RAS question
Which Chinese pilgrim visited India during the reign of Chandragupta II?
Correct answer: (D) Fa Hien.
Fa Hien, also known as Faxian, was the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited India during the reign of Gupta ruler Chandragupta II.
Explanation
Fa Hien, or Faxian, is the right answer because eGyanKosh (IGNOU) states that the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim-scholar travelled to India around 399-414 CE during Chandragupta II's Gupta-period regime. He was a Buddhist pilgrim who described the Gupta Empire's condition and the practice of Buddhism. His visit matters for history questions because he collected Buddhist manuscripts, studied at Buddhist monasteries, and his account preserves observations on social, economic and religious conditions under Gupta rulers. So the question is testing the traveller-ruler pairing, not merely the fact that several foreign visitors came to India.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Hiuen Tsang belongs to a later setting because his visit was in Harshavardhana's seventh-century reign, not Chandragupta II's Gupta period.
- (B) Megasthenes was not a Chinese pilgrim; he was a Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya.
- (C) I-Tsing does not fit Chandragupta II's reign because his Indian visit was in the late seventh century CE.
Concept
This tests Ancient Indian History through foreign travellers' accounts and their chronological association with Indian rulers. It recurs in RAS because these accounts are external evidence for reconstructing political, social and religious conditions.