate of Malwa very much?

2023

Which foreign traveller liked the climate of Malwa very much?

  1. A.

    Hiuen Tsang

  2. B.

    I-tsing

  3. C.

    Niccolao Manucci

  4. D.

    Fa-Hien

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

Foreign travellers who visited India between the ancient and medieval periods recorded their observations of Indian regions -- climate, economy, society, and religion -- in personal travelogues, which historians use today as valuable primary sources for reconstructing regional history.

Among the four travellers named, Fa-Hien (Faxian) is the Chinese Buddhist monk who journeyed through India from 399 to 414 CE during the Gupta period. In his travel account Fo-Kwo-Ki (A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms), he described the regions he passed through, including Malwa, and noted that he liked the region's climate very much.

  • Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) travelled to India in the 7th century CE during Harshavardhana's reign and studied at Nalanda; his account is the Si-Yu-Ki, written about two and a half centuries after Fa-Hien's journey.

  • I-tsing reached India by the sea route in the late 7th century CE and recorded Buddhist monastic practice, not a description of Malwa's climate.

  • Niccolao Manucci was a 17th-century Italian traveller at the Mughal court, whose chronicle Storia do Mogor deals with Mughal political history, not the Gupta-era Malwa region.

Hence, the foreign traveller who liked the climate of Malwa very much was Fa-Hien.

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