Previous Year Question

Francisco Pelsaert was a Dutch merchant and an officer of the Dutch East India Company. He came to India in the early seventeenth century, and his Indian career directly overlapped with the reign of Jahangir, 1605–1627 CE.

He sailed for the East in 1618 and was posted to India around 1620 CE. He subsequently reached Agra and remained associated with Dutch commercial activities there.

He worked for approximately seven years at Agra and other places. During this period, he closely observed the Mughal economy, trade, towns, administration, agriculture, social life and the condition of ordinary people.

In 1626 CE, he prepared a detailed account, later published as Jahangir's India: The Remonstrantie of Francisco Pelsaert. It is an important foreign account for the study of India under Jahangir.

The other travellers belong to different chronological contexts—

Father Anthony Monserate came during Akbar's reign and was associated with the Jesuit mission to Akbar's court.

Niccolo Manucci reached India in the middle of the seventeenth century and his major experiences belong to the periods of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.

Francois Bernier remained in India roughly during 1656–1668 CE and recorded the closing years of Shah Jahan's reign and the reign of Aurangzeb.

Therefore, the traveller who visited India during Jahangir's reign was Francisco Pelsaert.