17th Century

Answer : Conflicting views have been expressed by the historians regarding the economic conditions of India during the Mughal period. On the one hand we hear of several famines which caused untold sufferings and on the other hand we hear of Akbar the Great and the Golden Age of Shah Jahan. European visitors who came to India during the period of Jahangir and Shah Jahan have also given conflicting views.

However, following general observations may be made about ....

Answer : Tuzuk-i-Baburi is the autobiography of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India. Babur wrote it in Turkish language. On the instruction of Akbar, Baburnamah was translated into Persian in 1589 by one of his nobles, Mirza Abdur-Rahim.

The Tuzuk-i-Baburi is a faithful description of the world the author had lived in, and of the people he had come into contact. Following facts in Tazuk-i-Babri testifies Babar as a cultured man:

• Babar had a fine literary ....

Answer : Ahom–Mughal conflicts refer to the period between the first Mughal attack on the Ahom kingdom in 1615 and the final Battle of Itakhuli in 1682. The intervening period saw the fluctuating fortunes of both powers and the end of the rule of Koch Hajo. It ended with the Ahom influence extended to the Manas river which remained the western boundary of the kingdom till the advent of the British in 1826.

From the beginning, the relation ....

Answer : In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell to the superior mobility and firepower of the Mughals. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralized, and uniform rule. One of the major Mughal contributions was the development in the field of ....

Answer : The European impact on India was 1^st feet with coming of Portuguese. Portuguese ships and guns were seen as the bases of Portuguese superiority at sea and attempt was made to copy them. Thus Zamorin of Calicut weaned away two Milanese from Portuguese to manufacture guns for him.

In the field of ship-building the ships at Dabul were reported to have been made christian like. The Ganj-i-Sawai the biggest ship of Aurangzeb was armed with 80 ....

Answer : The establishment of Sultanat of Delhi brought an Urban revolution. The factors responsible for this include centralisation, political and economic stability, ruling class and craft and trade; increasing monetisation. Some major towns during medieval period included Delhi, Multan, Patan, Kara etc.

The iqta head quarters emerged in early phase as camp sites. Most of the 13^th century towns are infact defined as iqta head quarters in our sources for e.g. Hansi, Kara etc. The role played ....

Answer : Karkhanas in Mughal India were a continuation of Karkhanas in Sultanat. Feroz Shah Tughlaq has maintained 180000 slaves who worked in royal Karkhanas.

The karkhanas were a part of royal establishment and also of the nobles. These producted things for royal household and court. Many nobles also had their own Karkhanas. Generally expensive and luxury items were produced here. Skilled artisans were employed to work under the roof to manufacture things needed.

The need for such ....

Answer : As is well known, the Indian population statistics properly begin only with the census of 1872. For the Mughal Empire, there is practically absolute dearth of demographic data.

Akbar is said to have ordered a detailed account of population, but its result have not come down to us. Even the Ain-i Akbari with all the variety of statistical information that it contains, offers no estimate of the number of people for the whole of Akbar’s Empire ....

Answer : Shivaji supplemented his income by levying a contribution on the neighboring Mughal territories. This contribution which came to one-fourth of the land revenue began to be called Chauthai or Chauth. Chauth was not a new feature. The Zamindars in Gujarat had been charging banth which was one fourth of the revenue in areas under their control. Thus banth or Chauthai were both in the nature of zamindari charges. The Portuguese in Diu had been, on ....

Answer : Akbar’s relations with the Rajputs have to be seen against the wider background of Mughal policy towards the powerful rajas and zamindars of the country. When Hymayun came back to India, he embarked upon a deliberate policy of trying to win over these elements. Abul Fazl says that in order “to soothe the minds of the zamindars, he entered in to matrimonial relations with them”. Thus when Jamal Khan Mewati, who was one of the ....

Answer : Dara Shukoh was the eldest son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. He was nominated as his successor by Shah Jahan with the title of Wali Ahd in 1657. However, Dara had to fight a bitter war of succession with his brothers Aurangzeb, Murad and Shuja, and ultimately he was outwitted by Aurangzeb who had him done to death.

Dara Shukoh was an educated, cultured and liberal prince. He was kind and possessed liberal religious views. ....

Answer : The Mughal policy towards the Rajputs contributed to the expansion and consolidation of the Mughal Empire under Akbar and his successors. For long it has been held that the Mughal alliance with the Rajputs was determined by personal religious beliefs of the individual rulers. On this basis, Akbar’s libe-alism and Aurangzeb’s orthodoxy were considered the touchstone of their policies and its impact on the political scene. However, recently the Mughal-Rajput relations are being studied within ....

Answer : Chauth (from Sanskrit meaning one-fourth) was a tax or tribute imposed, from early eighteenth century, by the Maratha Empire in India. It was nominally levied at 25% on revenue or produce, whence the name.

The right to assess and collect this tax was asserted first by Shivaji in the later seventeenth century, on spurious grounds that his family was hereditary tax collectors in Maharashtra. The sardeshmukhi was an additional 10% levy on top of the chauth. ....

Answer : In the reign of the ruler Shivaji, there were two sources which contributed to the income of the Maratha Kingdom- Chauth and Sardeshmukhi.

Chauth : It was one fourth of the total land income of any region. It was taken from that region which was protected by the Maratha army from any foreign invasion. According to the historian Ranade, it was not only a donation to the army but was a tax given inlieu of the ....

Answer : The history of Mughal architecture can be divided into three phases. The early phase which includes Akbar and partially Jahangir, the meantime which began with Jahangir and covers the periods of Shahjehan and early part of Aurangzeb and the later phase which began with Aurangzeband covers later Mughal rulers.

The Mughal architecture attained its climax under Shahjehan. Towards the end of Jahangir’s reign began the practice of putting up buildings entirely of marble and decorating the ....

Answer : Among the various policies of the Mughals, Rajput policy has a special importance. Mughals put an end to the struggle between Hindu-Muslim nobility by developing good relations with the Rajputs. The beginning of Mughal-Rajput alliance can be traced to Akbar's rule. He followed a defined policy towards Rajputs. He developed a policy of friendly alliance with Rajputs under his control and made them friends. His primary objective was a consolidate Mughal Empire over India and ....

Answer : Separated from Northern and central India by the Vindhiyachal and Satpura mountain ranges, the principal Maratha land lay between the Narmada and the upper Krishna along the western-coast, stretching from Daman to Karwar, and included wither its fold the mountainous region of Berar (ancient Vidarbha), Konkan, the Godavari basin, and the valley of river Krishna. Cut off from the outside world by sea on the west, barren plateau on the east and mountains on the ....

Answer : Nurjahan played a significant role in Mughal politics. Her original name was Mehrunissa. She was the daughter of Ghiyas Beg of Iran, who left his home and came to India in search of job. She was born at Kandhar. In 1601, Mehrunissa was married with Quli Qutub Shah popularly called Sher Afghan, faujdar of Bengal. In 1607 Sher Afghan got killed and Mehrunissa along with her daughter Ladli Begum reached Agra to her father and ....

Answer : Shiavji’s rise to power during the last phase of Aurangzeb’s Empire is often treated as the result of his personal daring and heroism only. But it was not an isolated phenomenon in Maratha history. Various factors were responsible for the emergence of a powerful Maratha kingdom under the leadership of Shivaji. He was, no doubt, a shrew politician, able soldier and commander as well as constructive genius. He got success to unify dif­ferent elements scattered ....

Answer : The Mughal nobility, after its first phase of development during the reigns of Babur and Humanyun and the early years of Akbar, came to consist of certain well-recognized racial groups. There were the Turanis of central Asia, Iranis, Afghanis, Shaikzadas con­sisting of a number of sub-groups within Indian Muslims and the Rajputs. After ascending the throne Akbar found that the nobility were more interested in furthering their individual am­bitions than the state. After he had ....