Read the passage and answer the questions:
Agrarian Society and Irrigation of the Mughal Empire
The greater part of Hindustan country is situated on level land. Many though it has towns and cultivated lands, it nowhere has running waters. For water is not at all a necessity in cultivating crops and orchards. Autumn crops grow by the downpour of the rains themselves; and strange it is that spring crops grow even when no rains fall. However to young trees water is made to flow by means of buckets or wheels....In Lahore, Dipalpur both in present-day Pakistan, and those other parts, people water by means of a wheel. They make two circles of rope long enough to suit the depths of a well, fix strips of wood between them, and on these fasten pitchers. The ropes with the wood and attached pitchers are put over the wheel well. In Agra, Chandwar, Bayana all in present-day Uttar Pradesh, and those parts again, people water with a bucket. At the well-edge they set-up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to 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.
Identify the pictorial image/figure which is in the book and associated with this passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Persian wheel
The wheel that Babur saw in Lahore and Dipalpur is the Persian wheel. Two circles of rope, long enough to reach the water, carry strips of wood with pitchers fastened on them, and the whole is put over the well. A bullock turns a wheel on an upright axle; its teeth catch those of a second wheel fixed on the axle of the main wheel, and so the wheel with the pitchers turns. The water from the pitchers is emptied into a trough. The figure printed beside this excerpt is a reconstructed Persian wheel, the very device the passage describes.
Tip: This question asks about the picture that sits beside the passage, not about the passage itself. Give each figure beside a source a proper look, together with its caption.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part II — Chapter 8: Peasants, Zamindars and the State (2025-26)
Fig. 8.2 A reconstructed Persian wheel, described here |
