The Mughals & the Marathas

Answer: (a) Akbar

UPSC's key is Akbar (1556-1605). Akbar ran a translation bureau at Fatehpur Sikri that turned major Sanskrit works into Persian; we could not confirm the date of the Yogavasistha translation from an official source.

• ✓ (a) Akbar had Sanskrit classics rendered into Persian, including the Mahabharata (Razmnama) and the Ramayana. UPSC's official key gives Akbar for this question; we could not confirm the date of the Yogavasistha translation from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ (b) Humayun's rule was short and unsettled (he lost the throne and regained it), and it is not associated with a Sanskrit-to-Persian translation programme.
• ✗ (c) Shah Jahan is remembered for architecture such as the Taj Mahal; the large state-backed translation bureau is an Akbar-era feature.

Remember · Akbar's translation bureau put Sanskrit works into Persian: Mahabharata as Razmnama, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and Panchatantra.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Paragana—Sarkar—Suba

In the Mughal administrative set-up a suba (province) was divided into sarkars (districts), and a sarkar into parganas. So from smallest to largest the order is pargana, sarkar, suba.

• ✓ (a) NCERT's account of the Ain-i-Akbari lists the subas with their divisions (sarkars, parganas and mahals) and describes the sarkars as lying below the suba. The pargana is the smaller unit inside a sarkar, so the ascending order is pargana, sarkar, suba.
• ✗ (c) This is the descending order, from the largest unit (suba) to the smallest (pargana).
• ✗ (b) It puts the sarkar below the pargana, but parganas are the sub-divisions of a sarkar.

Remember · Mughal units, big to small: suba (province) > sarkar (district) > pargana > mahal. Ascending: pargana, sarkar, suba.

📘 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)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: the Wodeyar (Yadu) rulers of Mysore began as feudatories of the Vijayanagara kings and later ruled on their own. The Carnatic of the Arcot nawabs was a Mughal-era province, not a piece cut out of Hyderabad, and Rohilkhand grew out of Mughal decline, not out of land held by Ahmad Shah Durrani.

• ✗ 1. A Government of Tamil Nadu district page says the Nizam of Hyderabad, as Mughal representative in the south, entrusted the Carnatic to the Nawab of Arcot. The Arcot nawabs were thus Mughal-appointed governors under the Nizam, not a state that 'emerged out of' Hyderabad State.
• ✓ 2. The Mysuru Yadu dynasty rose to power in 1399 as feudatories of the Vijayanagara kings. NCERT adds that many Vijayanagara nayakas set up independent kingdoms in the seventeenth century, and lists Mysore among the nayaka centres.
• ✗ 3. Rohilkhand took shape in the early 18th century, when Mughal rule was fading and Rohilla Afghan settlers built their own power there. It was not carved from territory that Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Afghan invader, had occupied.

Remember · Mysore's Wodeyars were Vijayanagara feudatories; the Carnatic was a dependency of Hyderabad, not carved from it; Rohilkhand arose from Mughal decline.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

A jagir was a revenue assignment given to a mansabdar in place of a cash salary for his military and administrative rank, and it was moved from place to place, so it was never hereditary. Zamindars, by contrast, held proprietary rights they could pass on, and they also rendered services and kept armed men. Both statements reverse the real position.

• ✗ 1. Jagirs were paid in lieu of salary for a mansab (a military-cum-civil rank), not specifically for judicial and police work. Zamindars were not mere revenue collectors either: they performed services (khidmat) for the state and maintained forts and armed contingents.
• ✗ 2. Jagirs were transferred periodically, so they could not be inherited. Zamindars could sell, bequeath or mortgage their milkiyat lands, so their rights passed down in families.

Remember · Mughal jagir = transferable revenue assignment in lieu of salary to a mansabdar (not hereditary). Zamindari = hereditary local proprietary right with service and military obligations.

📘 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)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

The amil was the revenue-collecting official, a term that continued into Mughal times (the amil-guzar). The iqta, a transferable assignment of revenue to military officers, came in with the Turkish conquerors from Muhammad Ghuri onwards, so it was not an ancient Indian institution. The Mir Bakhshi was a Mughal office under Akbar, not a Khalji one.

• ✓ 1. Under the Delhi Sultanate the revenue collector at the pargana level was the amil (Barani uses the term), working with the karkun (accountant); the Mughals kept the term, calling the revenue collector the amil-guzar.
• ✗ 2. The Turkish rulers made revenue assignments (iqta) to their nobles after their early 13th-century conquests, and Muhammad Ghuri's more centralised system of temporary land assignments was developed by the Delhi Sultans; the iqta was an imported, not an indigenous, institution.
• ✗ 3. The Mir Bakhshi, in charge of military matters, belongs to Akbar's reorganised Mughal administration, not to the Khalji Sultans.

Remember · Sultanate: iqta/iqtadar (Turkish-introduced revenue assignment), amil (revenue collector). Mughal (Akbar): Diwan (finance), Mir Bakhshi (military), Khan-i-Saman, Sadr.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Tansen was the title given to him by Emperor Akbar.

The musician born Ramtanu Pandey was already famous as Tansen, and a mature musician, when he reached Akbar's court; what Akbar gave him was an honorific title, the 'Mian' of 'Mian Tansen'. So statement (a) is the incorrect one; the other three describe his work accurately.

• ✓ (a) This is the wrong statement. The child known as Ramtanu became famous as Tansen through his musical training, before he reached Akbar's court; what Akbar gave was an honorific title, the 'Mian' in 'Mian Tansen'.
• ✗ (b) This statement is true: Tansen was a dhrupad composer, and NCERT notes that he continued to compose in praise of Krishna and Shiva, besides compositions showing a Sufi influence. NIOS also says his dhrupads ranged from praise of deities to technical terms of music.
• ✗ (c) This statement is true: the National Institute of Open Schooling notes that Tansen wrote several dhrupads in praise of Ramchandra Vaghela, his patron at Bandhavgarh, and of the emperor Akbar.
• ✗ (d) This statement is true: several ragas bearing the prefix 'Miyan' (Miyan ki Sarang, Miyan Malhar, Miyan ki Todi) are associated with him, and he is believed to have popularised Darbari Kanhada.

Remember · Ramtanu Pandey → 'Tansen' (known by that name before Akbar); Akbar made him one of his navratnas and honoured him with the title 'Mian'. Dhrupad composer; Miyan ki Todi, Miyan Malhar, Miyan ki Sarang; popularised Darbari Kanhada.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Jahangir

Akbar's large workshop mass-produced illustrated manuscripts such as the Hamzanama and Razmnama. Jahangir preferred fewer, finer works by a single master, and under him individual paintings and portraits mounted in albums (muraqqas) became the fashion.

• ✓ (c) Jahangir's atelier favoured single high-quality paintings by one master artist; muraqqas, albums of individual paintings with gold-illuminated margins, became popular under his patronage.
• ✗ (b) Akbar formalised Mughal painting through a big atelier that mass-produced illustrated manuscripts of political and religious importance.
• ✗ (d) Shah Jahan continued album-making (his reign added ornate borders to earlier album paintings), but the shift itself came under Jahangir.

Remember · Akbar = illustrated manuscripts from a big workshop; Jahangir = albums (muraqqa), portraits and naturalistic studies by single masters like Abul Hasan and Mansur.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. Fatehpur Sikri's buildings are mainly of red sandstone with little marble, and the Nawabs of Awadh built Lucknow's Rumi Darwaza of lime-coated brick instead of the red sandstone the Mughals favoured.

• ✗ 1. UNESCO describes Fatehpur Sikri's buildings as constructed in red sandstone with little use of marble, and ASI says its palaces were built of red sandstone. White marble is not the material of Buland Darwaza or the Khankah.
• ✗ 2. The Rumi Darwaza (Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula's gateway of the 1780s) is made of bricks coated in lime, not red sandstone and marble. Nawabi Lucknow moved away from the Mughal use of red sandstone.

Remember · Fatehpur Sikri (Akbar) = red sandstone; Awadhi Lucknow (Bara Imambara, Rumi Darwaza) = lime-plastered brick.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweller and gem merchant who made six journeys to India between 1631 and 1668, is the traveller known for describing India's diamond mines in detail. He wrote about them in his Six Voyages (1676).

• ✓ (b) Tavernier was a French jeweller who travelled to India at least six times (NCERT), and the Smithsonian calls him the first European to describe the diamond mines in India. A peer-reviewed Indian geoscience paper likewise cites his Travels in India (1676) for the size of the Golkonda stone later known as the Koh-i-Noor.
• ✗ (a) Francois Bernier was a French doctor, political philosopher and historian who stayed in the Mughal Empire from 1656 to 1668, serving Dara Shukoh and later Danishmand Khan; he is known for his account of Mughal society and politics, not diamonds.

Remember · Tavernier = French jeweller, six journeys to India, first European to describe India's diamond mines; Bernier = physician, Mughal court and society.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part II, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) traders

Banjaras were nomadic traders who moved grain and other goods by caravan on pack animals, especially bullocks. Sultan Alauddin Khalji used them to bring grain to city markets, and under the Mughals they supplied grain to armies on campaign.

• ✓ (d) NCERT calls the Banjaras the most important trader-nomads of the period. Alauddin Khalji used them to carry grain to city markets, and Jahangir's memoirs mention them selling grain from their bullocks in towns.
• ✗ (a) They were not settled farmers; they moved with their caravans from place to place.
• ✗ (b) They carried food grain for the Mughal army, but as suppliers and carriers, not as fighters.
• ✗ (c) Weaving was the work of other artisan communities; the Banjaras carried goods between regions.

Remember · Banjaras were the main trader-nomads of medieval India, moving grain and goods in caravans on pack animals such as bullocks.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error