Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.
Process of manuscript production in the Mughal court included the following:
(a)Paper-maker’s responsibility was to prepare the folios of the manuscript.
(b)Skill writer, i.e. scribes or calligrapher copied the texts.
(c)Guilders, illuminated the pages of the manuscript.
(d)Miniature painter illustrated the scene from the text.
(e)The book binders gathered the folio and gave it to the original shape of a book.
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.
What were the concerns that shaped Mughal policies and attitudes towards regions outside the subcontinent?
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.
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?
Analyse the evidence for slavery provided by Ibn Battuta.
Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier’s account.
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).
Discuss Al-Biruni’s understanding of the caste system.
Analyse, with illustrations, why bhakti and sufi thinkers adopted a variety of languages in which to express their opinions.
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?
Discuss, with examples, the significance of monetary transactions during the period under consideration.
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.
Explain with examples what historians mean by the integration of cults.
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?