Through the Eyes of TravellersClass 12 History NCERT Solutions

The Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic by the eleventh-century scholar Al-Biruni, is a comprehensive text on Indian society, religion, and sciences. It is known for its simple and lucid style.

The book is divided into 80 chapters, covering a vast range of subjects including religion, philosophy, festivals, astronomy, social customs, laws, and metrology. Al-Biruni adopted a distinctive structure for most chapters, starting with a question, followed by a description based on Sanskritic traditions, and concluding with a comparison to other cultures. This systematic approach, possibly influenced by his mathematical background, aimed to provide a clear understanding for his intended audience—peoples living along the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent. It remains a valuable source for historians due to its detailed and analytical approach to understanding a foreign culture.

Ibn Battuta and François Bernier wrote their travel accounts from vastly different perspectives, shaped by their backgrounds and objectives.

Ibn Battuta (14th century): A Moroccan scholar and explorer, Ibn Battuta wrote with a sense of wonder and curiosity. His objective was to record the novel and unfamiliar to impress and entertain his audience. In his book, Rihla, he described things that were new to him, such as the coconut and the paan, and detailed the social and cultural life in urban centres. His perspective was that of a globe-trotter keen on sharing the excitement of discovering new worlds.

François Bernier (17th century): A French physician and philosopher, Bernier wrote from a critical and comparative viewpoint. He constantly compared Mughal India with contemporary Europe, consistently emphasizing the superiority of the latter. His primary goal was to influence European policymakers by presenting India as a 'degenerate' East, suffering from what he termed 'oriental despotism' due to the absence of private property. His perspective was not of a curious traveller but of a political theorist using India as a case study to advocate for European systems.

François Bernier's account presents a largely negative and oversimplified picture of urban centres in Mughal India. He famously described them as “camp towns,” suggesting they were temporary and entirely dependent on the imperial court for their existence. According to him, these towns emerged when the imperial camp moved in and would decline rapidly once it moved out. He believed they lacked a viable social and economic foundation and were sustained only by imperial patronage.

However, the chapter suggests this view is inaccurate. During the seventeenth century, about 15 percent of India's population lived in towns, a proportion higher than in Western Europe. There were various kinds of towns, including manufacturing centres, trading towns, port-towns, and sacred pilgrimage sites, all of which had strong economic and social foundations independent of the imperial court. Bernier's depiction, therefore, reflects his biased framework rather than the complex reality of urban life in Mughal India.

Ibn Battuta's account provides significant evidence that slavery was a widespread and accepted practice in the fourteenth-century Delhi Sultanate. He notes that slaves were openly sold in markets like any other commodity and were frequently exchanged as gifts among the elite. For instance, he himself purchased horses, camels, and slaves to present as gifts to Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

His writings also reveal a differentiation among slaves. Some female slaves were skilled in music and dance and served in the Sultan's court, while others were employed as spies to monitor the nobles. Slaves were primarily used for domestic labour, with Ibn Battuta noting their indispensability for carrying men and women on palanquins. He also mentions that the price of female slaves for domestic work was very low, making it affordable for most families to keep at least one or two. This evidence paints a picture of a society where slavery was deeply integrated into the social and economic structure.

François Bernier was particularly drawn to the practice of sati as he considered the treatment of women a crucial marker of difference between Western and Eastern societies. The elements that caught his attention were:

Based on the account provided in the chapter, Ibn Battuta's extensive travels covered large parts of Africa, Asia, and possibly Europe.

Countries and Regions Visited: Ibn Battuta's journey, starting from his birthplace in Tangier, Morocco, took him through:

Seas Crossed: To complete this vast journey, Ibn Battuta would have crossed several major bodies of water:

This is a project that requires conducting an interview and writing a report. Here is a guideline on how to structure the report, drawing parallels with the themes of the chapter.

Title: A Traveller's Account: A Journey to [Name of Place]

This is a research project. The following is a template for a report on Al-Biruni, which can be developed with further research.

Title: Al-Biruni: A Scholarly Traveller in India

Al-Biruni's understanding of the caste system, as detailed in his Kitab-ul-Hind, was primarily based on his study of normative Sanskrit texts and his attempt to explain it to a foreign audience through comparison.

His approach was deeply influenced by Brahmanical scriptures. He described the four varnas—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra—by recounting the traditional belief that they were created from different parts of the body of Brahman (the head, shoulders, thigh, and feet, respectively). This textual basis provided a rigid, hierarchical framework for his description, placing Brahmanas at the very top as the “choice part of the whole genus.”

To make this system comprehensible, Al-Biruni sought parallels in other societies. He noted that ancient Persia also had four social categories: knights and princes; monks, priests, and lawyers; physicians and scientists; and peasants and artisans. By doing so, he suggested that social stratification was not unique to India. He also contrasted the Indian system with Islam, where he claimed all men were considered equal, differing only in their piety.

Despite his acceptance of the Brahmanical framework, Al-Biruni was critical of the concept of pollution intrinsic to the caste system. He argued that it was contrary to the laws of nature. He observed that natural elements like the sun and the sea have self-cleansing properties and that everything that becomes impure strives to regain purity. He concluded that the idea of permanent social pollution was therefore unnatural. While his understanding was limited by its reliance on texts rather than lived reality, his analytical and comparative approach was remarkable for its time.

Yes, Ibn Battuta's account in his Rihla is exceptionally useful for understanding life in fourteenth-century urban centres in the Indian subcontinent. His detailed and vivid descriptions offer a rich, ground-level perspective on the economic, social, and cultural dynamism of these cities.

Firstly, his account highlights the prosperity and scale of cities like Delhi and Daulatabad. He described Delhi as a vast city with a large population, protected by unparalleled ramparts that housed storehouses and military equipment. His descriptions of crowded streets and bright, colourful markets stacked with a wide variety of goods indicate thriving economic activity. This prosperity, as he noted, was supported by highly productive agriculture and well-integrated inter-Asian trade networks, where Indian textiles and manufactures were in great demand.

Secondly, Ibn Battuta reveals that urban centres were not merely places of commerce but also vibrant social and cultural hubs. He observed that most bazaars had a mosque and a temple, and some had designated spaces for public performances by dancers, musicians, and singers. His specific description of Tarababad in Daulatabad, a market for male and female singers, illustrates a sophisticated urban culture where arts and entertainment flourished and received patronage from rulers.

Finally, his amazement at the efficiency of the postal system shows that these urban centres were well-connected through robust infrastructure, which facilitated not only trade and commerce but also governance and the rapid transmission of information. Therefore, despite his focus on the unfamiliar, Ibn Battuta’s account provides invaluable insights into the multifaceted life of contemporary urban centres.

François Bernier's account provides a valuable, albeit highly biased, perspective that helps historians understand certain aspects of seventeenth-century rural society, but it is insufficient for a complete reconstruction. Its usefulness is limited by his Eurocentric viewpoint and his overarching theoretical agenda.

Bernier's primary contribution is his description of the immense pressure on the peasantry. He portrayed a grim picture of rural life, characterized by the “excessive tyranny” of governors and rapacious lords. He argued that due to crown ownership of land, peasants were deprived of their means of subsistence and even their children, who were taken as slaves. This drove them to abandon the land, leading to the ruination of agriculture. While exaggerated, this account draws attention to the high state revenue demands and the potential for exploitation within the Mughal agrarian system, which are important considerations for historians.

However, Bernier's account has significant limitations. His central premise—that the king was the sole owner of all land—is inaccurate, as Mughal official documents describe land revenue as a tax for protection, not rent. His portrayal of an undifferentiated mass of impoverished peasants is an oversimplification. The chapter clarifies that rural society was, in fact, highly stratified, consisting of big zamindars, prosperous peasants who engaged in commodity production, small subsistence farmers, and landless labourers. Bernier completely missed this complex social reality because his goal was to present Mughal India as a warning to Europe about the dangers of “oriental despotism.”

In conclusion, while Bernier's writings offer a glimpse into the hardships faced by the peasantry and the nature of state extraction, they are more a reflection of European intellectual debates than an accurate depiction of rural India. Historians must use his account critically, corroborating it with other sources to reconstruct a more nuanced picture of contemporary rural society.

The crafts mentioned in the passage from Bernier's account are:

The artisanal activities described in this excerpt both align with and contradict other descriptions provided in the chapter, revealing a complexity in Bernier's observations.