According the Portuguese writer Nuniz, the women in Vijayanagara Empire were expert in which of the following areas? ​ 1. Wrestling ​ 2. Astrology ​ 3. Accounting ​ 4. Soothsaying ​ Select the correct answer using the code given below. ​

The answer is D, because all four statements are attributed to Vijayanagara women in Fernão Nuniz's chronicle, written around 1535-37 during Achyuta Raya's reign. Nuniz, a Portuguese horse-trader, describes women who wrestled, women skilled in astrology and soothsaying, and women engaged in accounting and trade. Read it as a foreign observer's account, not a formal census, but UPSC treats it as a direct textual source.

Why each option fails:

• A omits statement 4, soothsaying.
• B omits statement 2, astrology.
• C omits statements 1 and 3, wrestling and accounting.

The core concept is the use of foreign travellers' accounts (Abdur Razzaq, Domingo Paes, Nuniz) as sources for the social and economic life of Vijayanagara. For Mains GS-1, this helps you discuss the status and occupations of women in medieval South India, with the caveat that such accounts often describe urban elites and markets rather than the whole society.

Trap: Aspirants often assume women were confined to domestic roles in medieval India and drop the accounting or wrestling statements, or they reject soothsaying as not a skill and pick option A.