#It would be questioned - discussed - and debated by historians for years following the discovery.

[stargazerlillian]

OMGGGG... MY GIRL... MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN ALL HER CELESTIAL REVERIE... MY EYES HAVE ONCE AGAIN BEEN BLESSED WITH ARTISTIC GREATNESS!!💕💗💕💗💕💗💕💕💕

@stargazerlillian's OC, Star!

[nemenalya]

A comprehensive history of ritualistic tax fraud among the Dunmer

The practice of ritualistic tax fraud can be observed in three major periods throughout Dunmer history. The earliest mentions of this can be traced back to the five hundreds of the First Era, although it has been theorized extensively that tax fraud has been wide-spread throughout both the Resdayn era and the Nordic occupation of Morrowind. One especially bold colleague of mine has generated quite some uproar in the scientific community by suggesting that the Dunmeri contempt of taxes might stem from before the Velothi exodus and might have been a secondary driver for said exodus, as well as the inclusion of Mephala in the Chimeri pantheon. Few sources on Chimeri religious practices remain to this day, with many having been purposefully altered or destroyed by the Tribunal Temple, so it is unlikely that we will ever know the true origins of this practice.

One of the oldest pieces of evidence we have on the prevalence of ritualistic tax fraud is an old banner that has been found in an abandoned Velothi tomb in the Stonefalls region, which had been sealed by volcanic ash from a yet undated minor eruption. The particular weaving style has been independently dated by experts to be from the height of the Resdayn era, noticeable for what we must assume are Dwemeri influences on the technique. As this was a religious piece -quite possible featured in the temple of Ebonheart and later laid to rest with a high priestess of Mephala from the inscriptions in the tomb- the extent of Dwemer influence remains restricted to the weaving style while lacking the typical bordure.

Some debate has sprung up surrounding the usage of high quality materials and excellent weavers for what amounts to a placard with the same simple rhetoric as a pamphlet for the Imperial City arena. By now, most historians agree with Vansei’s claim that the usage of tapestries in place of placards was a show of particular devotion to the Webspinner Mephala by the major temples that could easier afford such a luxury. The writing on these would have been nonetheless kept simple to reach a vast majority of worshippers, many of whom might have sought to include the most reclusive of their gods in their devotions but lacked the proper means or understanding to do so. With the acceptance of this theory, most doubts about the authenticity of the tapestry have been abated, even if a consideration of the actual text tends to throw off students to this day.

The weaving featured the words (translated from Chimeris with the help of a Telvanni linguist of some repute who wants to remain anonymous): “Tax season is coming up! Remember to commit tax fraud in Mephala’s holy name!” The restoration of the smaller weavings at the bottom of the tapestry took additional time and resources -and the Mages Guild had been seriously debating to cut funding for the project- but was worth it for the scientific uproar it caused upon translation: “If you have further questions regarding tax fraud or other acts of worship, please consult your local priest. For a small donation, the Temple [the organisation of institutionalized worship of the Three Good Daedra among the House mer] is happy to help you with your taxes!”

The important discovery here –beyond the fact that historical daedrologists had to reconsider their classification of spheres ascribed to various Daedric Princes in the faith of the early Chimer- was the role of the temple in the previously theorized upon wide-spread practice of tax fraud. It is important to note, that unlike with the modern periods in which this practice was employed, we do not know the scope of tax fraud and subsequent losses and are unlikely to ever find a satisfying number, as our estimations of the current scopes required a variety of records, none of which have survived from the Resdayn era. Nonetheless, even conservative estimates say that at least half of all dues were never paid, with between a third and two thirds of this sum ending up in the temple coffers. As we will later discuss, this would have led to only negligible efficiency losses due to the separation of tasks between the Great Houses, the Temple, and the centralized government. It is also important to note that in recent Imperial tax seasons, almost every fifth tax declaration was fraudulent, which would leave us with a problem of a similar scope. As most Dunmer scholars in this field arrive at consistently and significantly higher estimates for cases of domestic tax fraud or tax fraud among the Dunmeri diaspora, it is likely that the ritualization of tax fraud through the Temple lead to greater welfare funds than under a fully enforced taxation system.

There are only a handful of surviving sources from the time of the collapse of Resdayn and the apotheosis of the Tribunal, and unfortunately for us none of them deal with taxation. Thus, the only thing we know from this time is that during the reordering of the Temple into the new Tribunal Temple highly ritualized tax fraud fell out of practice. This can for the most part be explained by the disappearance of a centralized secular power structure and the concurrent abolishment of taxation as a whole.

While many of the Great Houses continued to employ a system similar to taxation in all but name, there are no records of the Tribunal Temple having made similar demands. Instead, a lot of the Temple’s funds were raised through the traditional Velothi ways of donations and gifts, as well as recurrent attempts at bribery. The latter was however openly discouraged and for most of the Tribunal’s rule the use of Temple resources for personal gain was harshly punished among the clergy.

It was only after the signing of the Armistice in the late Second Era that the issue of taxation arose again, with the Empire quickly demanding a cut of local taxes and introducing new taxes and tariffs of their own. Almost instantly the practice of tax fraud picked up again, although surviving correspondence from those days indicate the absence of a ritualistic component. By the beginning of the Third Era the Tribunal Temple has verifiably gotten involved in the growing tax fraud movement, although both its political leeway and the exact religious aspects differ noticeably from the Mephala worship in the Resdayn era.

Where the [Daedric] Temple had enjoyed near impunity in the First Era in its outspokenness against certain Council decisions, and had in fact been considered a branch of power alongside the Resdaynian court of Mournhold, the Tribunal Temple’s power was limited by the terms of the Armistice. And instead of serving a common goal of caring for the Dunmer people, the Temple and the tax authorities of the Temple have opposing interests in the allocation and use of the funds raised.

As the majority of the leeway enjoyed by the province of Morrowind came from its religious practices, the problem of reintegrating organized tax fraud or avoidance into Dunmeri society sparked a mostly internal theological debate on which member of the Tribunal would be the patron of these ‘charitable acts that amount to tax fraud under Imperial laws’. The astute Dunmeris scholar might have already recognized the roughly interpreted Dunmeris colloquialism here, which hints us at the decision reached in this matter.

The debate primarily raged between three groups that can be named after different currents of belief that enjoyed popularity around that time. The Daedric Traditionalists argued that since taxation and its avoidance had been ascribed to Mephala in Chimeri worship, a resurgence of this practice should see it attributed to Vivec, who had been anticipated by Mephala. The fast growing faction of Anti-Imperialists meanwhile held that it was Almalexia who acted against the Imperial occupation, while Vivec had betrayed their people through the signing of the Armistice, and this policy should thus bear her mark. The third group involved in the argument, the Venerators, proposed a more diplomatic solution where resisting the faithlessness of taxation should be included in the canons of Saint Olms the Bold or Saint Felms the Just. For a while this idea gained traction -especially with the backing of certain high-ranking Temple members who tried to avoid any outward signs of dissent among the members of the Tribunal- but it was quickly overruled by the remainder of the Indoril clergy, many of whom had become staunch supporters of the Anti-Imperialist current.

While this discourse was largely kept out of the public knowledge, texts later attributed to various Temple officials describe a clash between the groups that resulted in a hegemony of the Anti-Imperialist current on the mainland. The Temple ranks on Vvardenfell soon became too fractured with the rise of the Dissident Priests to continue the debate, but a dogmatic rift grew between the followers of the different members of the Tribunal, especially Almalexia and Vivec.

A number of placards survive from this period, two of which have been donated to the College by Dunmer refugees formerly involved with the Tribunal Temple in an attempt to keep their faith from being forgotten in the aftermath of the Red Year. Their almost polemic messages fit well within the rhetoric and political landscape of their time; the closing years of the Tribunal’s reign and the concurrent rise of even by Dunmeri standards ultra-nationalist groups. One of the placards in our collection reads: “Taxation is Blasphemy! A true Dunmer funds the charities of the Temple, not an outlander’s coffers!” The simple strokes of the letters indicate that these were produced on a larger scale and that they were of little individual value, unlike the tapestry found in the tomb in Stonefalls. The most likely explanation for this would be that the Temple did not take a stand against taxation but instead ignored its enforcement. Imperial tax collectors might still demand these signs to be taken down, but the donor indicated that the officers rarely understood Dunmeris well enough to actually realize the contents of these placards. Indeed, both this and the other bear a close stylistic resemblance to traditional Temple banners or signs, so that they would draw little attention from outsiders.

The other placard is certainly the more interesting one when considered in conjunction with the theological debate surrounding the re-introduction of ritualistic tax fraud into the Dunmeri society. Its text - “Mother Morrowind needs You [the word is written like a name to emphasize the address] to commit tax fraud! Help drive those n’wah from our land!” – demonstrates a clear victory of the Anti-Imperialist current, and portrays a dissent among the Tribunal after the signing of the Armistice that is rarely seen. Moreover, this call has been mentioned in multiple diaries of Imperial traders or bureaucrats who found it written on their walls overnight. No records exist on any investigations into whether the perpetrators were simply local youth or possibly organized criminals.  The interested reader might enjoy Ralen’s treatise on the connections between the Tribunal Temple and various criminal organizations in the late Third Era, where she conducts further analysis of various linguistic oddities and personal correspondence between members of certain infamous groups such as the Commona Tong. Her research goes beyond the scope of this book, so we will again focus on the actions of the Temple in facilitating tax fraud instead.

Regardless of the rumours and the quite evocative placards, the Temple maintained that its involvement with the Imperial tax system solely consisted of providing advice on the proper formalities to its faithful, along with a large number of other educational or welfare services. As the Dunmer had not been subject to taxes for millennia, the idea was believed to be quite foreign to them, and the Temple only intended to help the people come to terms with the concept and the particularities of Imperial bureaucracy. This policy saw a surge in donations –generally referred to among the Dunmer as “Mother’s Grace”- that had similar effects on the Temple coffers as the openly advertised tax fraud policies of the First Era, which has formally been attributed to an increased piousness in the face of outlander presence on the holy land and as gratitude for the Tribunal’s containment of the Blight.

The disproportionally large claims for tax deductions for charitable donations also amount to nearly three times the estimated revenues of the Tribunal Temple, based off of earlier research into the scope and effectiveness of Morrowind’s religious welfare structure. Some scholars estimate that these campaigns and the subsequent spread of tax fraud among the Dunmer has bereaved the Empire of up to four fifths of the taxes it should have collected from the province since the signing of the Armistice. For this reason, most Imperial scholars are quick to label the tradition of tax fraud of any kind as a religious practice ‘a dangerous superstition’. Nonetheless, various positive effects on the scope of Temple welfare programs and subsequently on Dunmeri society as a whole have been found, which require future scholars in this field to lay aside their bias if they truly want to understand the positive or adverse effects of these practices.

After the Empire withdrew from Morrowind during the Oblivion Crisis and the Red Year saw many Dunmer displaced from their home and seeking refuge abroad, any centralized taxation system in the province vanished. With the abrupt fall of the Tribunal Temple and the resurgence of the worship of the Three Good Daedra as the Reclamations a lot of the former charity work and the previous fund raising channels fell to the side. In the Fourth Era Morrowind is ruled in all but name by House Redoran, which has greatly increased its sphere of influence but rejects the concept of taxes as foreign and dishonourable. Instead, the other Great Houses are encouraged to fund the New Temple’s welfare and rebuilding programs, most likely in exchange for House Redoran’s protection.

Among the Dunmeri diaspora with their limited access to places of worship but the same burning desire to prove themselves to their new, old gods the practice of tax fraud remained wide-spread. As an especially self-serving way of honouring Mephala, whose worship fell to the background compared to that of Boethiah and Azura, the informal redistribution of funds within the community and a sometimes outright refusal to pay taxes to the Nordic local authorities became common among the larger Dunmeri groups. Certain scholars and courtiers argue that the state of the Grey Quarter in Windhelm with its infrastructural problems is a result of this disposition. While current events and sources always require extremely critical analysis, there are signs that those opinions are not entirely unfounded. After all, it is a popular joke among the denizens of the Grey Quarter that they built shrines for Azura and Boethiah, but that they modelled their home in tribute to Mephala.

[economistadentata]

'The Whites Have Become Black' - David Starkey is a racist

Quite why David Starkey was on the Newsnight panel in the first place remains something of a mystery.  His specialism is the Tudor period, and whilst it might have been enlightening to hear him on the topic with regard to recent events, that’s not what we got.  Neither is he an authority on the history of London, ‘black British history’ or anything other possible research area that springs to mind as being faintly relevant.  One can only presume, sadly, that he was there for his ratings and his ability to ‘generate debate’.  In that at least he turned out to be an ideal booking.

Emily Maitlis asked David Starkey for his opinion on the causes of the riots-he responded by pointing out that as a historian, in one sense he couldn’t say what had caused events, as it was too soon to say.  I was actually quite taken with that response, and thought it spot on.  Then the other shoe dropped:

‘The whites have become black’

This statement assumes 2 things:  firstly that there are such things as ‘white’ and ‘black’ culture.  Secondly, that it was the assumption of ‘black culture’ by white people that has led to the lawlessness and abandonment of fellow feeling, expressed through the riots.

I used to visit my mother in South Africa during the eighties, and lived there for several years in the nineties.  I observed as a teenager & as an adult, the way in which people, sensing that flat-out racism was no longer a la mode, shall we say, would recast their views thus:

‘I’m not a racist.  I’m a racialist. I don’t think people are better than each other, they’re just different.  So why would someone from Khayelitsha want to live next door to me/go to my son’s school?’

I would put Starkey into this camp: A racist, but one who hides his racism under a veneer of ‘culture’. As he said ‘It’s not skin colour, it’s culture’.  He then associates black culture with the rioting on the streets- ‘It certainly glorifies it’.

Later on in the panel discussion, he quoted a text message sent by a girl caught up in the riots, delivered in a faux Jamaican patois.

Young people have always had their own slang/groupspeech.  Judging from my son and his friends, at the moment these consist of faux-Californian, faux-Italian (via Assassin’s Creed), text speak, faux-Essex and yes, faux-Jamaican.  But to suggest that one text message sent by one teenager proves anything, is well, ridiculous.

Which brings me onto the question of technology:  There has been has been much breathless commentary of the role of the Blackberry Messenger system in the riots, and in particular their spread over different districts of London.  Repeat after me-technology is never a cause of events.  It can enable people to act on their impulses, but can never cause them in the first place.  To suggest as some have, that BBM was a contributory cause, is like saying the trains delivering troops to the Belgian front caused the First World War.  After all, if technology was going to prevent crime, you’d have thought CCTV would have been of utility-and that has only enabled the police to do their job after the event.

Starkey, unprompted, brought up Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech.  Now, that speech isn’t just a speech, any more than Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is just a speech.  It’s a signifier- or, in crude terms, a dog-whistle.  It says ‘I am about to talk about the impact of immigration in terms of race, even if I subsequently deny it.’ Which he duly did.

Later in the discussion, Starkey made reference to David Lammy, saying he ‘sounds white’.  What does actually mean?  Received pronunciation? Scouse?  Brummy?  Scots?  To follow  Starkey’s logic, you’d think he was saying that all whites sound alike, and therefore by extension, so do all blacks.  If that’s not racist I don’t know what is-but I suspect that if interrogated on that point, DS would attempt to move the discussion onto ‘culture’ as per the block quote above.

But Starkey in saying this of Lammy, revealed his true game:  not only to attribute much of the ills of society to the influence of ‘black’ culture on poor whites-but to simultaneously appropriate black Britons in positions of power to the white elite.  Lammy is acceptable, because he is like ‘us’.  

It’s at this point, that I need to answer the question: If not race, what did cause the riots?

Prima facie the criminality and wanton lack of self-restraint of individuals caused what had been a peaceful demonstration related to the shooting of Mark Duggan to mutate with frightening speed into what we saw.  But how did they get to that point?  

‘Shopping with violence’.  It sounds like something out ‘A Clockwork Orange’-but it remains one of the most penetrating observations of what happened I have heard.  For the last 30-odd years, and with increasing speed over the last 15, we as a society have been sold the idea, that we are what we possess.  To be is to consume, the more publicly the better.  Which would be fine (-ish), if everyone had the same access to the means of consumption.  They don’t-although there have been examples of ‘respectable’ (and isn’t that a loaded term in this context?) people caught up in the riots and looting, for the most part were young.  Young and poor.

Added to which is our society’s attitude to children and young people.  We don’t like them.  We say that they are their parents’ responsibility, whilst at the same time allowing capitalism, that provider of shiny things for all, to demand that its needs be attended to before we are allowed to meet those of our children.   We allow the press to routinely slag off single mothers, and by extension their children, as the root of many social ills.  But then we (or rather this government) say that to provide those parents with extra support to fulfil their social contract and their need to work, is to encourage fecklessness and family breakdown.  Idealised children, missing or even dead, gazing from the front pages of the tabloids, we like very much.  But actual children, especially needy, difficult, angry children we do not like at all.

Much has been written about ‘stop and search’ as it related to inter-racial tensions.  But young people, arguably, are the most discriminated-against group of all.  They can be moved on just for there being three of them gathered together.  We have transformed childhood from a time of discovery, to a time of Gradgrindian exams, which are then denigrated as being of less and less worth.  Mind you, given the surge in youth unemployment and the exploding cost of higher education, that won’t matter.  Even if young people jump over the hurdles we call essential, many will fall before crossing the finishing line. And they know it. 

David Starkey touched on none of this.  Instead he spoke about how ‘whites are becoming black’.  How a black MP ‘sounds white’. How black culture ‘glorifies’ street violence.  David Starkey is wrong.  David Starkey is a racist.

[margdarsanme]

NCERT Class 12 History Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT Class 12 History Solutions

Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS SOLVED : Q 1. Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.

Ans. Process of manuscript production in the Mughal court included the following: (a) Paper-maker’s responsibility was to prepare the folios of the manuscript. (b) Skill writer, i.e. scribes or calligrapher copied the texts. (c) Guilders, illuminated the pages of the manuscript. (d) Miniature painter illustrated the scene from the text. (e) The book binders gathered the folio and gave it to the original shape of a book.

Q 2. In what ways would the daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court have conveyed a sense of the power of the emperor?

Ans. The daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court observed the following: (i) By representing the status of the court. (ii) In form of salutation of emperor. (iii) Jharokha Darshan. (iv) Meeting held by sultan in Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas. (v) By honouring the mansabdar on special occasion with special gifts and jagir. Q 3. Assess the role played by women of the imperial household in the Mughal Empire

Ans. 

(i) The term “haram” is used to describe the domestic world of the Mughals. This word is taken from the Persian word haram, which means a sacred place.

(ii) The Mughal household consisted of the emperor’s wives and concubines, his near and distant relatives (mother, step- and foster-mothers, sisters, daughters, daughters-in-law, aunts, children, etc.), and female servants and slaves.

(iii) Polygamy was practised widely in the Indian subcontinent, especially among the ruling groups. Both for the Rajput clans as well as the Mughals marriage was a way of cementing political relationships and forging alliances.

(iv) The gift of territory was often accompanied by the gift of a daughter in marriage. This ensured a continuing hierarchical relationship between ruling groups. It was through the link of marriage and the relationships that developed as a result that the Mughals were able to form a vast kinship network that linked them to important groups and helped to hold a vast empire together.

(v) In the Mughal household a distinction was maintained between wives who came from royal families (begams), and other wives (aghas) who were not of noble birth.

(vi) The begams, married after receiving huge amounts of cash and valuables as dowry (maahr), naturally received a higher status and greater attention from their husbands than did aghas. The concubines (aghacha or the lesser agha) occupied the lowest position in the hierarchy of females intimately related to royalty.

(vii) The agha and the aghacha could rise to the position of a begam depending on the husband’s will, and provided that he did not already have four wives.

(viii) Love and motherhood played important roles in elevating such women to the status of legally wedded wives. Apart from wives, numerous male and female slaves populated the Mughal Household. The tasks they performed varied from the most mundane to those requiring skill, tact and intelligence.

(xi) Slave eunuchs (khwajasara) moved between the external and internal life of the household as guards, servants, and also as agents for women dabbling in commerce. Q 4. What were the concerns that shaped Mughal policies and attitudes towards regions outside the subcontinent?

Ans. 

(i) The Safavids and Qandahar: The political and diplomatic relations between , the Mughal kings and the neighbouring countries of Iran and Turan hinged on the control of the frontier defined by the Hindukush mountains that separated Afghanistan from the regions of Iran and Central Asia. A constant aim of Mughal policy was to ward off this potential danger by controlling strategic outposts – notably Kabul and Qandahar. The fortress-town Qandahar had initially been in the possession of Humayun, reconquered in 1595 by Akbar.The Safavid court retained diplomatic relations with the Mughals, it continued to stake.claims to Qandahar. Jahangir sent a diplomatic envoy to the court of Shah Abbas in 1613 to plead the Mughal case for retaining Qandahar, but the mission failed to achieve its objectives. Persian army besieged Qandahar in 1622. The Mughal garrison was defeated and had to surrender the fortress and the city to the Safavids.

(ii) The Ottomans: pilgrimage and trade: The relationship between the Mughals and the Ottomans ensured free movement for merchants and pilgrims in the territories under Ottoman control. This was especially true for the Hijaz, that part of Ottoman Arabia where the important pilgrim centres of Mecca and Medina were located.

The Mughal emperor combined religion and commerce by exporting essential goods to Aden and Mokha, and distributing the proceeds of the sales in charity to the keepers of shrines and religious men there.

(iii) Jesuits at the Mughal court: European received knowledge about India through the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, travellers, merchants and diplomats. After the discovery of sea route to India, the Portuguese merchants set up their trading network stations in coastal region. The Portuguese was also interested in the spread of Christianity with the help of the missionaries of the Society of Jesuits. The Christian missions who sent to India during the sixteenth century were part of this process of trade and empire building. The first Jesuit mission reached the Mughal court of Mughal emperor Akbar at Fatehpur oikri in 1580 and stayed here for about two years. The Jesuits spoke to Akbar about Christianity and debated its virtues with the ulema. Two more missions were sent to the Mughal court at Lahore, in 1591 and 1595. The Jesuit accounts are based on personal observation and shed light on the character and mind of the emperor. At public assemblies the Jesuits were assigned places in close proximity to Akbar’s throne.. The Jesuit accounts corroborate the information given in Persian chronicles about state officials and the general conditions of life in Mughal times. Q 5.Discuss the major features of Mughal provincial administration. How did the centre control the provinces?

Ans. 

(i) The head of the provincial administration was the governor (subadar). He reported directly to the emperor.

(ii) Each suba was divided into sarkar,

(iii) The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana (sub-district) by three semi-hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue records), the chaudhur (in charge of revenue collection) and the qazi.

(iv) Each department of administration maintained a large support staff of clerks, accountants, auditors, messengers, and other functionaries who were technically qualified officials, functioning in accordance with standardised rules and procedures, and generating copious written orders and records. Q 6. Discuss, with examples, the distinctive features of Mughal chronicles.

Ans. (i) Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court. They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. The authors of Mughal chronicles focused on events-related to life of the ruler, their family, the court and nobles, wars and administrative system.

(ii) These chronicles were written in Persian. This language flourished as a language of the court and of literary writings, alongside north Indian languages, especially Hindavi and its regional variants. As the Mughals were Chaghtai Turks by origin, Turkish was their mother tongue.

(iii) Chronicles narrating the events of a Mughal emperor’s reign contained, alongside the written text, images that described an event in visual form.

(iv) When scenes or themes in a book were to be given visual expression, the scribe left blank spaces on nearby pages; paintings, executed separately by artists, were inserted to accompany what was; described in words. Q 7. To what extent do you think the visual material presented in this chapter corresponds with Abu’l Fazl’s description of the taswir (Source 1)?

Ans. 

(i) Drawing the likeness of anything is called taswir. His Majesty from his earliest youth, has shown a great predilection for this art, and gives it every encouragement, as he looks upon it as a means both of study and amusement.

(ii) A very large number of painters set to work.

(iii) Each week, several supervisors and clerks of the imperial workshop submit before the emperor the work done by each artist, and his Majesty gives a reward.

(iv) Paintings served not only to enhance the beauty of a book, but were believed to possess special powers of communicating ideas about the kingdom and the power of kings in ways that the written medium could not.

(v) The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a ‘magical art’ in his view it had the power to make inanimate objects look as if they possessed life. Q 8. What were the distinctive features of the Mughal nobility? How was their relationship with the emperor shaped?

Ans. Recruitment, rank of the n ability and relationship with the emperor:

(i) Mughal chronicles, especially the Akbar Nama, have bequeathed a vision of empire in which agency rests almost solely with the emperor, while the rest of the kingdom has been portrayed as following his orders, if we look more closely at the available information the histories provide us about the apparatus of the Mughal state, we may be able to understand the ways in which the imperial organisation was dependent on several different institutions.

(ii) The most important pillar of the Mughal state was the nobility. The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious group which ensured that no faction was large enough to challenge the authority of the state. (iii)The officer corps of the Mughals was described as a bouquet of flowers (guldasta) held together by loyalty to the emperor. In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles were present from the earliest phase of carving out a political dominion. Many had accompanied Humayun; others migrated later to the Mughal court.

(iv) The holders of government offices was given the ranks (mansabs) comprising two numerical designations: zat which was an indicator of position in the imperial hierarchy and the salary of the official (mansabdar), and sawar which indicated the number of horsemen he was required to maintain in service.

(v) Akbar, who designed the mansab system, also established spiritual relationships with a select band of his nobility by treating them as his disciples (murid).

(vi) For members of the nobility, imperial service was a way of acquiring power, wealth and the highest possible reputation. A person wishing to join the service petitioned through a noble, who presented a tajwiz to the emperor.

(vii) If the applicant was found suitable, a mansab was granted to him. The mir bakhshi (paymaster general) stood in open court on the right of the emperor and presented all candidates for appointment or promotion, while his office prepared orders bearing his seal and signature as well as those of the emperor. There were two other important ministers at the centre: the diwan-i ai (finance minister) and sadr-us sudur (minister of grants or madad-i maash, and in charge of appointing local judges or qazis)

(viii) The three ministers occasionally came together as an advisory body, but were independent of each other.

(xi) Akbar with these and other advisers shaped the administrative, fiscal and monetary institutions of the empire. Nobles stationed at the court (tainat-i rakab) were a reserve force to be deputed to a province or military campaign. Nobles were duty-bound to appear twice a day to express submission their to the emperor.

(x) They also had to share the responsibility for guarding the emperor and his household round the clock. Q 9.Identify the elements that went into the making of the Mughal ideal of kingship. Ans.

(i) According to Akbars court poet, Abu’l Fazl Mughal kingship as the highest station in the hierarchy of objects receiving light emanating from God (farr-i- izadi). According to this idea, there was a Hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted to the king (Mughal Emperor) who then became the source of spiritual guidance for his subjects.

(ii) Mughal chronicles present the empire as comprising many different ethnic and religious communities – Hindus, Jainas, Zoroastrians and Muslims. As the source of all peace and stability, the emperor stood above all religious and ethnic groups, mediated among them, and ensured that justice and peace prevailed.

(iii) Abu’l Fazl describes the ideal of sulh-i kui (absolute peace) as the cornerstone of enlightened rule. In sulh-i kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression but on condition that they did not undermine the authority of the state or fight among themselves The ideal of sulh-i kul was implemented through state policies – the nobility under the Mughals was a composite one comprising Iranis, Turanis, Afghans, Rajputs, Qeccanis – all of whom were given positions and awards purely on the basis of their service and loyalty to the king.

(iv) Akbar abolished the tax on pilgrimage in 1563 and jizya in 1564 as the two were based on religious discrimination. Instructions were sent to officers of the empire to follow the concept of sulh-i kul.

(v) All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the buildings and maintenance of places of worship. However, it was during the reign of Auranzeb, the jizya was re¬imposed on non-Muslim subjects.

(vi) Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract. According to him the emperor protects the four essences of subjects, namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour (narnus) and faith (din), and in return demands obedience and a share of resources from the people. Only sovereigns were thought to be able to honour the contract with power and Divine guidance.

from Blogger http://www.margdarsan.com/2020/08/ncert-class-12-history-chapter-9-kings.html

[sending-the-message]

Amerikan Historie by JohnHenrysHammer

This is the story of the last time I saw my grandfather. It was the summer before I started college, and a group of my high school buddies and I were on an extended road/camping trip. One of our camp sites was within a few miles of my grandfather's hunting cabin, where he was living for the summer. I decided to make the drive and spend the evening with him. I'm still not sure whether or not that was a good decision.

I arrived early in the morning, unannounced. He turned as he heard my truck make its way up the long drive. "Tommy!" he roared with glee when he saw me. "What in the hell are you doing here junior? I thought you were Clarence."

"Who's Clarence?" I asked as I stepped up onto the porch. It was clear he was expecting someone. There was an extra coffee mug set out as well as some bagels and oranges. I helped myself to an orange and tried to hide my disappointment. It never occurred to me that my grandfather would have visitors out there in the middle of nowhere. I had been looking forward to an evening of stories and good conversation. My grandfather was always good for staying up half the night, ready to debate or discuss anything. I had been hoping for some sage advice, some words of wisdom before I headed off to school. Be careful what you wish for I guess. I sat down in the chair next to him. He was staring thoughtfully out at the meadow in front of his property.

"In some ways I have no idea who Clarence is," he said. "None of us really ever did. But I do know that he's brilliant. Maybe a genius even. I met him when I was in college, about the same age you are now. He was an anthropology major, obsessed with American history. And he was a tough customer boy," he chuckled. "He couldn't accept the account of history we were given. It was unbelievable to him that no great civilization existed here. The native people were 10,000 years behind the rest of humanity when the Europeans arrived. The world had complex systems of mathematics, sciences, had built large scale cities, developed ways to keep records. Here there was none of that. No innovation beyond the basic needs of life. It bothered him immensely. There was no evolutionary difference to account for it.

"He rejected all the usual explanations: No contact with other cultures - Bull, Clarence said. There had long been evidence of occasional brushes with explorers, but they were few and far between and deemed insignificant by historians. Different religion or value system - Rubbish, he said. There are always those who question, who act against the status quo, who desire to leave a legacy behind. Clarence didn't buy for one second the stereotype of the Native American Indian, a people who lived in such harmony with the land and each other that they had no need of anything else. 'When has that ever worked?' he would ask. 'Utopias are an idealistic dream. They are not reality. Sure everyone agrees that they are a good idea, but human nature will not allow for it. There is always somebody who wants more. Then there is someone else who wants even more but wants to do less. It's the story of us, of humans.'"

"The mystery consumed him," my grandfather continued. "It became all he ever thought about. He worked tirelessly on solving it. It wasn't easy work. Most of the history of Native Americans was written by Europeans. Their writing had all kinds of motive, and truth was almost never on the list. At graduation he got an offer from the Smithsonian to join their anthropology department. Clarence was the top student in the country, and they were prepared to give him free reign; expenses paid and government permission secured to study, research, and dig wherever he wanted. He would have teams of people working under him. Wouldn't you know the crazy bastard turned them down. Instead he headed west to the remaining reservations, to attempt to speak to natives and learn whatever he could. He was aware they might want nothing to do with him. He told me he turned down the job because he was afraid that if it was discovered who employed him, any chance he had to learn the truth would be crushed forever."

"And then he was just gone. No one ever heard from him. Until last week. He got in touch and wanted to know if he could come by to talk. I was surprised to say the least. He was not the social sort. But age changes our priorities I suppose." He gulped down the last of his coffee and looked at me, eyes sparkling. "I am curious about him," he confessed. "When I spend time out here, in the middle of nowhere," he paused to wink at me,"I think sometimes that this right here is what this country used to look like long ago, before war, and revolution, and progress, and destiny, or whatever they're calling it these days. Evey now and then I would wonder about old Clarence and if he ever got anywhere with his research." He stood up and began to gather up the remains of the breakfast he laid out. "I hope he makes it. You'll get to meet a genius. Or a madman, who knows?" We laughed, and just then a car turned up the drive. My grandfather whistled. "Well now we will see, won't we." My disappointment vanished, replaced by curiosity. Whether this guy turned out to be brilliant or bonkos, it would at least be entertaining.

We settled ourselves in the kitchen. Clarence seemed to be unsettled by the woods. "Boy you really are far out into the wilderness here Jack," he said. When he first got out of the car he had peered around nervously. My grandfather laughed and made jokes about the city boy meeting the country.

"Don't worry, I haven't seen any bears since yesterday."

Clarence didn't seem to hear. He looked at us, and said hesitantly, "Have..have you ever seen anything, you know, unusual out here?"

"What do you mean unusual?"

Clarence looked down and kicked the dirt with his boot. "Nothing I guess," he muttered. My grandfather and I exchanged a look. The eccentricities of a genius, I thought. Now that we were inside, he seemed only slightly less on edge. He would constantly glance out the window. My grandfather tried to keep him focused.

"I was telling Tommy here all about your research," he said. "But I'd bet he'd rather hear it from you. Go on, tell us, did you make any big discoveries?"

He sighed deeply and looked around again. "Do you like it up here Jack? I mean, do you plan to spend a lot of time out here?"

I could tell my grandfather was tiring of humoring our visitor. "Well, yes. I'll head back to the city in a few weeks, but I come out here every year. Have done for a long time now. Ever since this one was a boy," he pointed to me.

"Well then, I suppose I have to tell you. Even if it puts you in danger. Because it might be more dangerous if I don't tell you." He looked at me. "What do you plan on studying in college son?"

"I'm not sure yet," I replied.

"Do yourself a favor. Study something sensible. Technology or medical, or something like that. Don't get it into your head to start running around the world and asking questions. You never know what you'll find." He ran a hand through his wiry gray hair. His thin frame shuddered a little, and I wondered if he had completely lost it. I found myself watching and listening very closely, mentally cataloguing every word and movement. Which way would the scales tip, sane or insane?

My grandfather was similarly transfixed. "You found something didn't you? How come you never published anything? I looked in the journals all the time."

Clarence snorted sarcastically at that. "I was never taken seriously enough to get published. My entire objective was deemed ridiculous, racist even. I was too much of a pseudo-scientist for academia, and too much of a scholar for the mysteries of the unexplained rags. Not to mention the fact that all my evidence was anecdotal."

"Evidence!" my grandfather said. "So you did find something!"

He nodded. "I was on to something. I know that now. Damned if I can't un-know it." His gaze shifted suddenly. "What's that!" he cried in fright, pointing out the cabin's back window.

"It's nothing, it's a decoration, don't worry about it." My grandfather gestured to me and I rose to close the curtain. When I came back I saw that he had given Clarence a beer. His head was tilted back, downing nearly half the bottle. I looked questioningly at my grandfather, but he just nodded at me and I sat back down. I wasn't sure giving alcohol to a crazy person was such a good idea.

"My original question," he began, "was why had the typical progress of civilization not occurred in North America? I had several theories in mind to follow. One was the possibility that there had indeed been a great civilization here, but all physical evidence had been destroyed over time. In such case it was possible that indigenous people had preserved evidence in the form of oral traditions. It would further be possible that they saw no reason to share their history with the Europeans. I believe they view that sort of thing as tarnishing the sacred memory of their ancestors."

"A second possibility was that the records we have are in fact true; that factors such as isolation, the environment, and the availability of natural resources all contributed to the delay in development. Yet another possibility hinged on the superiority of their culture. Beings at once behind in time, yet so far advanced that they had no use for material matters." He looked at my grandfather. "You know well Jack, that I never accepted that last one. It's an apologists story. It's white people bestowing a kind of saintliness to a group that suffered immeasurably at their hands." He shook his head. "I dislike it because it robs them of their humanity. The natives were no worse and no better than anyone else. I believe among their number existed great men and women, intelligent leaders, mothers and fathers who loved their sons and daughters, as well as those who were difficult, lazy, prone to temper, jealous, power driven, murderous." He paused and rubbed his hands over his face. "I just wanted the truth. Their truth. Not the version written by their conquerors. And I would understand if they didn't want to give it to me. But I had to try."

"So off I went, west into the unknown. It took so long to gain the confidence of the people I met. But I had expected this and I was persistent. The trouble with myths and legends is that they change over time. After several years among the natives I heard hundreds of versions of the same stories. I discovered only that their history was shaped by all of the influences previously theorized. Just like the history of any people anywhere. The only question that remained unanswered was Where were all the great thinkers? I was stubbornly convinced that there had to be someone who looked up at the stars like in ancient Greece, someone who shirked off their responsibilities to draw and make art like early man had done in the caves of France, someone who tried to explain, to make sense of the world in which they lived. But no one seemed particularly interested in my question. Or they acted as if they didn't understand.

"I was completely dejected. I had wasted years of my life out here. Academia thought I was a fool, I had passed on one of the biggest opportunities anyone could ever hope to get." He paused and finished the rest of his beer. He pushed his chair back from the table and hung his head in his hands. Then he breathed in deep and raised his head. He continued. "And then one day everything changed. I met the grandchild of a highly respected medicine man. He agreed to talk with me. He said he was going to tell me so that I would stop asking. I was putting people in danger by continuing to ask about forbidden things. He would speak to me only under the condition that once we spoke, I had to leave and never come back, and I could never again set foot on Indian land. It would be too dangerous."

Clarence looked at me, then at my grandfather. "Jack, have you ever looked back on your life, all the changes you went through, and tried to pinpoint the exact moment you've changed course? He looked at me again. "You can't recognize them when they happen. It's only later that they become the most important moments of our lives. My life changed forever the day I agreed to talk to that man. I can never go back to being who I was before. So I want to tell you both that I'm sorry. Because a few months or a year from now, you might look back and realize that this, right now, is one of those moments you cannot come back from."

"I'm an old man Clarence, I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Tommy's young yet, he can bounce back from anything, isn't that right Tommy? Now go on and finish your story," my grandfather said. He had a beer as well now, I noticed, and he placed another on the table in front of Clarence. He sat down and looked at me. "Aw hell," he said, "go on and grab yourself one too." I hurried to the cooler. The ice was cold, and I felt that strange cold-burning sensation on my hand as I fumbled through, feeling for a bottle. Clarence waited until I was seated to continue.

"The man I was to meet called himself Whitewolf. He was adamant we meet off the reservation. I had to drive an hour to some little diner. When I arrived I asked him why he wanted to come so far away. He said that we were being watched. By who, I asked him. The trees he said." He looked at my grandfather who had started to laugh. "Exactly what I thought Jack. But I had come all that way. So I decided to stay and listen. And pretty soon I forgot about any urge I'd had to get up and leave."

"This man Whitewolf explained that from the beginning, the native people had lived alongside a presence. It had always been there, and it always would be. Calling it a presence was not exactly accurate. It was a struggle to explain these things in English, he said. To them it's an ancient fact, so ingrained it does not need explaining. All attempts to put such a concept into words falls ridiculously short. Which is the point, he said. The presence wants to exert its influence unnoticed. It desires control, and it goes about it's work by any means necessary."

"Is it malevolent?" I asked him. I was thinking this would be a great story to scare my friends with when I got back to camp. Except I would say evil instead of malevolent when I told them.

"It can be," Clarence answered. "It seems to enjoy chaos. Many of the earliest people succumbed to the influence. It whispered things in their ears, made them afraid, jealous, or angry. People couldn't get along with each other. Groups were split, and it made survival very hard. So the wise men, the medicine men decided they had to do something. They tried to figure out ways to ignore it, to block the influence. Whitewolf claimed he was a descendant of one of the first men to battle the presence. It was very difficult and took much time to achieve the skill. It became an essential part of every child's upbringing. Before they were taught how to hunt, or how to collect and grow food they learned about the presence and how to fight its influence.

"Soon the elders discovered that their efforts weren't enough. The presence was evolving, growing stronger. A few courageous medicine men dedicated themselves to learning all they could. Their task was very dangerous and they knew they may not survive. Some never came back. Some returned changed, given over to evil pursuits. The presence had turned them from goodness. And whatever knowledge that person had, the presence now had."

"Sort of like possession," my grandfather mused.

"Yes, exactly. Silence became a way of life. Languages became complicated in order to confuse and mislead the presence. Names became carefully guarded secrets. The medicine men who survived continued to discover more. The presence played on desires. The overly ambitious were eyed with frightened suspicion. Were they under the sway? After awhile it mattered little if they truly were. It was socially unacceptable to have or to want more than anyone else."

"So it seemed that I had my answer. It was the combined effect of belief and social conditioning that had arrested the development of their society. Because of course I believed none of it. I began to get depressed as I sat there listening to Whitewolf. I wanted the truth to be different. I wanted stories of remarkable individuals who had made great advances in learning. I was sure I would find them here. Their achievements perhaps lost to recorded history, but living on in memory. Stories and legends so sacred they were never shared with the white man. But it seemed that the greatest minds were caught up in a ghost story. All their energy was devoted to shadows. Whitewolf kept talking though, and I kept listening. Maybe it was because he was a good storyteller. Maybe it was because he was the only one who would talk to me at length. He had gotten to the point in his tale when the colonists began to arrive."

"At first the natives wondered how to go about warning them about the presence. By this time it was instinct for them. They knew how to guard themselves mentally and emotionally from the dark influence. But it was becoming rapidly clear that the colonists had no interest in learning the native ways. They had strange ideas about ownership and conquest, and they were desirous of everything. And they talked non-stop. Words were scattered about, dropped carelessly, trampled on. They would say one thing and the next day say something completely different. It shocked the natives, who had long used words with the utmost care. So there arose among them an informal agreement to let the colonists fend for themselves. They would learn soon enough about the dangers posed by the presence. The more pressing matter was how to co-exist with these new people whose numbers never seemed to stop increasing."

"What happened next caught the natives by surprise. The clash between the cultures reverberated like a shockwave. Loved ones were lost, food became scarce, violent uprisings occurred over ownership of land. High levels of anxiety, grief, and anger weighed upon the natives. The mental strength that protected them from the presence began to weaken and splinter. They knew it, and they were afraid. But they didn't have to be. Because the presence had discovered the colonists. And it liked what it had found. These new people were full of weaknesses. They were so easy to manipulate and bend. The presence no longer needed to try and turn the natives, who were too good at resisting anyway. How could the new people resist when they never knew they were under attack in the first place?"

I looked at my grandfather to see if he saw it too. His eyes met mine in conformation. Something was happening to our guest. He was no longer the meek, anxious man he was when he first arrived. His eyes had a sort of glaze, and he was swaying to and fro in his seat. He took on the aspect of a southern preacher spewing out a fire and brimstone sermon. My grandfather cleared his throat."Well Clarence, that's an amazing story. We should invite the old gang over sometime and you can tell them. Say you ever hear what became of Frank Delacroix?"

Clarence was having none of it. "Do you know what became of Whitewolf? On the way back from meeting me he was killed in a car wreck. Witnesses say he lost control when he swerved to avoid a deer that ran out in front of him. Well some of them said it was a deer. Others saw a coyote. Others swear it was a man. Think of it though," he hissed. "What if it's true? There are stories that personify temptation as the devil on your shoulder, we all know that one. Where did that story come from? Wherever did man get such an idea? Especially those who, like the natives, had no exposure to Christian belief, to the idea of Satan the tempter? And yet these people believed, they believed more strongly than certain churchgoing folks I know. What horrors did they see to convince them this was real? Whitewolf told me some of them. They are awful stories. Stories of men who set their sleeping villages ablaze. Mothers who skinned and roasted their babies. The hunting party who stopped hunting animals and began to hunt each other. Three of them were discovered in the woods chewing on the entrails of a man still alive. And yet, if you added up their crimes, their offenses, the natives capacity for evil was nothing compared to what just arrived."

He stood and began to walk aimlessly around the cabin. He shook his head violently, as if he were trying to shake loose the horrible imagery lodged in his mind. "Keep an eye on him, I won't be a minute," my grandfather said. I nodded and tried to look brave. This man was really starting to scare me. I could hear my grandfather rustling around in the other room. Why had he agreed to let Clarence come here? He didn't really even know him. Now we had to deal with him. How were we gonna get him out of here? Should we call an ambulance? It would take them forever to get here. I was watching Clarence as my mind ran through these options. Suddenly he whirled around to face me, and I jumped.

"What if the presence whispered to those weary colonists? Showed them all this country could give them. Led them on with promises of prosperity. And why not? What would it whisper? Would it say to them, look what you've been through? You deserve better. Never mind these people here, look how they live. All the potential that lies in this land, and they don't know what to do with it. But you, you know what to do. You shouldn't have to do the work. You've done so much already. You've nearly starved coming here. Why don't you sit for a moment. Rest. Think. You've suffered so much. Look at these folks here. They are so strange. Let them do the work. Look at those funny looking ones. They don't know anything. Can they even take care of themselves. Whats that? They can't even read? Put them to work. They can labor and toil. You have more important work to do." He turned from me abruptly and made for the window. He pulled back the curtain, and let loose an earth shattering howl. My grandfather was at my side in a flash.

"What is that? What is that?" Clarence screeched. He pointed out to the backyard along the edge of the woods.

"it's nothing Clarence, it's a decoration, calm down," my grandfather said.

"I can't be - I'm not supposed to be here!" Clarence screamed. "You tricked me! Why didn't you tell me - " He collapsed in a heap onto the floor.

"Some sort of panic attack I guess," my grandfather said. "C'mon, help me get him to bed." He had been busy making up the guest bed, anticipating that Clarence would probably need a few hours to calm his nerves after getting so worked up telling his story. "I don't want him leaving here in the dark in such a state. God knows what could happen to him." We lifted him onto the small spare mattress. "But then that means I don't have room for you. You better get a move on kiddo. I know you know these roads in and out, but it's still not good to be on your own after dark. Give me a call when you get home from your camping trip alright? Send my love to your mother."

I walked out to my truck. I felt drained. It was near sunset now. I had spent all day listening to this crazy tale. I started the engine and took off down the drive. I honestly can't remember now if I really did hear screams in the distance as I turned on to the road or if my imagination is making up that memory. In any event I kept going, a decision that probably saved my life, and one I know my grandfather wouldn't blame me for. I still can't understand how it happened. It was my grandfather's hunting cabin, he had all kinds of guns and knives up there. He should have been able to protect himself.

I went back to the cabin once, a few months later with my father. The mess of blood, broken glass, splintered wood, flesh, and bits of brain had long since been cleaned up. I pretended not to notice the dark stains on the wood when we entered. My father pretended not to notice too. My grandfather did not own the cabin. He rented it from a woman who was now selling it. She said it freaked her out to go there after the the murders. So my dad and I were summoned to gather up my grandfather's belongings. The woman met us there with a key and waited outside while my dad and I loaded up the van. She refused to come inside. I remember seeing her wander around the backyard. She stopped and looked up at the totem pole that stood at the edge of the property. Her black hair shone in the sun.

[margdarsanme]

NCERT Class 12 History Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT Class 12 History Solutions

Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS SOLVED : Q 1. Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.

Ans. Process of manuscript production in the Mughal court included the following: (a) Paper-maker’s responsibility was to prepare the folios of the manuscript. (b) Skill writer, i.e. scribes or calligrapher copied the texts. (c) Guilders, illuminated the pages of the manuscript. (d) Miniature painter illustrated the scene from the text. (e) The book binders gathered the folio and gave it to the original shape of a book.

Q 2. In what ways would the daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court have conveyed a sense of the power of the emperor?

Ans. The daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court observed the following: (i) By representing the status of the court. (ii) In form of salutation of emperor. (iii) Jharokha Darshan. (iv) Meeting held by sultan in Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas. (v) By honouring the mansabdar on special occasion with special gifts and jagir. Q 3. Assess the role played by women of the imperial household in the Mughal Empire

Ans. 

(i) The term “haram” is used to describe the domestic world of the Mughals. This word is taken from the Persian word haram, which means a sacred place.

(ii) The Mughal household consisted of the emperor’s wives and concubines, his near and distant relatives (mother, step- and foster-mothers, sisters, daughters, daughters-in-law, aunts, children, etc.), and female servants and slaves.

(iii) Polygamy was practised widely in the Indian subcontinent, especially among the ruling groups. Both for the Rajput clans as well as the Mughals marriage was a way of cementing political relationships and forging alliances.

(iv) The gift of territory was often accompanied by the gift of a daughter in marriage. This ensured a continuing hierarchical relationship between ruling groups. It was through the link of marriage and the relationships that developed as a result that the Mughals were able to form a vast kinship network that linked them to important groups and helped to hold a vast empire together.

(v) In the Mughal household a distinction was maintained between wives who came from royal families (begams), and other wives (aghas) who were not of noble birth.

(vi) The begams, married after receiving huge amounts of cash and valuables as dowry (maahr), naturally received a higher status and greater attention from their husbands than did aghas. The concubines (aghacha or the lesser agha) occupied the lowest position in the hierarchy of females intimately related to royalty.

(vii) The agha and the aghacha could rise to the position of a begam depending on the husband’s will, and provided that he did not already have four wives.

(viii) Love and motherhood played important roles in elevating such women to the status of legally wedded wives. Apart from wives, numerous male and female slaves populated the Mughal Household. The tasks they performed varied from the most mundane to those requiring skill, tact and intelligence.

(xi) Slave eunuchs (khwajasara) moved between the external and internal life of the household as guards, servants, and also as agents for women dabbling in commerce. Q 4. What were the concerns that shaped Mughal policies and attitudes towards regions outside the subcontinent?

Ans. 

(i) The Safavids and Qandahar: The political and diplomatic relations between , the Mughal kings and the neighbouring countries of Iran and Turan hinged on the control of the frontier defined by the Hindukush mountains that separated Afghanistan from the regions of Iran and Central Asia. A constant aim of Mughal policy was to ward off this potential danger by controlling strategic outposts – notably Kabul and Qandahar. The fortress-town Qandahar had initially been in the possession of Humayun, reconquered in 1595 by Akbar.The Safavid court retained diplomatic relations with the Mughals, it continued to stake.claims to Qandahar. Jahangir sent a diplomatic envoy to the court of Shah Abbas in 1613 to plead the Mughal case for retaining Qandahar, but the mission failed to achieve its objectives. Persian army besieged Qandahar in 1622. The Mughal garrison was defeated and had to surrender the fortress and the city to the Safavids.

(ii) The Ottomans: pilgrimage and trade: The relationship between the Mughals and the Ottomans ensured free movement for merchants and pilgrims in the territories under Ottoman control. This was especially true for the Hijaz, that part of Ottoman Arabia where the important pilgrim centres of Mecca and Medina were located.

The Mughal emperor combined religion and commerce by exporting essential goods to Aden and Mokha, and distributing the proceeds of the sales in charity to the keepers of shrines and religious men there.

(iii) Jesuits at the Mughal court: European received knowledge about India through the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, travellers, merchants and diplomats. After the discovery of sea route to India, the Portuguese merchants set up their trading network stations in coastal region. The Portuguese was also interested in the spread of Christianity with the help of the missionaries of the Society of Jesuits. The Christian missions who sent to India during the sixteenth century were part of this process of trade and empire building. The first Jesuit mission reached the Mughal court of Mughal emperor Akbar at Fatehpur oikri in 1580 and stayed here for about two years. The Jesuits spoke to Akbar about Christianity and debated its virtues with the ulema. Two more missions were sent to the Mughal court at Lahore, in 1591 and 1595. The Jesuit accounts are based on personal observation and shed light on the character and mind of the emperor. At public assemblies the Jesuits were assigned places in close proximity to Akbar’s throne.. The Jesuit accounts corroborate the information given in Persian chronicles about state officials and the general conditions of life in Mughal times. Q 5.Discuss the major features of Mughal provincial administration. How did the centre control the provinces?

Ans. 

(i) The head of the provincial administration was the governor (subadar). He reported directly to the emperor.

(ii) Each suba was divided into sarkar,

(iii) The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana (sub-district) by three semi-hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue records), the chaudhur (in charge of revenue collection) and the qazi.

(iv) Each department of administration maintained a large support staff of clerks, accountants, auditors, messengers, and other functionaries who were technically qualified officials, functioning in accordance with standardised rules and procedures, and generating copious written orders and records. Q 6. Discuss, with examples, the distinctive features of Mughal chronicles.

Ans. (i) Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court. They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. The authors of Mughal chronicles focused on events-related to life of the ruler, their family, the court and nobles, wars and administrative system.

(ii) These chronicles were written in Persian. This language flourished as a language of the court and of literary writings, alongside north Indian languages, especially Hindavi and its regional variants. As the Mughals were Chaghtai Turks by origin, Turkish was their mother tongue.

(iii) Chronicles narrating the events of a Mughal emperor’s reign contained, alongside the written text, images that described an event in visual form.

(iv) When scenes or themes in a book were to be given visual expression, the scribe left blank spaces on nearby pages; paintings, executed separately by artists, were inserted to accompany what was; described in words. Q 7. To what extent do you think the visual material presented in this chapter corresponds with Abu’l Fazl’s description of the taswir (Source 1)?

Ans. 

(i) Drawing the likeness of anything is called taswir. His Majesty from his earliest youth, has shown a great predilection for this art, and gives it every encouragement, as he looks upon it as a means both of study and amusement.

(ii) A very large number of painters set to work.

(iii) Each week, several supervisors and clerks of the imperial workshop submit before the emperor the work done by each artist, and his Majesty gives a reward.

(iv) Paintings served not only to enhance the beauty of a book, but were believed to possess special powers of communicating ideas about the kingdom and the power of kings in ways that the written medium could not.

(v) The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a ‘magical art’ in his view it had the power to make inanimate objects look as if they possessed life. Q 8. What were the distinctive features of the Mughal nobility? How was their relationship with the emperor shaped?

Ans. Recruitment, rank of the n ability and relationship with the emperor:

(i) Mughal chronicles, especially the Akbar Nama, have bequeathed a vision of empire in which agency rests almost solely with the emperor, while the rest of the kingdom has been portrayed as following his orders, if we look more closely at the available information the histories provide us about the apparatus of the Mughal state, we may be able to understand the ways in which the imperial organisation was dependent on several different institutions.

(ii) The most important pillar of the Mughal state was the nobility. The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious group which ensured that no faction was large enough to challenge the authority of the state. (iii)The officer corps of the Mughals was described as a bouquet of flowers (guldasta) held together by loyalty to the emperor. In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles were present from the earliest phase of carving out a political dominion. Many had accompanied Humayun; others migrated later to the Mughal court.

(iv) The holders of government offices was given the ranks (mansabs) comprising two numerical designations: zat which was an indicator of position in the imperial hierarchy and the salary of the official (mansabdar), and sawar which indicated the number of horsemen he was required to maintain in service.

(v) Akbar, who designed the mansab system, also established spiritual relationships with a select band of his nobility by treating them as his disciples (murid).

(vi) For members of the nobility, imperial service was a way of acquiring power, wealth and the highest possible reputation. A person wishing to join the service petitioned through a noble, who presented a tajwiz to the emperor.

(vii) If the applicant was found suitable, a mansab was granted to him. The mir bakhshi (paymaster general) stood in open court on the right of the emperor and presented all candidates for appointment or promotion, while his office prepared orders bearing his seal and signature as well as those of the emperor. There were two other important ministers at the centre: the diwan-i ai (finance minister) and sadr-us sudur (minister of grants or madad-i maash, and in charge of appointing local judges or qazis)

(viii) The three ministers occasionally came together as an advisory body, but were independent of each other.

(xi) Akbar with these and other advisers shaped the administrative, fiscal and monetary institutions of the empire. Nobles stationed at the court (tainat-i rakab) were a reserve force to be deputed to a province or military campaign. Nobles were duty-bound to appear twice a day to express submission their to the emperor.

(x) They also had to share the responsibility for guarding the emperor and his household round the clock. Q 9.Identify the elements that went into the making of the Mughal ideal of kingship. Ans.

(i) According to Akbars court poet, Abu’l Fazl Mughal kingship as the highest station in the hierarchy of objects receiving light emanating from God (farr-i- izadi). According to this idea, there was a Hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted to the king (Mughal Emperor) who then became the source of spiritual guidance for his subjects.

(ii) Mughal chronicles present the empire as comprising many different ethnic and religious communities – Hindus, Jainas, Zoroastrians and Muslims. As the source of all peace and stability, the emperor stood above all religious and ethnic groups, mediated among them, and ensured that justice and peace prevailed.

(iii) Abu’l Fazl describes the ideal of sulh-i kui (absolute peace) as the cornerstone of enlightened rule. In sulh-i kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression but on condition that they did not undermine the authority of the state or fight among themselves The ideal of sulh-i kul was implemented through state policies – the nobility under the Mughals was a composite one comprising Iranis, Turanis, Afghans, Rajputs, Qeccanis – all of whom were given positions and awards purely on the basis of their service and loyalty to the king.

(iv) Akbar abolished the tax on pilgrimage in 1563 and jizya in 1564 as the two were based on religious discrimination. Instructions were sent to officers of the empire to follow the concept of sulh-i kul.

(v) All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the buildings and maintenance of places of worship. However, it was during the reign of Auranzeb, the jizya was re¬imposed on non-Muslim subjects.

(vi) Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract. According to him the emperor protects the four essences of subjects, namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour (narnus) and faith (din), and in return demands obedience and a share of resources from the people. Only sovereigns were thought to be able to honour the contract with power and Divine guidance.

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NCERT Class 12 History Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT Class 12 History Solutions

Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS SOLVED : Q 1. Describe the process of manuscript production in the Mughal court.

Ans. Process of manuscript production in the Mughal court included the following: (a) Paper-maker’s responsibility was to prepare the folios of the manuscript. (b) Skill writer, i.e. scribes or calligrapher copied the texts. (c) Guilders, illuminated the pages of the manuscript. (d) Miniature painter illustrated the scene from the text. (e) The book binders gathered the folio and gave it to the original shape of a book.

Q 2. In what ways would the daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court have conveyed a sense of the power of the emperor?

Ans. The daily routine and special festivities associated with the Mughal court observed the following: (i) By representing the status of the court. (ii) In form of salutation of emperor. (iii) Jharokha Darshan. (iv) Meeting held by sultan in Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas. (v) By honouring the mansabdar on special occasion with special gifts and jagir. Q 3. Assess the role played by women of the imperial household in the Mughal Empire

Ans. 

(i) The term “haram” is used to describe the domestic world of the Mughals. This word is taken from the Persian word haram, which means a sacred place.

(ii) The Mughal household consisted of the emperor’s wives and concubines, his near and distant relatives (mother, step- and foster-mothers, sisters, daughters, daughters-in-law, aunts, children, etc.), and female servants and slaves.

(iii) Polygamy was practised widely in the Indian subcontinent, especially among the ruling groups. Both for the Rajput clans as well as the Mughals marriage was a way of cementing political relationships and forging alliances.

(iv) The gift of territory was often accompanied by the gift of a daughter in marriage. This ensured a continuing hierarchical relationship between ruling groups. It was through the link of marriage and the relationships that developed as a result that the Mughals were able to form a vast kinship network that linked them to important groups and helped to hold a vast empire together.

(v) In the Mughal household a distinction was maintained between wives who came from royal families (begams), and other wives (aghas) who were not of noble birth.

(vi) The begams, married after receiving huge amounts of cash and valuables as dowry (maahr), naturally received a higher status and greater attention from their husbands than did aghas. The concubines (aghacha or the lesser agha) occupied the lowest position in the hierarchy of females intimately related to royalty.

(vii) The agha and the aghacha could rise to the position of a begam depending on the husband’s will, and provided that he did not already have four wives.

(viii) Love and motherhood played important roles in elevating such women to the status of legally wedded wives. Apart from wives, numerous male and female slaves populated the Mughal Household. The tasks they performed varied from the most mundane to those requiring skill, tact and intelligence.

(xi) Slave eunuchs (khwajasara) moved between the external and internal life of the household as guards, servants, and also as agents for women dabbling in commerce. Q 4. What were the concerns that shaped Mughal policies and attitudes towards regions outside the subcontinent?

Ans. 

(i) The Safavids and Qandahar: The political and diplomatic relations between , the Mughal kings and the neighbouring countries of Iran and Turan hinged on the control of the frontier defined by the Hindukush mountains that separated Afghanistan from the regions of Iran and Central Asia. A constant aim of Mughal policy was to ward off this potential danger by controlling strategic outposts – notably Kabul and Qandahar. The fortress-town Qandahar had initially been in the possession of Humayun, reconquered in 1595 by Akbar.The Safavid court retained diplomatic relations with the Mughals, it continued to stake.claims to Qandahar. Jahangir sent a diplomatic envoy to the court of Shah Abbas in 1613 to plead the Mughal case for retaining Qandahar, but the mission failed to achieve its objectives. Persian army besieged Qandahar in 1622. The Mughal garrison was defeated and had to surrender the fortress and the city to the Safavids.

(ii) The Ottomans: pilgrimage and trade: The relationship between the Mughals and the Ottomans ensured free movement for merchants and pilgrims in the territories under Ottoman control. This was especially true for the Hijaz, that part of Ottoman Arabia where the important pilgrim centres of Mecca and Medina were located.

The Mughal emperor combined religion and commerce by exporting essential goods to Aden and Mokha, and distributing the proceeds of the sales in charity to the keepers of shrines and religious men there.

(iii) Jesuits at the Mughal court: European received knowledge about India through the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, travellers, merchants and diplomats. After the discovery of sea route to India, the Portuguese merchants set up their trading network stations in coastal region. The Portuguese was also interested in the spread of Christianity with the help of the missionaries of the Society of Jesuits. The Christian missions who sent to India during the sixteenth century were part of this process of trade and empire building. The first Jesuit mission reached the Mughal court of Mughal emperor Akbar at Fatehpur oikri in 1580 and stayed here for about two years. The Jesuits spoke to Akbar about Christianity and debated its virtues with the ulema. Two more missions were sent to the Mughal court at Lahore, in 1591 and 1595. The Jesuit accounts are based on personal observation and shed light on the character and mind of the emperor. At public assemblies the Jesuits were assigned places in close proximity to Akbar’s throne.. The Jesuit accounts corroborate the information given in Persian chronicles about state officials and the general conditions of life in Mughal times. Q 5.Discuss the major features of Mughal provincial administration. How did the centre control the provinces?

Ans. 

(i) The head of the provincial administration was the governor (subadar). He reported directly to the emperor.

(ii) Each suba was divided into sarkar,

(iii) The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana (sub-district) by three semi-hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue records), the chaudhur (in charge of revenue collection) and the qazi.

(iv) Each department of administration maintained a large support staff of clerks, accountants, auditors, messengers, and other functionaries who were technically qualified officials, functioning in accordance with standardised rules and procedures, and generating copious written orders and records. Q 6. Discuss, with examples, the distinctive features of Mughal chronicles.

Ans. (i) Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court. They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. The authors of Mughal chronicles focused on events-related to life of the ruler, their family, the court and nobles, wars and administrative system.

(ii) These chronicles were written in Persian. This language flourished as a language of the court and of literary writings, alongside north Indian languages, especially Hindavi and its regional variants. As the Mughals were Chaghtai Turks by origin, Turkish was their mother tongue.

(iii) Chronicles narrating the events of a Mughal emperor’s reign contained, alongside the written text, images that described an event in visual form.

(iv) When scenes or themes in a book were to be given visual expression, the scribe left blank spaces on nearby pages; paintings, executed separately by artists, were inserted to accompany what was; described in words. Q 7. To what extent do you think the visual material presented in this chapter corresponds with Abu’l Fazl’s description of the taswir (Source 1)?

Ans. 

(i) Drawing the likeness of anything is called taswir. His Majesty from his earliest youth, has shown a great predilection for this art, and gives it every encouragement, as he looks upon it as a means both of study and amusement.

(ii) A very large number of painters set to work.

(iii) Each week, several supervisors and clerks of the imperial workshop submit before the emperor the work done by each artist, and his Majesty gives a reward.

(iv) Paintings served not only to enhance the beauty of a book, but were believed to possess special powers of communicating ideas about the kingdom and the power of kings in ways that the written medium could not.

(v) The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a ‘magical art’ in his view it had the power to make inanimate objects look as if they possessed life. Q 8. What were the distinctive features of the Mughal nobility? How was their relationship with the emperor shaped?

Ans. Recruitment, rank of the n ability and relationship with the emperor:

(i) Mughal chronicles, especially the Akbar Nama, have bequeathed a vision of empire in which agency rests almost solely with the emperor, while the rest of the kingdom has been portrayed as following his orders, if we look more closely at the available information the histories provide us about the apparatus of the Mughal state, we may be able to understand the ways in which the imperial organisation was dependent on several different institutions.

(ii) The most important pillar of the Mughal state was the nobility. The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious group which ensured that no faction was large enough to challenge the authority of the state. (iii)The officer corps of the Mughals was described as a bouquet of flowers (guldasta) held together by loyalty to the emperor. In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles were present from the earliest phase of carving out a political dominion. Many had accompanied Humayun; others migrated later to the Mughal court.

(iv) The holders of government offices was given the ranks (mansabs) comprising two numerical designations: zat which was an indicator of position in the imperial hierarchy and the salary of the official (mansabdar), and sawar which indicated the number of horsemen he was required to maintain in service.

(v) Akbar, who designed the mansab system, also established spiritual relationships with a select band of his nobility by treating them as his disciples (murid).

(vi) For members of the nobility, imperial service was a way of acquiring power, wealth and the highest possible reputation. A person wishing to join the service petitioned through a noble, who presented a tajwiz to the emperor.

(vii) If the applicant was found suitable, a mansab was granted to him. The mir bakhshi (paymaster general) stood in open court on the right of the emperor and presented all candidates for appointment or promotion, while his office prepared orders bearing his seal and signature as well as those of the emperor. There were two other important ministers at the centre: the diwan-i ai (finance minister) and sadr-us sudur (minister of grants or madad-i maash, and in charge of appointing local judges or qazis)

(viii) The three ministers occasionally came together as an advisory body, but were independent of each other.

(xi) Akbar with these and other advisers shaped the administrative, fiscal and monetary institutions of the empire. Nobles stationed at the court (tainat-i rakab) were a reserve force to be deputed to a province or military campaign. Nobles were duty-bound to appear twice a day to express submission their to the emperor.

(x) They also had to share the responsibility for guarding the emperor and his household round the clock. Q 9.Identify the elements that went into the making of the Mughal ideal of kingship. Ans.

(i) According to Akbars court poet, Abu’l Fazl Mughal kingship as the highest station in the hierarchy of objects receiving light emanating from God (farr-i- izadi). According to this idea, there was a Hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted to the king (Mughal Emperor) who then became the source of spiritual guidance for his subjects.

(ii) Mughal chronicles present the empire as comprising many different ethnic and religious communities – Hindus, Jainas, Zoroastrians and Muslims. As the source of all peace and stability, the emperor stood above all religious and ethnic groups, mediated among them, and ensured that justice and peace prevailed.

(iii) Abu’l Fazl describes the ideal of sulh-i kui (absolute peace) as the cornerstone of enlightened rule. In sulh-i kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression but on condition that they did not undermine the authority of the state or fight among themselves The ideal of sulh-i kul was implemented through state policies – the nobility under the Mughals was a composite one comprising Iranis, Turanis, Afghans, Rajputs, Qeccanis – all of whom were given positions and awards purely on the basis of their service and loyalty to the king.

(iv) Akbar abolished the tax on pilgrimage in 1563 and jizya in 1564 as the two were based on religious discrimination. Instructions were sent to officers of the empire to follow the concept of sulh-i kul.

(v) All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the buildings and maintenance of places of worship. However, it was during the reign of Auranzeb, the jizya was re¬imposed on non-Muslim subjects.

(vi) Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract. According to him the emperor protects the four essences of subjects, namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour (narnus) and faith (din), and in return demands obedience and a share of resources from the people. Only sovereigns were thought to be able to honour the contract with power and Divine guidance.

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