Where was Afanasii Nikitin from, and why did he visit Vijayanagara?

1) He was from Indonesia and visited for religious purposes
2) He was from Russia and visited as a merchant
3) He was from Portugal and visited as an explorer
4) He was from Persia and visited as a diplomat

Choose the correct answer from the given options:

2

The correct answer is Option 2 - 2

2) He was from Russia and visited as a merchant

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.