Question

Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese traveller, visited India with the object of _________.
A- Working as Chinese Ambassador to India
B- Studying the life of Indian people
C- Studying in Nalanda University
D- Securing copies of Buddhist scriptures

Answer 1

Hint
During Emperor Harsha's time, the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India. He traveled to Afghanistan from India to other locations in Central Asia.

Complete answer:
Hiuen Tsang's visit to India was mainly aimed at acquiring awareness of Buddhism and collecting its religious texts. He slipped away from there in 629 A.D, as he did not get the permission of the Chinese emperor to visit India. He crossed the Gobi Desert, visited a number of Central Asian locations, including Kashagar, Samarkand and Balkha, and entered Afghanistan. He met and found worshippers of the Light, a great number of monks and adherents of Buddhism, Stupas and monasteries in various locations.

He reached Taxila from Afghanistan via Peshawar. He covered the journey from China to India in about a year. Then he lived for almost fourteen years in India. He went to Kashmir from Taxila and then visited a variety of places in India, including Mathura, Kannauj, Sravasti, Ayodhya, Kapilvastu, Kusinagara, Sarnath, Vaisali, Pataliputra, Rajagraha, Bodha-Gaya, and Nalanda.

For around five years, he stayed at the University of Nalanda. Then he went to Bengal and even visited South India, as far as Kanchi. He was a guest of Bhaskara Varman, the Kamarupa king. From there he was called to Harsha's court. To honour him, Harsha called a religious assembly at Kannauj. The assembly was presided over by Hiuen Tsang.

Therefore the correct answer is D

Note
When he returned to China, during the reign of Harsha, he wrote a thorough description of India in his book 'Si-yu-ki' or 'Record of the Western Countries'. His description was acknowledged at that time as the best available source of knowledge of India's administrative, social and cultural situation. His account of India, however, is not wholly dependable. It is confused in many ways, while it is mainly biased because Hiuen Tsang used his explanation as a way of glorifying Buddhism and Harsha as followers of it.