A historian in Lucknow is writing a chapter on the countryside of the Mughal empire in the early seventeenth century. Her main source is a bundle of revenue papers from a fertile plain. They list measured fields, the crops sown in each season, the names of cultivators and the share of the harvest owed to the state. The papers say little about anything beyond the plain itself. She plans to add other sources before she draws any general picture of rural society in the empire.
The revenue papers record the state's share of each harvest. Which agency from outside the village, the most important to enter the rural world, drew the bulk of its income from agricultural production?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The Mughal state
Among the outside agencies that entered the rural world, the most important was <strong>the Mughal state</strong>, which drew the bulk of its income from agricultural production; its revenue assessors, collectors and record keepers kept the kind of papers the historian is reading.
NCERT (2026-27): “Peasants, Zamindars and the State arian Society and tthe Mughal Emire . sixteenth - seventeenth centuries) … |