A conservation engineer is studying a stretch of the outermost wall of Vijayanagara. She notes that this wall links the hills surrounding the city. Its faces lean slightly inwards as they rise, and square or rectangular bastions jut out from it at intervals. Between the large stone blocks she finds no lime, mortar or any other cementing agent, yet the wall has stood for centuries. Behind the outer stones, the inner portion is filled with earth packed with rubble. She also reads the account of a fifteenth-century foreign visitor who was greatly impressed by these fortifications.
Identify the visitor whose account the engineer reads and what he recorded about the fortifications.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Abdur Razzaq - he wrote of seven lines of forts
Option (1) Domingo Paes - he wrote of three lines of forts — Incorrect. Both parts are wrong. Paes came in the sixteenth century, and the number of lines of forts recorded was seven.
Option (2) Abdur Razzaq - he wrote of three lines of forts — Incorrect. The visitor is right, but the number is not. Razzaq spoke of seven lines; he described the fields between the first, second and third walls, which is why three may tempt.
Option (3) Domingo Paes - he wrote of seven lines of forts — Incorrect. Domingo Paes was a Portuguese visitor who came in the sixteenth century. The record of seven lines of forts belongs to Razzaq.
Option (4) Abdur Razzaq - he wrote of seven lines of forts — Correct. Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador from the ruler of Persia to Calicut in the fifteenth century, admired the fortifications and wrote of seven lines of forts.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.2 Fortifications and roads … |