Question : Examine the mansab and jagir system by Akbar and its subsequent failure in the 18th century.
(2011)
Answer : A mansab was a numerically expressed rank denoting the position of Mughal officer. The Mansabdar in the Mughal hierarchy indicates the troops the Mansabdar was required to maintain but necessarily did not maintain it. It was in accordance with the Mansab the Mansabdar salary was fixed. Mansab did not give any indication about the post or the office or the power or the rights, duties, responsiblities or whether Mansabdar was a civil, military or state ....
Question : Implications of Akbar’s notion of Sulh-i-kul.
(2009)
Answer : Akbar ruled with a social and religious toleration that was relative, not absolute, and was based on his concept of sulh-i-kul (for the general good of all people) which built on his liberal views of religion. Akbar took the Sufi mystic notion of sulh-i-kul and transformed it to become a principle denoting amity-within a culturally pluralistic India. Muhammad Abdul Baki, in his history of Akbar’s reign, states: “Akbar extended toleration to all religions and creed, ....
Question : Give an estimate of Akbar as a promoter of technology.
(2009)
Answer : There are several sources that establish Akbar’s close affinity with technology. Akbar had a natural inclination towards industrial crafts and this was undoubtedly a source of his concern with technological innovation. A foreign traveler writing in 1580 claimed to have even seen him making ribbons like a lace-maker, and filing, sawing, working very hard.
The same traveler records that Akbar had a workshop near his palace for the refined arts such as painting, tapestry-making, carpet-weaving, curtain-making ....
