A traveller in the early seventeenth century sets out from a fertile plain, where families plough, sow and reap through the seasons. After some days he climbs into rocky hill country, and then passes wide stretches where farming is thin. Later he crosses thick forest where herders and gatherers live by other means. In his diary he wonders how anyone could describe the countryside of the empire using only what he saw on that first plain. A historian reading the diary today wants to set it beside the written sources of the time.
The historian wants a major source for the agrarian history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Which would it be?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Chronicles and documents from the Mughal court
Option (1) Records of the East India Company — Incorrect. East India Company records describe agrarian relations in eastern India. They help add to the picture but are not the major source for this period.
Option (2) Chronicles and documents from the Mughal court — Correct. Peasants did not write about themselves. So the major source is chronicles and documents from the Mughal court, such as the Ain-i Akbari.
Option (3) Accounts of European travellers — Incorrect. European travellers left useful accounts, but peasants' history of this period rests mainly on court records.
Option (4) Revenue records from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan — Incorrect. These revenue records date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They supplement the court account from regions away from the capital.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.1 Looking for sources |