Target Exam

CUET

Subject

History

Chapter

Medieval India: Kings and Chronicles

Question:

Who, according to Badshah Nama, presented Jahangir with a ruby worth one lakh rupees?

Options:

Mirza Shahrukh

Mirza Illugh Beg

Timur Sahib-i Qiran

Shah Abbas Safavi

Correct Answer:

Shah Abbas Safavi

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (4) → Shah Abbas Safavi

A pupil of Abu’l Fazl, Abdul Hamid Lahori is known as the author of the Badshah Nama. The Badshah Nama is this official history in three volumes (daftars) of ten lunar years each. Lahori wrote the first and second daftars comprising the first two decades of the emperor’s rule (1627-47); these volumes were later revised by Sadullah Khan, Shah Jahan’s wazir. Infirmities of old age prevented Lahori from proceeding with the third decade which was then chronicled by the historian Waris.

This is how Shah Jahan’s jewelled throne (takht-i murassa) in the hall of public audience in the Agra palace is described in the Badshah Nama:

This gorgeous structure has a canopy supported by twelve-sided pillars and measures five cubits in height from the flight of steps to the overhanging dome. On His Majesty’s coronation, he had commanded that 86 lakh worth of gems and precious stones, and one lakh tolas of gold worth another 14 lakh, should be used in decorating it. … The throne was completed in the course of seven years, and among the precious stones used upon it was a ruby worth one lakh of rupees that Shah Abbas Safavi had sent to the late emperor Jahangir. And on this ruby were inscribed the names of the great emperor Timur Sahib-i qiran, Mirza Shahrukh, Mirza Ulugh Beg, and Shah Abbas as well as the names of the emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and that of His Majesty himself.