14.11 Religion

. Religion The Mughal period witnessed a continuing assertion of all the basic elements in puranic traditions. Though it was difficult to speak Different classes of the rural population were involved in agriculture. Agriculture was the chief activity in the economy. Landless agricultural labourers without right to property formed almost a quarter of the population. Zamindars and village headmen possessed large tracts of land in which they employed labourers and paid them in cash and kind. Well irrigation was the dominant mode of irrigation. The Ain-i-Akbari lists the various crops cultivated during the Rabi and Kharif seasons. Tobacco and maize were introduced in the seventeenth century. Chilli and groundnut came later. Pineapple was introduced in the sixteenth century. Grafted varieties of mango came to be developed by the Portuguese. Potato, tomato and guava came later. Indigo was another important commercial crop during the Mughal period. Sericulture underwent spectacular growth in Bengal to the extent that it became the chief supplier of silk to world trade. As the farmers were compelled to pay land tax they had to sell the surplus in the market. The land tax was a share of the actual produce and was a major source of revenue for the Mughal ruling class. The administration determined the productivity of the land and assessed the tax based on the total measurement. Akbar promulgated the Zabt System (introduced by Todal Mal): money revenue rates were now fixed on each unit of area according to the crops cultivated. The schedules containing these rates for different localities applicable year after year were called dasturs . The urban economy was based on craft industry. Cotton textile industry employed large numbers of people as cotton carders, spinners, dyers, printers and washers. Iron, copper, diamond mining and gun making were other chief occupations. Kharkhanas were workshops where expensive craft products were produced. The royal kharkhanas manufactured articles for the use XI History - Lesson - - The Mughal Empire condemned image worship and rituals, and the caste system. His popular poetry written in a simple language was spread orally across large parts