Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

History

Chapter

Medieval India: Kings and Chronicles

Question:

Match the following Mughal capitals in List I with the rulers under whom they became the capital in List II correctly:

List- I (Capitals)

List- II (Rulers)

(A) Shahjahanabad

(I) Akbar

(B) Fatehpur Sikri

(II) Babur

(C) Agra

(III) Shah Jahan

 

Options:

(A)- III, (B)- I, (C)- II

(A)- III, (B)- II, (C)- I

(A)- I, (B)- III, (C)- II

(A)- II, (B)- I, (C)- III

Correct Answer:

(A)- III, (B)- I, (C)- II

Explanation:

The heart of the Mughal Empire was its capital city, where the court assembled. The capital cities of the Mughals frequently shifted during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Babur took over the Lodi capital of Agra, though during the four years of his reign the court was frequently on the move. During the 1560s Akbar had the fort of Agra constructed with red sandstone quarried from the adjoining regions.

In the 1570s he decided to build a new capital, Fatehpur Sikri. One of the reasons prompting this may have been that Sikri was located on the direct road to Ajmer, where the dargah of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti had become an important pilgrimage centre. The Mughal emperors entered into a close relationship with sufis of the Chishti silsila. Akbar commissioned the construction of a white marble tomb for Shaikh Salim Chishti next to the majestic Friday mosque at Sikri.

In 1648 the court, army and household moved from Agra to the newly completed imperial capital, Shahjahanabad. It was a new addition to the old residential city of Delhi, with the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, a tree-lined esplanade with bazaars (Chandni Chowk) and spacious homes for the nobility. Shah Jahan’s new city was appropriate to a more formal vision of a grand monarchy.