5.

THE CREATION OF AN EMPIRE---THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

1. Shah Jahan had trouble with the Portuguese.

2. Rana Sanga was the ruler of Chittor.

3. Muhammad Jalal-ud-din was later on known as Akbar.

4. The Second Battle of Panipat was fought between Hemu and Bairam khan.

5. Ain-i-Akbar consists of three volumes.

II. Fill in the blanks:

1.The Battle of Kanwaha was fought between Babur and Rana Sanga.

2. Raja Todar Mal was the revenue minister who was very efficient in revenue management
during Akbar’s Times.

3. William Hawkins was an emissary of king James I of England.

4. Akbar introduced a new system of administration called the Mansabdari system.

5. Babur wrote Tuzuk-i-Babari / Babarnama

III. Who.

1.was Todar Mal?

Ans : Todar Mal was the revenue minister of Akbar.

2. wrote Ain-i-Akbari and Akbarnama.

Ans: Abul Fazl

3. was the sixth Sikh Guru?

Ans: Guru Hargobind

Ans: Emperor Jahangir

5. got the permission to set up a factory at Surat?

Ans: Sir Thomas Roe

IV. Match the column.

COLUMN A COLUMN B

o1. Tuzuk-i-Babri (a) Akbar

2. Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (b) Ninth Sikh Guru

3. Akbarnama (c) Abul Fazl

4. Guru Tegh Bahadur (d) Babur

5. Bairam Khan (e) Jahangir

A B

1 d

2 e

3 c

4 b

5 a

V. Answer the following question.

1. write short note on each of the following:

(a) Humayun- Humayun, the son of Babur, succeeded his father to the throne of Delhi after his
death. Sher Shah defeated Humayun in the Battle of Chausa (1539 A.D.) and again in the Battle
of Kannauj (1540 A.D.). Humayun fled and Sher Shah occupied the throne, He recaptured his
throne in 1555 A.D. but died soon after, in 1556 A.D.
(b) Jahangir-After Akbar’s death in 1605 A.D. Nur-ud-din Salim ascended the throne and soon
after his accession, his son Khurram revolted. He was defeated and imprisoned. Guru Arjun
Dev, who had helped Khurram, was executed. Jahangir defeated Rana Amar Singh of Mewar in
1614 A.D. took the title of ‘Jahangir’ but treated him liberally. Jahangir wrote an autobiography
called Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. He married Nur Jahan in 1611 AD. She becamed active in politics and
even royal firmans were issued at her instance.

During Jahangir’s rule, two important Europeans visited his court and left a varied account of
his administration. These were William Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe. The former was an
emissary of King James I of England. Sir Thomas Roe obtained permission to set up a factory at
Surat.

(C) Shah Jahan : After the death of his father Jahangir, Khurram ascended the throne as Shah
Jahan in 1628 A.D. Raja Jujhar Singh Bundela revolted against him in 1628 A.D. and again in
1635 A.D. He was finally defeated and killed. The Deccan states — Ahmednagar, Bijapur and
Golconda — created trouble for the empire. Prince Aurengzeb was sent to deal with these
states as the Subedar of Deccan. Shah Jahan dealt severely with the Portuguese who practised
piracy. They were driven out of Hugli and suppressed. Important foreign travellers who visited
his court and left an account of his reign were Bernier and Travenier (both French) and Italian
Manucci.

By and large, Shah Jahan’s reign was peaceful and prosperous. He is best remembered for
building architectural wonders like the world famous Taj Mahal at Agra and a beautiful mosque
in sandstone in Delhi, Jama Masjid.

2.Who was sher shah Suri? Discuss his administration and the revenue system.

Sher Shah’s real name was Farid Khan. He was given the title of ‘Sher Khan’ after killing a tiger.
He soon became the leader of the Afghan nobles in Bihar. He defeated Humayun in two hotly
contested battles, occupied the throne of Delhi in 1540 AD., and assumed the title of ‘Sher
Shah’.

During the brief period of his reign he organised an effective and efficient system of
administration, which was later on followed by Akbar. He divided his kingdom into 47 Sarkars,
each of which was further divided into Parganas. Sher Shah supervised every branch of
administration personally. He took several steps to promote trade and commerce and
introduced silver coins called rupaiah. He planted trees along roads, built sarais or inns and
hospitals for the comfort of travellers. He built the Grand Trunk Road. His rule lasted for only
five years, (1540 —45 A.D.). He died accidently in a gun-burst during the siege of Kalinjar. He
was buried at Sasaram (Bihar) beneath his wonderful mausoleum.

3.Throw light on Akbar’s Mughal Administration.

The chief pillars of Mughal administration were :

(a) the absolute power of the emperor and (b) the mighty Mughal army. Three most important
officials were : Wazir, Mir Bakshi and Sadr-us-Sudur. Wazir was the chief minister and head of
general administration. Mir Bakshi looked after the army and was the paymaster General. Sadr-
us-Sudur functioned as the Chief Qazin and as the chief adviser in religious matters. He was also
in charge of religious and charitable institutions. The whole empire was divided into 15 subas or
provinces. Each subah was under a Subedar or governor who had full civil and military powers.
A suba was further divided into sarkars, each sarkar into parganas, and each pargana had
several villages. The incharge of a pargana was a Faujdar. His main duties were to suppress the
revolts, to punish criminals and to provide military help to officials of the suba. The village
headman was known as Muqaddam or a Patwari.

Akbar introduced a new system of administration called the Mansabdari system. Each officer or
noble was given a Mansab (rank) ranging from 10 to 5000. He was given. Jagir or a fixed salary
and had to maintain foot soldiers and cavalry, as per rank. Very important nobles and princes
were given the Mansab of 5000. Princes were also given higher Mansab of 7000. The post of
Mansabdar was transferable and not inheritable. There were 33 grades of Mansabdars who
maintained a regular standing army.

4.How did Akbar bring about social and culture unity in the country?

Akbar followed a policy of religious tolerance. He entered into matrimonial alliances with the
Rajputs and gave complete religious freedom to his Hindu wives. He extended hand of
friendship to the Rajput rulers and zamindars and included them in high ranking nobles. Todar
Mal rose to the post of diwan. A Brahmana, Mahesh Das, was honoured with the title of Raja
Birbal, and became a close friend of Akbar. Akbar abolished the Jazia which the non-Muslims
were required to pay. He also abolished the pilgrimage tax. He stopped the practice of forcible
conversion to Islam. In 1575, Akbar built a hall called Ibadat Khana to which he invited
representatives of all religions for discussion and debates. Akbar tried to emphasise the
concept of sulh-e-kul or harmony among all.

5. Give an account of the main features of shah Jahan’s and Jahangir’s rule.

Jahangir’s Reign : As discussed above, Nur-ud-din Salim ascended the throne after Akbar’s
death in 1605 A.D. and took the title of ‘Jahangir’ Soon after his accession, his son Khurram
revolted. He was defeated and imprisoned. Guru Arjun Dev, who had helped Khurram, was
executed. Jahangir defeated Rana Amar Singh of Mewar in 1614 A.D. but treated him liberally.
Jahangir wrote an autobiography called Tazuk-i-Jahangiri. He married Nur Jahan in 1611 A.D.
She became active in politics and even royal firmans were issued at her instance. During
Jahangir’s rule, two important Europeans visited his court and left a varied account of his
administration. These were William Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe. The former was an emissary
of King James I of England. Sir Thomas Roe obtained permission to set up a factory at Surat.

Shah Jahan’s Reign : After the death of his father Jahangir, Khurram ascended the throne as
Shah Jahan in 1628 A.D. Raja Jujhar Singh Bundela revolted against him in 1628 A.D. and again
in 1635 A.D. He was finally defeated and killed. The Deccan States — Ahmednagar, Bijapur and
Golconda — created trouble for the empire. Prince Aurengzeb was sent to deal with these
states as the Subedar of Deccan. Shah Jahan dealt severely with the Portuguese who Practised
piracy. They were driven out of Hugli and supressed. Important foreign travellers who visited
his court and left an account of his reign were Bernier and Travernier (both French) and
Manucci (Italian).

By and large, Shah Jahan’s reign was peaceful and Prosperous. He is best remembered for
building architectural wonders like the world famous Taj Mahal at Agra and a beautiful mosque
in sandstone in Delhi, Jama Masjid.

6. Why the Aurangzeb’s reign described also the most disturbed one among Mughal emperors?
Give reasons and consequences.

Aurangzeb’s oppressive policies and religious intolerance often led to some serious rebellions in
the empire. The Jats of Mathura broke out in revolt in 1669 A.D. under the leadership of Gokul.
The persecution of Satnamis (a sect of Hindu saints) forced them to rise in rebellion. The
Bundelas of Bundelkhand rose in revolt due to oppressive agrarian policy of Aurangzeb, He
adopted a confrontist policy towards the Rajputs and annexed Mewar, His generals fought
many battles with the Marathas under Shivaji, Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, opposed the
Policy of persecution followed by Aurangzeb, and he was executed, Thereafter, the Sikhs
became sworn enemies of the Mughals. Guru Govind Singh, the tenth Guru, organised the Sikts
into a military force called the Khalsa. Two of his sons were killed and the other two were
captured and buried alive.

Aurangzeb also spent the last 25 years of his life in Deccan fighting with the Marathas. Due to
all these reasons, the empire became weak and the royal treasury became empty giving way to
the Jagirdari crisis. All this led to the decline of the Mughal power. Several governors became
independent and founded regional kingdoms of their own.

7. Discuss the relations of the Mughals with other rulers.

The Mughals maintained friendly relations with Iran They Openly repeated their demand to
acquire the land of their forefather- Farghana, Samarkand, etc. but did not insist. The Mughals
wished to be treated at par with important Asian countries while the Safavid rulers of Iran
considered themselves the Supreme leader of the Muslim world. The Ottoman Sultans of
Turkey considered themselves to be the true representatives of the Khilafat of Baghdad but the
Mughal emperors never bound themselves to any religious leadership. The Mughals repeatedly
fought for possession of Kandahar, as it was a gateway to central Asia. Akbar recaptured
Kandahar in 1559 A.D. Shah Jahan recaptured it in 1638 A.D., after losing it during the reign of
Jahangir.

8. Throw the light on the agrarian system of the Mughals.

The land revenue was the chief source of income for the Mughal state. The foundation of the
agrarian system was laid down by Akbar under the guidance of Raja Todar Mal.

(a) All the land was measured into ‘bighas’ with the help of bamboo jaribs, joined together with
iron rings to avoid distortion.

(b) All the land was classified into four divisions — Polaj, Parauti, Chachar and Banjar on the
basis of fertility.

(c) The total produce of each bigha of the first three types was determined separately.

(d) The share of the state was fixed at one-third of the total produce.

(e) The peasants were allowed to pay revenue in cash or kind, though the rulers preferred cash.
The price of each article was fixed taking an average of prices of last ten years.

f) loans were advanced to bring Banjar lands under cultivation.

(g) In case of crop failure due to natural calamities, remission was granted and loans extended.
(h) Revenue collectors were advised not to oppress the cultivators. The revenue policy was very
successful leading to prosperity in the countryside, and increasing the revenue of the state.

9. IIustration how Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbar are used to reconstruct history.

Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari authored by Abul Fazl gave a detailed account of Akbar and his
administration. Akbarnama has three volumes, the first of which is the detailed history of the
Mughal royal family. The second and third volumes give the history of Akbar’s reign year by
year. Ain-i-Akbari, in three volumes, is the principal authority on Akbar’s institutions. It
describes Akbar’s departments, his affairs, his principles and practices.

10. Akbar was the greatest ruler of Mughals dynasty and one of the greatest rulers of the india.
He is called as akbar the great. Explain why is he referred to as ‘the Great’?Which virtues and
values made him such a great ruler and a great human being?

Akbar is regarded as ‘the Great’ because of the values that he had in him. He treated the Hindus
and the Muslims and people of other community equally. So he abolished the jaziya and the
Pilgrimage from the Hindus. He took the Rajputs in his administration and gave them big
responsibilities. Later in his reign he made a ‘code of conduct’ called ‘din-e-elahi’. It was a moral
code of conduct based on the good of each religion. In short, he treated his subjects as his
children. All these made him a great ruler and a greater human being.

Map work

On an outline map of India, mark the Mughal empire at its empire at its greatest extent.