In a timeline of foreign travellers to the subcontinent, a pair of dates beside a traveller's name carrying no label of its own stands for which of the following?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The lifespan of the traveller
Option (1) The lifespan of the traveller — Correct. When no label is given, the dates are the <strong>lifespan of the traveller</strong>, as for al-Biruni (973-1048) or Bernier (1620-88).
Option (2) The years the traveller spent in India — Incorrect. Years spent in India are <strong>marked with their own label</strong>, as for Afanasii Nikitin (1466-72) and Mahmud Wali Balkhi (1626-31). An unlabelled pair is not read this way.
Option (3) The years in which the traveller wrote his account — Incorrect. The timeline gives <strong>no writing dates</strong> for any account. An unlabelled pair of dates is read as the lifespan.
Option (4) The years of the traveller's journey from his homeland — Incorrect. Journey dates are not the default reading either. A single visit is labelled, as for Duarte Barbosa's 1518 visit to India.
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