Match List-I with List-II:
| List-I Travellers | List-II Description | ||
| (A) | Francois Bernier | (I) | Gave vivid description of coconut and paan |
| (B) | Ibn Battuta | (II) | Wrote about widespread poverty in India |
| (C) | Al-Biruni | (III) | Explained the caste-system by looking for parallels in other societies |
| (D) | Pelsaert | (IV) | Comparison of Mughal India with contemporary Europe |
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (A) - (IV), (B) - (I), (C) - (III), (D) - (II)
(A) Francois Bernier — this matches (IV) Comparison of Mughal India with contemporary Europe. This French traveller of the seventeenth century kept comparing what he saw in India with the situation in Europe. In almost every case he described India as a bleak situation beside the developments in Europe.
(B) Ibn Battuta — this matches (I) Gave vivid description of coconut and paan. The fourteenth-century traveller from Morocco wrote for readers who had never seen these two kinds of plant produce. His accounts of the coconut and the paan are among the best examples of how he made unfamiliar things vivid for them.
(C) Al-Biruni — this matches (III) Explained the caste-system by looking for parallels in other societies. The eleventh-century scholar from Uzbekistan pointed out that ancient Persia also had four social categories, from knights and princes down to peasants and artisans. In this way he suggested that social divisions were not unique to India.
(D) Pelsaert — this matches (II) Wrote about widespread poverty in India. This Dutch traveller came in the early decades of the seventeenth century and, like Bernier, was shocked to see the widespread poverty. He blamed the state: so much was taken from the peasants that even dry bread was scarcely left to fill their stomachs.
NCERT (2025-26): “3.1 Comparing ‘East’ and ‘West’ … Bernier travelled to several parts of the country, and wrote accounts of what he saw, frequently comparing what he saw in India with the situation in Europe. He dedicated his major writing to Louis XIV, the king of France, and many of his other works were written in the form of letters to influential officials and ministers. In virtually every instance Bernier described what he saw in India as a bleak situation in comparison to developments in Europe.… 5.1 The coconut and the paan … Some of the best examples of Ibn Battuta’s strategies of representation are evident in the ways in which he described the coconut and the paan, two kinds of plant produce that were completely unfamiliar to his audience.… 4.2 Al-Biruni’s description of the caste system … Al-Biruni tried to explain the caste system by looking for parallels in other societies. He noted that in ancient Persia, four social categories were recognised: those of knights and princes; monks, fire-priests and lawyers; physicians, astronomers and other scientists; and finally, peasants and artisans.…”
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