A research student is reading a Persian revenue record and some travellers' notes from Mughal times. The record describes officials in the Punjab ordering workers to clear and mend an old waterway that had silted up, with the cost met by the state. The travellers' notes describe peasants in the hot months working their fields with a light implement drawn by cattle. She wants to place both details within what historians know about irrigation and farm technology under the Mughals, and to see how far the state took part in such work.
Historians cite the repair of the shahnahr in the Punjab as one example of the kind of state work seen in the record. In whose reign was it repaired?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Shah Jahan
Option (1) Shah Jahan — Correct. Irrigation projects received <strong>state support</strong>. In northern India the state dug new canals (nahr, nala) and <strong>repaired old ones like the shahnahr in the Punjab during Shah Jahan's reign</strong>.
Option (2) Jahangir — Incorrect. Jahangir is known in this part of the chapter for his ban on tobacco. The shahnahr repair came in the next reign, under Shah Jahan.
Option (3) Akbar — Incorrect. Akbar is the ruler whose empire the Ain-i Akbari describes. The shahnahr repair belongs to a later reign, that of his grandson Shah Jahan.
Option (4) Aurangzeb — Incorrect. Aurangzeb ruled after Shah Jahan. The repair of the shahnahr had already taken place in his father's reign.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Irrigation and technology … “Though agriculture was labour intensive, peasants did use technologies that often harnessed cattle energy. One example was the wooden plough, which was light and easily assembled with an iron tip or coulter. It therefore did not make deep furrows, which preserved the moisture better during the intensely hot months. …” |