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Question 145 of 236 · Books & Authors
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'The Description of the World' (The Travels) is the account of which traveller?

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Answer: Option A — Marco Polo

Detailed Solution

"The Description of the World" ("Il Milione", also known as "The Travels of Marco Polo") is the account of the Venetian merchant and traveller Marco Polo's journeys across Asia in the late 13th century.

How the book was written:

  • After returning to Venice in 1295, Marco Polo was captured during a war between Venice and Genoa and imprisoned in Genoa.
  • In prison (around 1298-99), he dictated his travel stories to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, a writer of romances, who wrote them down in Old French.

About Marco Polo's travels:

  • He travelled with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo along the Silk Road to China, reaching the court of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan around 1275.
  • He served Kublai Khan for about 17 years and travelled widely in China.
  • On his return journey by sea (around 1292-93), he visited South-East Asia, Sri Lanka and southern India.
  • In India, he described the Pandya kingdom on the Coromandel coast, the pearl fisheries, and the port of Motupalli in the Kakatiya kingdom, then ruled by Queen Rudramadevi, whom he praised.
  • His book introduced Europeans to the wealth and culture of China and Asia and inspired later explorers, including Christopher Columbus.

Other foreign travellers to India:

  • Ibn Battuta (Morocco): "Rihla"; visited India in 1333 and served as a judge (qazi) under Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
  • Niccolò de' Conti (Italy): visited Vijayanagara around 1420.
  • Abdur Razzaq (Persia): visited Vijayanagara in 1443.
  • Vasco da Gama (Portugal): reached Calicut by sea in 1498.
  • Domingo Paes and Fernão Nuniz (Portugal): described Vijayanagara in the 16th century.
  • François Bernier (France): "Travels in the Mughal Empire".

Why not the other options?

  • ✗Ibn Battuta wrote the "Rihla".
  • ✗Vasco da Gama was an explorer who reached India by sea in 1498.
  • ✗Niccolò de' Conti visited Vijayanagara around 1420.

Quick tip

Remember: Marco Polo (Venice) = "The Description of the World" (dictated to Rustichello da Pisa, about 1298); visited Kublai Khan, Pandya kingdom and Kakatiya port Motupalli (Rudramadevi); Ibn Battuta = "Rihla".

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Books & Authors — Preparation

This question tests your understanding of Books & Authors, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers famous books and their authors, including ancient Indian texts, works of the freedom struggle, classic and modern literature, autobiographies of famous people, and recently published books by well-known personalities. Questions usually name a book and ask for its author, or the other way round. Ancient and historical books, such as Arthashastra (Kautilya), Indica (Megasthenes) and Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore), are tested most often. Autobiographies are another favourite, so learn titles such as 'My Experiments with Truth' (Mahatma Gandhi) and 'Wings of Fire' (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam). Practise the books and authors questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

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