A traveller in the early seventeenth century sets out from a fertile plain, where families plough, sow and reap through the seasons. After some days he climbs into rocky hill country, and then passes wide stretches where farming is thin. Later he crosses thick forest where herders and gatherers live by other means. In his diary he wonders how anyone could describe the countryside of the empire using only what he saw on that first plain. A historian reading the diary today wants to set it beside the written sources of the time.
On the fertile plain where the traveller began, what was the basic unit of agricultural society in this period?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The village
Option (1) The pargana — Incorrect. A pargana was a Mughal revenue division made up of many villages. It is an administrative unit.
Option (2) The village — Correct. The village, where peasants did the seasonal tasks of tilling, sowing and harvesting, was the basic unit of agricultural society.
Option (3) The suba — Incorrect. A suba was a province of the empire, far larger than a single settlement.
Option (4) The jati — Incorrect. A jati is a caste group. It shaped the social life of peasants inside the village.
NCERT (2026-27): “1. Peasants and Agricultural Production |