Nasiruddin Humayun expanded the frontiers of the empire, but lost it after being defeated in 1540, and was driven into exile. He took refuge after this loss with the

Which of the following Mughal emperors wrote poetry and memoirs in Turkish language?

a. Humayun b. Babur c. Aurangzeb

Which of the following statements is/are correct about the Mughal chronicles?

a. They are an important source for studying the empire and its court. b. They were written in order to project the kingdom as an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. c. The rulers wanted the chronicles to record an account of their rule for posterity.

Henry Beveridge translated which of the following texts after years of hard labour?

Which of the following statements is/are incorrect?

a. The Ramayana was translated as the Razmnama. b. Babur’s memoirs were translated from Turkish into Persian Baburnama. c. The manuscript production in the Mughal court was done in the imperial kitabkhana.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. The Mughals referred to themselves as descendants of a Mongol ruler on the paternal side. b. The term Mughal was derived from Mongol to describe the Indian rulers of this branch of the family. c. Babur pushed into the Indian subcontinent in 1526 after being driven from his Central Asian homeland Farghana by the warring Uzbeks.

Which of the following statements is/are correct about the Akbarnama?

a. Abu’l Fazl worked on the Akbarnama for eighteen years. b. The Akbarnama was written in an Indo-Persian style that was patronised at court. c. The Nawab of Awadh gifted the illustrated Akbarnama to King George III in 1799.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. The paintings inserted in the manuscripts were a source of constant tension between rulers and the ulama. b. Abu’l Fazl held the art of painting in manuscripts against the religion. c. In spite of the conflict with the spokesmen of the orthodox muslims, Akbar patronised artists and painters.

Akbar built a new capital in the 1570s. This capital was located on the direct road to Ajmer, which was an important pilgrimage centre as the dargah of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti was there. Where was this capital located?

Match the columns:

Which of the following courtiers in the court of Aurangzeb had paid the sum of one lakh rupees for his/their title?

a. Mirja Raja Jai Singh b. Mirja Raja Jaswant Singh c. Amir Khan

Which of the following were the major festivals that the Mughal kings celebrated each year?

a. Shab-i-baraat b. Id c. The solar and lunar birthdays of the monarch d. Nauroz

Shah Jahan’s jewelled throne was called takht-i murassa. Which of the following is/are correct about it?

a. The throne was completed in a course of five years. b. It was placed in the hall of public audience in the Agra palace. c. It was also decorated with the ruby that Shah Abbas Safavi had sent to the late emperor Jahangir.

Which of the following Mughal queens and princesses received revenues from the port city of Surat?

Which of the following Mughal emperors abolished tax on pilgrimage and jizya as the two were based on religious discrimination?

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. The status in the Mughal court was determined by the spatial proximity to the king. b. The highest form of submission to the Mughal ruler was sajda or complete prostration. c. The Kornish form of salutation suggested that the subject placed his head into the hand of humility, presenting it to the royal assembly.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. The political and diplomatic relations between the Mughal kings and Iran and Turan depended on the control of the frontier defined by the Hindukush mountains. b. Kabul and Qandahar were the strategic outposts that gave access to north India, so the Mughals controlled them closely. c. In the winter of 1622, a Persian army besieged Kabul and the Mughals had to surrender the fortress and the city to the Safavids of Iran.

Which of the following statements is/are incorrect?

a. Jharokha darshan was introduced by Shah Jahan. b. Thomas Roe, the English envoy of James I, shocked the court when he simply bowed before Jahangir. c. Deeper prostration in front of the Emperor represented the higher status of the person.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

a. The mir bakhshi supervised the corps of court writers who recorded all applications, documents and imperial orders presented to the court. b. Foot runners called waqia nawis carried papers rolled up in bamboo containers round the clock. c. The head of the provincial administration was the diwan who reported directly to the emperor.

Which of the following statements is/are incorrect?

a. Tajwiz was a petition presented by a nobleman to the emperor, recommending that an applicant be recruited as mansabdar. b. Nobles stationed at the court were called madad-i maash and were considered a reserve force to be deputed to a province or military campaign. c. The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana or the sub-district by faujdars or commandants.