Which of the following statements about the travelogue of Abdur Razza…

Which of the following statements about the travelogue of Abdur Razzaq are correct?

(A) Abdur Razzaq wrote his travelogue in the 1440s.
(B) He described the people of the port of Calicut as "a strange nation".
(C) The idol-house he admired stood within three leagues of Calicut.
(D) The statue in the entrance portico of that idol-house was made of silver.
(E) The statue had two red rubies for eyes.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B and E only

(A) Abdur Razzaq wrote his travelogue in the 1440s. — Correct. His travelogue was written in the 1440s and mixes emotions and perceptions.

(B) He described the people of the port of Calicut as "a strange nation". — Correct. He did not like what he saw at Calicut and called its people a strange nation.

(C) The idol-house he admired stood within three leagues of Calicut. — Incorrect. The temple stood within three leagues of Mangalore, after he had crossed the Western Ghats. The place is changed.

(D) The statue in the entrance portico of that idol-house was made of silver. — Incorrect. The statue was made of gold. The idol-house itself was covered with cast bronze.

(E) The statue had two red rubies for eyes. — Correct. The statue had two red rubies for eyes, so finely made that it seemed to see.

NCERT (2026-27): “5.3 A unique system of communication …
The travelogue of Abdur Razzaq written in the 1440s is an interesting mixture of emotions and perceptions. On the one hand, he did not appreciate what he saw in the port of Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in Kerala, which was populated by “a people the likes of whom I had never imagined”, describing them as “a strange nation”. Later in his visit to India, he arrived in Mangalore, and crossed the Western Ghats. Here he saw a temple that filled him with admiration: Within three leagues (about nine miles of Mangalore, I saw an idol-house the likes of which is not to be found in all the world. It was a square, approximately ten yards a side, five yards in height, all covered with cast bronze, with four porticos. In the entrance portico was a statue in the likeness of a human being, full stature, made of gold. It had two red rubies for eyes, so cunningly made that you would say it could see. …”