Q15 of 30 Page 1

Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Irrigating trees and fields


This is an excerpt from the Baburnama that describes the irrigation devices the emperor observed in Northern India:


The greater part of Hindustan country is situated on level land. Many thought its towns and cultivated lands are, it nowhere has running waters … For … water is not at all a necessity in cultivating crops and orchards. Autumn crops grow by the downpour of the rains themselves; and strange it is that spring crops grow even when no rains fall. (However) to young trees, water is made to flow by means of buckets or wheels …. In Lahore, Dipalpur (both in present-day Pakistan) and those other parts, people water by means of a wheel. 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. The ropes with the wood and attached pitchers are put over the wheel-well. At one end of the wheel axle a second wheel is fixed, and close to it another on an upright axle. 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. A trough is set where the water empties from the pitchers and from this the water is conveyed everywhere. In Agra, Chandwar, Bayana (all in present-day Uttar Pradesh) and those parts again, people water with a bucket … At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over a roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket.


(i) Explain the irrigation technology as observed by the Emperor.


(ii) What was the necessity of irrigation?


(iii) Explain any three factors which are responsible for the expansion of agriculture in India.


(i) The technique of irrigation identified by the emperor in Himalayas, Lahore and Agra shows different technologies. In the Himalayas, water is made to flow by means of buckets or wheels. In Lahore too, people use wheels for irrigation. 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. These are put over the wheel-well. At one end of the wheel axle, a second wheel is fixed and close to it another on an upright axle. 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 and water flows. In Agra, wheel technology is used in a different way. At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks. A rope is tied to a large bucket and is put over a roller, whose end is tied to the bullock.


(ii) Irrigation is necessary for the area because of the topography of the country. The country is situated on level land and does not have running water. Because of the absence of rainfall, irrigation is needed to water trees and plants.


(iii) The expansion of agriculture in the country is governed by many important factors including:


• The country does not depend on the seasonal rainfall and is connected by wide irrigation network.


• The abundance of fertile land because of the presence of huge rivers like the Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their river beds.


• The agricultural tradition that the country follows with the abundant availability of labour resources.


More from this chapter

All 30 →
13

Explain how the Non-Cooperation Movement made Gandhiji a national leader.

OR


Explain why some scholars see the partition of India as the culmination of communal politics.

 14

Read the following excerpt carefully and answer the questions that follow :

The world beyond the palace Just as the Buddha’s teachings were compiled by his followers, the teachings of Mahavira were also recorded by his disciples. These were often in the form of stories, which could appeal to ordinary people. Here is one example, from a Prakrit text known as the Uttaradhyayana Sutta, describing how a queen named Kamalavati tried to persuade her husband to renounce the world: If the whole world and all its treasures were yours, you would not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. When you die, O king and leave all things behind, dhamma alone, and nothing else will save you. As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I dislike (the world). I shall live as a nun without offspring, without desire, without the love of gain, and without hatred…. Those who have enjoyed pleasures and renounced them, move about like the wind, and go wherever they please, unchecked like birds in their flight … Leave your large kingdom … abandon what pleases the senses, be without attachment and property, then practice severe penance, being firm of energy …


(i) Who compiled the teachings of Buddha and Mahavira?


(ii) Explain how did the queen try to convince her husband to renounce the world.


(iii) Describe any three principles of Jainism.

 16

Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Escaping to the countryside


This is how the famous poet Mirza Ghalib described what the people of Delhi did when the British forces occupied the city in 1857:


Smiting the enemy and driving him before them, the victors (i.e., the British) overran the city in all directions. All whom they found in the street they cut down … For two to three days every road in the city, from the Kashmiri Gate to Chandni Chowk, was a battlefield. Three gates – the Ajmeri, the Turcoman and the Delhi – were still held by the rebels … At the naked spectacle of this vengeful wrath and malevolent hatred the colour fled from men’s faces, and a vast concourse of men and women … took to precipitate flight through these three gates. Seeking the little villages and shrines outside the city, they drew breath to wait until such time as might favour their return.


(i) Who was Mirza Ghalib? What did he describe?


(ii) Why did British attack Delhi? Give two reasons.


(iii) How did the people escape from Delhi and where did they take shelter?

 17

(i) On the given outline political map of India locate and label the following with appropriate symbols:

(a) Ajmer, a territory under Mughals.


(b) Gwalior, a centre of the Revolt of 1857.


(ii) On the same map three places related to the mature Harappan sites have been marked as A, B, C. Identify them and write their names correctly on the lines drawn near them.