Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the Mughal fiscal system.
(i)Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. Land Revenue collected was used to pay salaries and to meet different kinds of administrative expenses. So it was considered important to establish an administrative apparatus to ensure control over agricultural production.
(ii)Thus, before fixing land revenue, Mughal state first acquired specific information about the extent of agricultural lands and their produce.
(iii)Land revenue collection arrangements was consisted of two stages of assessment. These were Jama and hasil. Cultivators were given the choice to pay land revenue either in cash or kind. The state preferred to collect land revenue as cash. Attempts were made to maximize profits from the land revenue collection.
(iv)Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each province to fix land revenue. According to a decree of Akbar, it was the responsibility of malguzar to make cultivator pay land revenue in kind and it was also kept open. Thus, it is clear from the evidence that the monetary transactions were very important. To continue this policy efforts by subsequent emperors like Aurangzeb continued to measure land for collection of land revenue.
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Discuss the ways in which panchayats and village headmen regulated rural society.
Examine the role played by zamindars in Mughal India.
On an outline map of the world, mark the areas which had economic links with the Mughal Empire, and trace out possible routes of communication.
To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
Discuss, with examples, the significance of monetary transactions during the period under consideration.
Describe the role played by women in agricultural production.
To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.
What are the problems in using the Ain as a source for reconstructing agrarian history? How do historians deal with this situation?
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?
Explain with examples what historians mean by the integration of cults.
Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.
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 do you think the architecture of mosques in the subcontinent reflects a combination of universal ideals and local traditions?
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?
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?
What were the similarities and differences between the be-shari‘a and ba-shari‘a sufi traditions?
What were the distinctive features of the Mughal nobility? How was their relationship with the emperor shaped?
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 the visual material presented in this chapter corresponds with Abu’l Fazl’s description of the taswir (Source 1)?
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.