Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (History, Art & Culture) – September 28, 2020

Village in Ancient India: There were at least three different kinds of people living in most villages in the southern and northern parts of the subcontinent.

In the Tamil region: large landowners were known as vellalar, ordinary ploughmen were known as uzhavar, and landless labourers, including slaves, were known as kadaisiyar and adimai.

North India: In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka.

• The post was hereditary. The grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner.
• He also functioned as a judge, and sometimes as a policeman.
• Apart from the gramabhojaka, there were other independent farmers, known as grihapatis, most of whom were smaller landowners.
• And then there were men and women such as the dasa karmakara, who did not own land, and had to earn a living working on the fields owned by others.

Sangam poems mention the muvendar.

• This is a Tamil word meaning three chiefs, used for the heads of three ruling families, the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas who became powerful in south India around 2300 years ago.
• Each of the three chiefs had two centres of power: one inland, and one on the coast.
• Of these six cities, two were very important: Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the Cholas, and Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas.

The Mughals did not believe in the rule of primogeniture, where the eldest son inherited his father’s estate.

Instead they followed the Mughal and Timurid custom of coparcenary inheritance, or a division of the inheritance amongst all the sons.

The main source of income available to Mughal rulers was tax on the produce of the peasantry.

• In most places, peasants paid taxes through the rural elites, that is, the headman or the local chieftain.
• The Mughals used one term – zamindars – to describe all intermediaries, whether they were local headmen of villages or powerful chieftains.
• Akbar’s revenue minister, Todar Mal, carried out a careful survey of crop yields, prices and areas cultivated for a 10-year period, 1570- 1580.
• On the basis of this data, tax was fixed on each crop in cash.
• Each province was divided into revenue circles with its own schedule of revenue rates for individual crops. This revenue system was known as zabt.
• It was prevalent in those areas where Mughal administrators could survey the land and keep very careful accounts.
• This was not possible in provinces such as Gujarat and Bengal.

Abul Fazl explained that the empire was divided into provinces called subas, governed by a subadar who carried out both political and military functions.

• Each province also had a financial officer or diwan.
• For the maintenance of peace and order in his province, the subadar was supported by other officers such as the military paymaster (bakhshi).
• The minister in charge of religious and charitable patronage (sadr), military commanders (faujdars) and the town police commander (kotwal).

The Contemporaries of Akbar: Akbar’s contemporaries – the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603); the Safavid ruler of Iran, Shah Abbas (1588-1629); and the more controversial Russian ruler, Czar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, also called “Ivan the Terrible” (1530-1584).

There were many kinds of traders. These included the Banjaras.

• Several traders, especially horse traders, formed associations, with headmen who negotiated on their behalf with warriors who bought horses.
• Since traders had to pass through many kingdoms and forests, they usually travelled in caravans and formed guilds to protect their interests.
• There were several such guilds in south India from the eighth century onwards – the most famous being the Manigramam and Nanadesi.

There were 12 Alvars, who came from equally divergent backgrounds, the best known being Periyalvar, his daughter Andal, Tondaradippodi Alvar and Nammalvar.

• Their songs were compiled in the Divya Prabandham.

There were 63 Nayanars, who belonged to different caste backgrounds such as potters, “untouchable” workers, peasants, hunters, soldiers, Brahmanas and chiefs.

• The best known among them were Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavasagar.
• There are two sets of compilations of their songs – Tevaram and Tiruvacakam.

Burhan-ul-Mulk tried to decrease Mughal influence in the Awadh region by reducing the number of office holders (jagirdars) appointed by the Mughals.

• He also reduced the size of jagirs, and appointed his own loyal servants to vacant positions.
• The accounts of jagirdars were checked to prevent cheating and the revenues of all districts were reassessed by officials appointed by the Nawab’s court.
• He seized a number of Rajput zamindaris and the agriculturally fertile lands of the Afghans of Rohilkhand.
• The state depended on local bankers and mahajans for loans. It sold the right to collect tax to the highest bidders.
• These “revenue farmers” (ijaradars) agreed to pay the state a fixed sum of money.

In 1720, the British government enacted a legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles – chintz – in England. Interestingly, this Act was known as the Calico Act.

• In 1764, the spinning jenny was invented by John Kaye which increased the productivity of the traditional spindles.
• The invention of the steam engine by Richard Arkwright in 1786 revolutionized cotton textile weaving.