Describe the role played by women in agricultural production.
(a)Women played an important role in agricultural production. They worked shoulder to shoulder with men in the fields. The men tilled and ploughed the lands whilethe women sowed, weeded and threshed the harvest. Agricultural production at the time was carried out with the labour and resources of the entire.
(b) The women performed important tasks such as spinning yarn, kneading clay for pottery and embroidery. Thus, the peasant women who were skilled artisans worked not only in the fields but even went to their employer’s houses and even to the markets, if necessary.
(c)Among the landed gentry class women had the right to inherit property. Women, including widows participated in the rural land market. Selling property which they had inherited especially in Punjab.
(d)Both Hindu and Muslim women inherited zamindaris. They were free to sell or mortgage their zamidari rights. In eighteenth century, Bengal had many women- zamindars. In fact, the Rajshah zamindari which was one of the most famous of the time was headed by a woman.
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Discuss the ways in which panchayats and village headmen regulated rural society.
Examine the role played by zamindars in Mughal India.
On an outline map of the world, mark the areas which had economic links with the Mughal Empire, and trace out possible routes of communication.
To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
Discuss, with examples, the significance of monetary transactions during the period under consideration.
Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the Mughal fiscal system.
To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.
What are the problems in using the Ain as a source for reconstructing agrarian history? How do historians deal with this situation?
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?
Explain with examples what historians mean by the integration of cults.
Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.
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 do you think the architecture of mosques in the subcontinent reflects a combination of universal ideals and local traditions?
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?
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?
How were the water requirements of Vijayanagara met?
Examine how and why rulers tried to establish connections with the traditions of the Nayanars and the sufis.
What does the architecture of buildings like the Lotus Mahal and elephant stables tell us about the rulers who commissioned them?
What were the concerns that shaped Mughal policies and attitudes towards regions outside the subcontinent?
Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier’s account.
Assess the role played by women of the imperial household in the Mughal Empire.
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).
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)?
Do you think Ibn Battuta’s account is useful in arriving at an understanding of life in contemporary urban centres? Give reasons for your answer.
What were the elements of the practice of sati that drew the attention of Bernier?