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Consider the following statements about the travellers who visited India: 1. Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi from Herat visited Delhi and Daulatabad. 2. Ibn Battuta provides detailed accounts of both Delhi and Daulatabad. 3. According to Francois Bernier there was no private property in land in Mughal India. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Explanation
Statement 1 is incorrect because Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, an envoy from Herat, is primarily noted for his detailed description of the Vijayanagara Empire in South India during the fifteenth century, rather than Delhi and Daulatabad [3]. Statement 2 is correct as Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler, described Delhi as a vast and populous city, the largest in India, and noted that Daulatabad in Maharashtra was of comparable size, effectively rivaling Delhi [1]. Statement 3 is correct because Francois Bernier, a seventeenth-century French traveler, claimed that the Mughal Emperor was the sole owner of all land, asserting a lack of private property which he believed led to economic decline [3]. While Mughal records like the Ain-i-Akbari contradict this by describing revenue as a 'remuneration of sovereignty' rather than rent, Bernier's account remained influential in European discourse [3].
Sources
- [2] https://cuet.iitk.ac.in/sathee-cuet/student-corner/ncert-books/class-12/themes-in-indian-history/chapter-05-through-the-eyes-of-travellers-perceptions-of-society/
- [3] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 5: Through the Eyes of Travellers > 6.1 The question of landownership > p. 130
- [1] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART II, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 5: Through the Eyes of Travellers > 5.2 Ibn Battuta and Indian cities > p. 127