A teacher in a village school in Uttar Pradesh shows her class a drawing of a well with a wooden fork at its edge and a rope running over it to a large container. She tells them that a sixteenth-century emperor saw farmers use such a lift in this region and wrote about it in his memoirs. She asks the class to work out from his account how the lift was worked.
According to the emperor's account, what pulled the rope that raised the container?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → A bullock
Option (1) A heavy stone tied as a weight — Incorrect. A stone weight would make a lever lift. Here the pull came from the bullock.
Option (2) A second container filled as a weight — Incorrect. Babur speaks of one large bucket only. No second bucket balanced it.
Option (3) A bullock — Correct. The rope went over the roller with its other end tied to the bullock, so the animal pulled the bucket up.
Option (4) A worker standing at the well-edge — Incorrect. A person drove the bullock and another emptied the bucket. Neither of them pulled the rope.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Irrigation and technology … “between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over a roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket.” |