Mughal Empire: Emperors, Administration and Decline

The correct answer is B, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan. The Mughal throne passed from Babur, who ruled from 1526 to 1530, to his son Humayun from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 to 1556, then to Akbar from 1556 to 1605, to Jahangir from 1605 to 1627, to Shah Jahan from 1628 to 1658 and to Aurangzeb from 1658 to 1707. Option B places four of these in exactly that order and is therefore correct. Option A is wrong because it puts Jahangir, a grandson of Humayun, before both Akbar and Humayun. Option C is wrong because it reverses the line completely, beginning with Shah Jahan and ending with his great-grandfather Humayun. Option D is wrong because Humayun ruled before Akbar, not after Shah Jahan, and Jahangir came before Shah Jahan rather than last. Fixing the six reigns in order is the safest preparation for this question type.

The correct answer is A, Alamgir II. The Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757 between Robert Clive of the East India Company and Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal. The Mughal emperor on the throne at Delhi in that year was Alamgir II, who ruled from 1754 to 1759 and was by then a powerless figure controlled by his nobles. Option B is wrong because Siraj-ud-Daulah was the Nawab of Bengal and the defeated party at Plassey, not the Mughal emperor. Option C is wrong because Mir Qasim, usually written Mir Qasim or Mir Kasim, was a later Nawab of Bengal who fought at Buxar in 1764 and never held the imperial throne. Option D is wrong because Shah Alam II became emperor in 1759, two years after Plassey, and it was he who lost Buxar and granted the diwani of Bengal to the Company in 1765.

The correct answer is D, Akbar. The town on the Bhagirathi that later became Murshidabad was founded as Maksudabad in the reign of Akbar, and it kept that name until the Bengal governor Murshid Quli Khan shifted his seat there in the early eighteenth century and renamed it after himself. Murshidabad then served as the capital of Bengal under the Nawabs until the British moved power to Calcutta after Plassey. Option A is wrong because Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor, ruled only at Delhi in the nineteenth century and founded no city. Option B is wrong because Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad at Delhi, not Maksudabad. Option C is wrong because Humayun spent much of his reign fighting Sher Shah Suri and in exile in Persia, and the city is not credited to him. Remember the pair Maksudabad and Murshidabad together with Akbar.

The correct answer is C, Muhammad Shah. Muhammad Shah, who ruled from 1719 to 1748, was nicknamed Rangila for his love of music, painting and pleasure while the empire fell apart around him. His reign saw the Marathas press into north India and Nadir Shah of Persia win the Battle of Karnal in 1739 and sack Delhi, carrying away the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor. Option A is wrong because Farrukhsiyar, who ruled from 1713 to 1719, is remembered instead for the farman of 1717 that gave the English trading privileges in Bengal. Option B is wrong because Rafi-ud-Darajat held the throne for only a few months in 1719 and carries no such nickname. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Rafi-ud-Daula, also called Shah Jahan II, ruled briefly in 1719 under the control of the Sayyid brothers.

The correct answer is B, Shah Alam II. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761 between Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan and the Marathas, who were defeated. Shah Alam II was the reigning Mughal emperor from 1759 to 1806, though he held little real power and was away from Delhi at the time. Option A is wrong because Akbar II ruled from 1806 to 1837, long after 1761, and is remembered for giving Ram Mohan Roy the title of Raja. Option C is wrong because Bahadur Shah I, the son of Aurangzeb, ruled from 1707 to 1712, half a century before the battle. Option D is wrong because Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor, came to the throne in 1837 and was deposed after the revolt of 1857. Tie the three Panipats to 1526, 1556 and 1761 to avoid this trap.

The correct answer is B, Ibrahim Lodi. At the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last sultan of the Lodi dynasty of Delhi, who was killed on the field. The victory ended the Delhi Sultanate and founded Mughal rule in India, and Babur owed it largely to his field artillery and the tulughma tactic of encircling flanks. Option A is wrong because Rana Sanga of Mewar was defeated the next year, in 1527, at the Battle of Khanwa. Option C is wrong because Hemu was the Afghan commander defeated at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 by Akbar's regent Bairam Khan, thirty years later. Option D is wrong because Medini Rai was defeated at Chanderi in 1528. Learning these four names with their years and battles settles a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is D, 1582. Akbar proclaimed the Din-i-Ilahi, an order of ethical devotion drawing on several faiths, in 1582, after years of discussion with scholars of different religions. Option A is wrong because 1564 is the year he abolished the jizya, the tax on non-Muslim subjects, a year after he ended the pilgrimage tax in 1563. Option B is wrong because 1571 is when he began building his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Option C is wrong because 1575 is the year he opened the Ibadat Khana, the hall of worship at Fatehpur Sikri where the debates were held; the Din-i-Ilahi came seven years later and is the usual trap in this question. Akbar's guiding principle through all of it was sulh-i-kul, peace with all, which examiners also ask by name.

The correct answer is A, Raja Todar Mal. Raja Todar Mal, Akbar's revenue minister, completed the dahsala or zabti settlement in 1580. It measured the cultivated land, classified it by how regularly it was cropped, and fixed the state demand in cash from the average produce and prices of the previous ten years, which is what dahsala means. Option B is wrong because Abul Fazl was the court historian who wrote the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari, the very book that records Todar Mal's system. Option C is wrong because Bairam Khan was Akbar's regent in his early years and the victor of the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556, not a revenue officer. Option D is wrong because Raja Man Singh of Amber was a general who led the imperial army at Haldighati in 1576. All four were figures of Akbar's court, which is why the question works.

The correct answer is B, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Ustad Ahmad Lahauri is the architect named in the Mughal record as the chief designer of the Taj Mahal, the tomb Shah Jahan raised at Agra for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. He is also associated with the Red Fort at Shahjahanabad. Option A is wrong because Ustad Isa appears in later tradition and popular accounts rather than in the contemporary evidence, and is not the answer papers accept. Option C is wrong because Mir Abdul Karim was an architect of Jahangir's reign who worked on other imperial projects. Option D is wrong because Makramat Khan was a superintendent of construction who managed the work rather than designed it. Keep the Taj Mahal linked to Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Agra and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, and remember that it is built of white marble on a red sandstone plinth.

The correct answer is C, Abul Fazl. Abul Fazl, one of the navaratnas of Akbar's court, wrote the Akbarnama in Persian, and its third volume is the Ain-i-Akbari, a detailed account of the empire's provinces, revenue, army, offices, crops and prices. It remains the single most used source for Akbar's administration. Option A is wrong because Badauni wrote the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, a history hostile to Akbar's religious policy. Option B is wrong because Gulbadan Begum, Babur's daughter, wrote the Humayun-nama about her brother's reign. Option D is wrong because Faizi, the brother of Abul Fazl, was the poet laureate of the court and translated works into Persian, but did not write the Ain-i-Akbari. Matching a chronicle to its author is a standard question, so keep these four pairs ready.