Class 12 History - Themes in Indian History - II - Chapter Kings and Chronicles NCERT Solutions | What were the concerns that shaped Mugha

What were the distinctive features of the Mughal nobility? How was their relationship with the emperor shaped?

Discuss, with examples, the distinctive features of Mughal chronicles.

Discuss the major features of Mughal provincial administration. How did the centre control the provinces?

Identify the elements that went into the making of the Mughal ideal of kingship.

Assess the role played by women of the imperial household in the Mughal Empire.

Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.

In what ways would the daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court have conveyed a sense of the power of the emperor?

To what extent do you think the visual material presented in this chapter corresponds with Abu’l Fazl’s description of the taswir (Source 1)?

Write a note on the Kitab-ul-Hind.

What have been the methods used to study the ruins of Hampi over the last two centuries? In what way do you think they would have complemented the information provided by the priests of the Virupaksha temple?

What are the problems in using the Ain as a source for reconstructing agrarian history? How do historians deal with this situation?

Explain with examples what historians mean by the integration of cults.

Compare and contrast the perspectives from which Ibn Battuta and Bernier wrote their accounts of their travels in India.

How were the water requirements of Vijayanagara met?

To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.

To what extent do you think the architecture of mosques in the subcontinent reflects a combination of universal ideals and local traditions?

Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier’s account.

What do you think were the advantages and disadvantages of enclosing agricultural land within the fortified area of the city?

On an outline map of India, plot three major sufi shrines, and three places associated with temples (one each of a form of Vishnu, Shiva and the goddess).

Read this excerpt from Bernier:

Numerous are the instances of handsome pieces of workmanship made by persons destitute of tools, and who can scarcely be said to have received instruction from a master. Sometimes they imitate so perfectly articles of European manufacture that the difference between the original and copy can hardly be discerned. Among other things, the Indians make excellent muskets, and fowling- pieces, and such beautiful gold ornaments that it may be doubted if the exquisite workmanship of those articles can be exceeded by any European goldsmith. I have often admired the beauty, softness, and delicacy of  their paintings.

List the crafts mentioned in the passage. Compare
these with the descriptions of artisanal activity in
the chapter.

What impression of the lives of the ordinary people of Vijayanagara can you cull from the various descriptions in the chapter?

To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?

What are the architectural traditions that inspired the architects of Vijayanagara? How did they transform these traditions?

On an outline map of the world, mark approximately Italy, Portugal, Iran and Russia. Trace the routes the travellers mentioned on p.176 would have taken to reach Vijayanagara.

Analyse, with illustrations, why bhakti and sufi thinkers adopted a variety of languages in which to express their opinions.

Do you think Ibn Battuta’s account is useful in arriving at an understanding of life in contemporary urban centres? Give reasons for your answer.

What does the architecture of buildings like the Lotus Mahal and elephant stables tell us about the rulers who commissioned them?

Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the Mughal fiscal system.