INDIAN HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The most important source of information about the agrarian conditions during Mughals is ? Notes: Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazal is the main source for today’s historians to know about the structure of agrarian relations from the time of Akbar onwards.

Detailed explanation-2: -Our major source for the agrarian history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are chronicles and documents from the Mughal court (see also Chapter 9). One of the most important chronicles was the Ain-i Akbari (in short the Ain, see also Section 8) authored by Akbar’s court historian Abu’l Fazl.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the Mughal period the peasants produce eatable and not eatable crops. Ain-i-Akbari gives a list of 16 crops of rabi, 25 crops of kharif and the rate of tax fixed on them has also been given. (ii) The peasants were allowed to choose between zabti and batai under certain conditions.

Detailed explanation-4: -Zamindars were powerful local chieftains appointed by the Mughal rulers. They exercised great influence and power. They collected taxes from the peasants and gave them to the Mughal emperor. Thus, they played the role of intermediaries.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Indian peasantry in the Mughal Empire was highly stratified and there was considerable difference in the size of holdings, produce and resources of peasants within the same locality. India had a well diversified economy with the cultivation of a large variety of crops.