A research student is reading a Persian revenue record and some travellers' notes from Mughal times. The record describes officials in the Punjab ordering workers to clear and mend an old canal, with the cost met by the state. The travellers' notes describe peasants in the hot months turning their fields with a wooden plough fitted with an iron tip and drawn by a pair of bullocks. She wants to place these details within what historians know about irrigation and farm technology under the Mughals.
Which feature of the plough described in the travellers' notes made it suited to the intensely hot months?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → It did not make deep furrows, which preserved the moisture of the soil better
Option (1) It cut deep furrows, which let the little rain soak far down into the soil — Incorrect. The Mughal plough worked the other way. It was light, so it did not dig deep; deep furrows would have let the soil dry out faster in the heat.
Option (2) It did not make deep furrows, which preserved the moisture of the soil better — Correct. The wooden plough was light and easily assembled with an iron tip. Because it was light, it did not make deep furrows, and shallow furrows kept the moisture in the soil during the hot months.
Option (3) Its iron tip broke up the hard crust that formed on the parched soil — Incorrect. The iron tip (coulter) is a real part of this plough. Its value in the heat came from its light build and shallow furrows, which kept moisture in the soil.
Option (4) It sowed seed in rows as it moved, so that less seed was lost to the heat — Incorrect. Sowing in rows was the work of a drill pulled by a pair of oxen, a separate implement. Even so, most seed was sown by broadcasting, that is, scattering by hand.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Irrigation and technology … |