For the label, she wants a fifteenth-century account by an ambassador…

A historian at a museum in Hampi is writing a label on the military commanders who were given territories to govern by the Vijayanagara raya. These commanders collected taxes, kept horses and elephants for the king, and came to court each year with gifts. She wants the label to explain where the word amara in their title may come from, and to name a foreign visitor who wrote about their capital.

For the label, she wants a fifteenth-century account by an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia. Whose account should she use?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 3

The correct answer is Option (3) → Abdur Razzaq

Option (1) Nicolo de Conti — Incorrect. Nicolo de Conti visited in the fifteenth century too. He was an Italian trader.

Option (2) Afanasii Nikitin — Incorrect. Afanasii Nikitin also came in the fifteenth century. He was a merchant from Russia.

Option (3) Abdur Razzaq — Correct. Abdur Razzaq was an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia who visited the city in the fifteenth century.

Option (4) Duarte Barbosa — Incorrect. Duarte Barbosa came from Portugal, and only in the sixteenth century.

NCERT (2026-27): “3. Vijayanagara …
A large number of inscriptions of the kings of Vijayanagara and their nayakas recording donations to temples as well as describing important events have been recovered. Several travellers visited the city and wrote about it. Notable among their accounts are those of an Italian trader named Nicolo de Conti, an ambassador named Abdur Razzaq sent by the ruler of Persia, a merchant named Afanasii Nikitin from Russia, all of whom visited the city in the fifteenth century, and those of Duarte Barbosa, Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz from Portugal, who came in the sixteenth century.”