2012 · Q73
Which of the following would be the most useful source of evidence for research about the agrarian history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries ?
History and CultureMedieval history
- AAccounts of contemporary travellers
- BIndividual revenue records
- CChronicles and documents from the Mughal court
- DRecords of the East India company
Explanation
For sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century agrarian history, the richest evidence comes from Mughal court chronicles and documents — above all the Ain-i-Akbari (1595), which details revenue administration, crops and prices. Travellers' accounts are supplementary, individual revenue records rarely survive, and East India Company records belong to a later period. Hence option C.