NCERT Solutions For Class 12 History Chapter 3 Through the Eyes of Travellers

• The seas that Ibn Battuta may have crossed are:

Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Black Sea.

• Crafts mentioned in the passage are muskets, and fowling pieces, and gold ornaments making.
• Bernier’s account provides a detailed account of the working of the imperial karkhanas (large halls for workshops) for artisans.
• According to him, halls of workshops were filled with many craftspersons. Embroiderers were busily employed under supervision of a master.  
• Goldsmiths, painters, varnishers in lacquer-work, joiners, turners, tailors, shoe-makers, and manufacturers of silk, brocade and fine muslins were other important artisans.
• The artisans came every morning to their karkhanas and produced goods the whole day, and returned their homes in the evening.

In his analysis of the caste system, Al-Biruni looked for parallels in other societies.

• He noted a similar four social categories in ancient Persia - (i) knights and princes, (ii) monks, fire-priests and lawyers, (iii) physicians, astronomers and other scientists and, (iv) peasants and artisans.
• Though he argued that social divisions were not unique to India, he rejected the notion of pollution sanctioned by Brahmanas.
• He believed that every impure thing regained its original condition of purity: the sun cleans the air, and salt in the sea prevents the water from becoming polluted.
• He described the notion of social pollution in the caste system to be against the laws of nature.

• Bernier records that at Lahore, he witnessed the practice of child sati in which a twelve-year-old widow was forced to enter her husband’s funeral pyre.
• He states that she was unwilling to die and wept bitterly, while being pushed by four Brahmanas and an old woman towards the funeral spot.
• He writes that the victim was seated on the funeral wood and her hands and feet were tied to prevent her from running away from the sati. Finally, she was burnt alive.
• Bernier also notes that while some women seemed to embrace death cheerfully, others were forced to die.

• Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind was written in Arabic; it is simple and clear.
• It is divided into 80 chapters on subjects such as religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology.
• In each chapter, Al-Biruni follows a structure; he begins with a question, makes a description based on Sanskritic traditions, and ends with a conclusion by making comparison with other cultures.
• According to scholars, this distinctive method in the text reflects geometric structure with its precision and predictability, owed much to his mathematical orientation.
• His works in Arabic were probably intended for peoples living along the frontiers of the subcontinent.
• He was familiar with Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit texts and their translations into Arabic.

• Bernier thought that in the Mughal Empire, the emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles.
• Subjects in the empire had to depend on the ruling elites for survival, and it had disastrous consequences for the economy and society.
• According to him, nobody owned private property, and the ‘crown ownership of land’ had created a class of landless poor and a small minority of a very rich ruling class, without any middle section.
• However, historians do not take this description as right perspective to reconstruct contemporary rural society.
• There is no evidence to prove the theory of ‘crown ownership of land’.
• Even Abu’l Fazl, a chronicler during Akbar’s reign, describes the land revenue collected by the emperor as “remunerations of sovereignty” for the protection of subjects, and not as land revenue for the ‘crown ownership of land’.
• Historians also claim that the contemporary rural society was characterised by considerable social and economic differentiation.
• There were big zamindars with superior rights in land, the “untouchable” landless, and in between, there were big peasant and small peasant groups.

• Ibn Battuta’s account is useful in arriving at an understanding of life in contemporary urban centres.
• He mentions in his account that cities offered many opportunities for those who had resources and skills.
• Most of cities were densely populated and prosperous.
• They had crowded streets and bright and colourful markets and a wide variety of goods were sold.
• Ibn Battuta described Delhi and Daulatabad (in Maharashtra) as big cities with a great population.
• Bazaars were places of economic transactions as well as a hub of social and cultural activities.
• There were many mosques and temples, and separate spaces for public performances by dancers, musicians and singers.
• Historians have used Ibn Battuta’s account to suggest that towns derived a significant portion of their wealth through the appropriation of surplus from villages.

• Ibn Battuta’s account mentions that slaves were openly sold in markets, like any other commodity, and were regularly exchanged as gifts.
• When he reached Sind, he purchased horses, camels and slaves as gifts for Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• In Multan, he presented its governor with a slave and horse together with dry fruits.
• He records that there was a significant differentiation among slaves.
• Some female slaves who were in the service of the Sultan were also experts in music and dance; Ibn Battuta enjoyed their performance at the wedding of the Sultan’s sister.
• Sultan appointed female slaves to spy on his nobles.
• Slaves were generally used for domestic labour.
• However, they were also used to carry women and men on palanquins or dola.
• Price of slaves for domestic labour was very low. Most families owned at least one or two of them.

• During the seventeenth century, about 15 per cent of the population lived in towns.
• Bernier described Mughal cities as “camp towns”, because, according to him, they depended for their survival on the imperial camp.
• He believed that cities emerged when the imperial court moved in and rapidly declined when it moved out.
• He attributed the prosperity of these towns not to social and economic activities in them, but to their reliance on imperial patronage.
• His description of urban centres provides an oversimplified picture.
• He also failed to record other kinds of towns such as manufacturing towns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres, pilgrimage towns, etc.
• Merchant communities and professional classes prospered in these towns.
• There were other urban groups - professional classes such as physicians (hakim or vaid), teachers (pundit or mulla), lawyers (wakil), painters, architects, musicians and calligraphers.

• Travel accounts of Ibn Battuta and Bernier were written from different perspectives.
• Ibn Battuta mentioned everything that impressed and excited him because of its novelty.
• He travelled extensively, visited many sacred shrines and recorded languages, shared ideas and information.
• His account includes stories about ordinary men and women, and kings.
• He highlighted many unfamiliar things in order to ensure that reader was impressed by his account.
• Unlike Ibn Battuta’s approach, François Bernier belonged to a different intellectual tradition.
• Bernier was more interested in comparing and contrasting social and economic phenomena in India with the situation in France and other European countries.
• He highlighted situations which he considered socially depressing.
• He expected policy-makers and intelligentsia to adopt his ideas, and to consider his views for making “right” decisions.