RAS question
Consider the following pairs: Traveler - Period of Visit 1. Megasthenes - Mauryan period 2. Fa Hien - Gupta period 3. Hiuen Tsang - Mughal period Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
Correct answer: (A) 1 and 2 only.
Megasthenes is correctly matched with the Mauryan period and Fa Hien with the Gupta period, while Hiuen Tsang is not a Mughal-period traveller.
Explanation
Pairs 1 and 2 are correctly matched. Megasthenes visited India in the Mauryan context: Britannica identifies him as a Greek historian and diplomat sent by Seleucus I on embassies to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta. Fa Hien also fits the Gupta period; the cited Britannica account places Faxian among the Chinese pilgrims visiting India between 400 and 700 CE and specifically discusses this under the Gupta-period Buddhist context. Pair 3 is the trap. Hiuen Tsang, identified by Britannica as Xuanzang, travelled to India in the 7th century, spent time at Nalanda, and was honoured by Harsha, ruler of North India. That makes the Harshavardhana-period association correct, not the Mughal-period one. Therefore, only pairs 1 and 2 are correct.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) It includes pair 3, but Hiuen Tsang belongs to the 7th-century Harshavardhana context, not the Mughal period.
- (C) It treats all three pairs as correct even though the Hiuen Tsang-Mughal match is historically misplaced.
- (D) It omits the correctly matched Megasthenes-Mauryan pair and also includes the incorrect Hiuen Tsang-Mughal pair.
Concept
This tests the Ancient and Medieval History habit of matching foreign travellers with ruling periods. RAS repeatedly uses such pairs because they check chronology and the evidentiary value of travel accounts in one compact question.