Who among the following was the author of the Badshah Nama ?
- (a)Abdul Hamid Lahori
- (b)Abul Fazl
- (c)Shah Jahan
- (d)Sadullah Khan
Correct — A, Abdul Hamid Lahori. The Badshah Nama, or Padshahnama, is the official chronicle of Shah Jahan's reign, and the most significant work of that genre was written by Abdul Hamid Lahori, a pupil of Akbar's biographer Abu'l Fazl, in two volumes; he finished his portion in 1648. His first volume builds on an earlier account of the reign's first decade by Muhammad Amin Qazvini and adds far more detail, and his second covers the following ten lunar years. After Lahori's death in 1654 his own pupil Muhammad Waris completed the record of the reign.
- (b)Abul Fazl — Abu'l Fazl was Akbar's chronicler, author of the Akbar Nama and its concluding part the Ain-i-Akbari, and he was killed in 1602 — two decades before Shah Jahan came to the throne. He is Lahori's model and teacher, not the author of this book.
- (c)Shah Jahan — Shah Jahan is the subject of the chronicle, not its author. Among the Mughals only Babur and Jahangir wrote their own memoirs, the Babur Nama and the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; Akbar and Shah Jahan had official historians write for them.
- (d)Sadullah Khan — Sadullah Khan was Shah Jahan's leading minister, a figure inside the administration the chronicle describes rather than the man who wrote it.
Mughal court histories were commissioned works with a defined purpose: to present the reign as ordered, just and divinely favoured. Each reign has its text — the Akbar Nama for Akbar, the emperor's own Tuzuk for Jahangir, the Badshah Nama for Shah Jahan — and the illustrated copies made for the court are among the finest products of the imperial atelier.
Sort the four names by what each did at court, which is the reliable way through any Mughal authorship item: chronicler, chronicler of an earlier reign, emperor, minister. Only one of them writes histories in Shah Jahan's time. Note also the chain of transmission the sources describe — Abu'l Fazl taught Lahori, and Lahori's pupil Muhammad Waris finished the work — which is why the same book can be credited in parts to more than one hand.
- The Badshah Nama is the official chronicle of Shah Jahan's reign.
- Abdul Hamid Lahori wrote it in two volumes and completed his work in 1648; he died in 1654.
- He was a pupil of Abu'l Fazl, Akbar's biographer.
- Muhammad Amin Qazvini had written an earlier account of the first decade of the reign.
- Muhammad Waris, Lahori's pupil, completed the chronicle in 1656.
- Answering 'Abul Fazl' for any Mughal chronicle, when he belongs to Akbar's reign alone.
- Treating the emperor as the author when the chronicle is written about him.
- Confusing a leading minister of the reign with its historian.
Book-to-author matching from the Mughal period is set in almost every NDA cycle, usually mixing chronicles, memoirs and administrative manuals in one list.
Which one of the following statements about the Ain-i-Akbari is not correct?
- (a) It was written by Abu'l Fazl.
- (b) It is a part of a larger work called Akbar Nama.
- (c) It describes the Mughal Empire as having a diverse population and a composite culture.
- (d) It was later revised by Sadullah Khan on the orders of Shah Jahan.
Answer(d) It was later revised by Sadullah Khan on the orders of Shah Jahan.
The companion chronicle of the previous reign, and it turns on the same two names — Abu'l Fazl and Sadullah Khan.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Badshah Nama chronicles the reign of
- (a)Akbar
- (b)Jahangir
- (c)Shah Jahan
- (d)Aurangzeb
Answer(c) Shah Jahan — the official history of his reign, written by Abdul Hamid Lahori.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Mughal emperor wrote his own memoirs, known as the Tuzuk?
- (a)Akbar
- (b)Jahangir
- (c)Shah Jahan
- (d)Humayun
Answer(b) Jahangir — the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, alongside Babur's earlier Babur Nama.