The Chinese source clears many of the obscurities of Indian history particularly those of the Sakas, Kushanas and Pallavas. Similarly, the Tibetan records are another important source and Indian history owes a deep debt to the Tibetan historian Taranath.
The Muslim travellers were good writers and good historians. Through them we know almost everything about the social and political condition of the Rashtrakutas. Al-Beruni helps us to reconstruct the history of the Hindus during their decadence. After Al- Beruni mention should be made of Al-Biladuri, Sulaiman, Al-Masudi, Hassan Nizam, etc.
But the accounts of the foreign writers cannot be taken at their face value. These suffer from several defects. First, most of the foreign writers did not know the local language and local customs. The second difficulty was that they did not stay in India for a long time. The third drawback was that the Greek writers very often wrote on hearsay rather than what they themselves observed. The fourth disadvantage was that the Chinese scholars looked Indian affairs from the Buddhist religious point of view. Thus there is always an element of risk in accepting the foreign accounts, and we know that Herodotus without coming to India described the Persian conquest of north-west India.