The irrigation device called 'Araghatta' was
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) a large wheel with earthen pots tied to the outer ends of its spokes
The answer is the pot-wheel of Indian irrigation: a large wheel carrying a ring of pots that dip into a well, fill, rise and empty into a channel as the wheel turns. NCERT reproduces Babur's description of it, a wheel with pitchers fastened to ropes and wooden strips, turned by a bullock through geared wheels, and calls the same device the Persian wheel (Rehat).
- ✓ (b) Babur describes a wheel-well device with pitchers fastened between two circles of rope, turned by a bullock through toothed wheels, with a trough where the pitchers empty. NCERT's figure calls it a Persian wheel. UPSC's key treats this option as correct; we could not confirm the option's name from an official source, so we do not explain that detail.
- ✗ (a) Babur also describes a different device: a large bucket on a rope passed over a roller at the well-edge and tied to a bullock. NCERT lists the Charas as a separate well-irrigation device, distinct from the Rehat (Persian wheel). Neither is a wheel of pots.
- ✗ (d) A bucket on a rope is the other kind of lift Babur describes; it is not a wheel carrying a ring of pots.
Remember · Wheel with a ring of pots lifting well water = the Persian wheel (Rehat); Babur describes one turned by a bullock through gears. A bucket-and-rope lift (charas type) is a different device.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Understanding Society, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part II, Chapter 4 “They make two circles of rope long enough to suit the depths of the well, fix strips of wood between them, and on these fasten pitchers.”
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part II, Chapter 4 “The last wheel the bullock turns; its teeth catch in the teeth of the second (wheel), and thus the wheel with the pitchers is turned.”
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part II, Chapter 4 “tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over a roller, and tie its other end to the bullock.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Understanding Society, Chapter 1 “But if a Charas is replaced by a Rehat (persian wheel) for irrigation which calls for a heavier capital investment, one needs only one pair of bullocks and one person for its operation.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·