HistoryMedieval India: An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara

Which foreign visitor to Vijayanagara described a broad and beautiful…

Which foreign visitor to Vijayanagara described a broad and beautiful street where many merchants sold rubies, diamonds, emeralds and pearls?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → Domingo Paes

Option (1) Fernao Nuniz — Incorrect. Nuniz, another Portuguese visitor, wrote about markets full of cheap fruit and meat. The street of jewel merchants is from Paes.

Option (2) Domingo Paes — Correct. Paes gave a vivid description of the bazaar: a broad street where merchants sold precious stones, with a fair every evening for horses and fruit.

Option (3) Abdur Razzaq — Incorrect. Abdur Razzaq was an envoy from Persia. He is remembered for his account of the city's fortifications.

Option (4) Nicolo de Conti — Incorrect. Nicolo de Conti was an Italian trader who visited in the fifteenth century. This account of the bazaar street is not his.

NCERT (2026-27): “6. Plotting Palaces, Temples and Bazaars …
Paes gives a vivid description of the bazaar: Going forward, you have a broad and beautiful street … In this street live many merchants, and there you will find all sorts of rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and pearls, and seed-pearls, and cloths, and every other sort of thing there is on earth and that you may wish to buy. Then you have there every evening a fair where they sell many common horses and nags, and also many citrons, and limes, and oranges, and grapes, and every other kind of garden stuff, and wood; you have all in this street.”