Discuss the major features of Mughal provincial administration. How did the centre control the provinces?
(i) The head of the provincial administration was the governor (subadar). He reported directly to the emperor.
(ii)Each suba was divided into sarkar,
(iii)The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana (sub-district) by three semi- hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue records), the chaudhur (in charge of revenue collection) and the qazi.
(iv)Each department of administration maintained a large support staff of clerks, accountants, auditors, messengers, and other functionaries who were technically qualified officials, functioning in accordance with standardised rules and procedures, and generating copious written orders and records.
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?
Identify the elements that went into the making of the Mughal ideal of kingship.
Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.
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?
Examine how and why rulers tried to establish connections with the traditions of the Nayanars and the sufis.
Examine the role played by zamindars in Mughal India.
Analyse, with illustrations, why bhakti and sufi thinkers adopted a variety of languages in which to express their opinions.
Analyse the evidence for slavery provided by Ibn Battuta.
What were the similarities and differences between the be-shari‘a and ba-shari‘a sufi traditions?
Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier’s account.
Discuss the extent to which Bernier’s account enables historians to reconstruct contemporary rural society.
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 the ways in which the Alvars, Nayanars and Virashaivas expressed critiques of the caste system.
Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the Mughal fiscal system.