Which foreign traveller liked the climate of Malwa very much?
2023
Which foreign traveller liked the climate of Malwa very much?
- A.
Hiuen Tsang
- B.
I-tsing
- C.
Niccolao Manucci
- 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.