A museum builds a working model of an irrigation device that a sixteenth-century emperor saw in parts of north India. Two circles of rope hold strips of wood with pots fastened on them, and the ropes hang over a wheel set above a well. A set of toothed wheels links this wheel to a bullock, and the pots keep rising full and coming down empty. Visitors are then asked questions about the emperor's own account of the device.
In which places did the emperor see people watering their land with this device?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Lahore and Dipalpur
Option (1) Lahore and Dipalpur — Correct. Babur saw people in Lahore and Dipalpur water by means of a wheel with pitchers, turned by a bullock. Both places are now in Pakistan.
Option (2) Agra and Bayana — Incorrect. In Agra, Chandwar and Bayana, Babur saw people water with a bucket pulled over a roller.
Option (3) Lahore and Bayana — Incorrect. Lahore used the wheel, but Bayana used the bucket method, so this pair mixes the two.
Option (4) Agra and Dipalpur — Incorrect. Dipalpur used the wheel, but Agra used the bucket method, so this pair is also mixed.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Irrigation and technology … “… (However) to young trees water is made to flow by means of buckets or wheels … In Lahore, Dipalpur (both in present-day Pakistan) and those observed by Babur with other parts, people water by means of a wheel. They make two circles of rope long enough to suit the depths of the well, fix strips of wood between them, and on these fasten pitchers. The ropes with the wood and attached pitchers are put over the wheel-well. At one end of the wheel-axle a second wheel is fixed, and close to it another on an upright axle. The last wheel the bullock turns; its teeth catch in the teeth of the second (wheel), and thus the wheel with the pitchers is turned. A trough is set where the water empties from the pitchers and from this the water is conveyed everywhere. …” |