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UPSC 2018 GS-I · 10 marks · 150 words

Assess the importance of the accounts of the Chinese and Arab travellers in the reconstruction of the history of India.

What “Assess” demands

weigh the significance or extent of something and state how much it matters, with justification.

The characteristic failure: asserting importance without establishing degree.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

  • Chinese: Fa-Hien on Gupta administration and Buddhist practice, Hiuen Tsang on Harsha's court and Nalanda, I-tsing on monastic life
  • Arab: Al-Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind on Indian sciences and caste, Al-Masudi, Ibn Battuta on the Tughlaq court and Indian Ocean trade
  • Value: outsider observation of everyday life, roads, coinage, religion — matters indigenous sources treat as unremarkable
  • Corroboration: they date and cross-check inscriptions and coin evidence
  • Limitations to state: religious bias, hearsay, patron-pleasing, and short itineraries generalised to a subcontinent

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