Which of the following Mughal period canals, was constructed by restoring the Rajabwah of Firuz Shah ?
- (a)Shekhnu-Ni
- (b)Shahab Nahr
- (c)Nahr-i-Bihisht
- (d)Nahr-i-Agra
Correct — B, Shahab Nahr (Shihab Nahr). Firuz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351-1388) built the Rajabwah, a canal drawing Yamuna water westward toward Hisar Firuza, but over the next century it silted up and stopped flowing. Under Akbar the canal was cleared and revived — Akbar's sanad of 1568 records that its water had not reached Hisar Firuza for over a hundred years — and the restoration was carried out by Shihabuddin Ahmad Khan, then governor of Delhi. The revived canal came to be named after him as the Shihab Nahr / Shahab Nahr. That is the canal the question describes as 'constructed by restoring the Rajabwah of Firuz Shah'.
- (a)Shekhnu-Ni — A deliberately close trap: 'Shekhnu-Ni' (Shaikhu-ni) is a name also recorded for this same Yamuna canal in Akbar-era farmans (alongside the older name Ulughkhani). But the name the standard account and the official key attach to the RESTORATION of Firuz Shah's Rajabwah is the Shahab Nahr, after its restorer Shihabuddin Khan.
- (c)Nahr-i-Bihisht — The Nahr-i-Bihisht ('Canal of Paradise') was a NEW canal of the Shah Jahan period that carried Yamuna water south to his new capital, Shahjahanabad (Delhi), excavated in the 1630s-1640s (commonly linked with the engineer Ali Mardan Khan). It is the most famous Mughal canal — hence tempting — but it was a fresh Shahjahani work, not the restoration of Firuz Shah's Rajabwah to Hisar.
- (d)Nahr-i-Agra — Nahr-i-Agra is named for the Agra region's water supply, not for Firuz Shah's Yamuna-to-Hisar Rajabwah, so it does not fit the description of restoring that canal.
Firuz Shah Tughlaq is remembered as the greatest canal-builder of the Delhi Sultanate; his best-known works are the Rajabwah and Ulughkhani canals drawn off the Yamuna to water the dry tract around Hisar Firuza, a town he founded. These Sultanate canals decayed and were revived under the Mughals: Akbar's officials restored the Yamuna line (Shahab Nahr, 1568), and Shah Jahan later built a fresh 'Canal of Paradise' (Nahr-i-Bihisht) to bring Yamuna water to Delhi. This lineage is the historical ancestor of today's Western Yamuna Canal.
The question rewards distinguishing the RESTORATION of Firuz Shah's own canal (Rajabwah, revived by Akbar's Shihabuddin Khan as the Shahab Nahr) from the later, more famous NEW Mughal canal to Delhi (Nahr-i-Bihisht, under Shah Jahan). The clue words 'restoring the Rajabwah of Firuz Shah' point to the Akbar-era Shahab Nahr, named after its restorer.
- Firuz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351-1388) built the Rajabwah canal, carrying Yamuna water toward Hisar Firuza.
- Under Akbar the silted Rajabwah was restored (sanad of 1568) by Shihabuddin Ahmad Khan, governor of Delhi — hence the name 'Shahab Nahr'.
- Shah Jahan's separate Nahr-i-Bihisht ('Canal of Paradise') took Yamuna water to Shahjahanabad (Delhi).
- This Yamuna-canal lineage is the historical ancestor of the modern Western Yamuna Canal.
- Picking the more famous Nahr-i-Bihisht (Shah Jahan's Delhi canal) instead of the Akbar-era Shahab Nahr that actually restored Firuz Shah's Rajabwah.
- Being caught by the near-identical name 'Shekhnu-Ni', which refers to the same canal system but is not the keyed name for the restoration.
UPPSC often pairs a Sultanate/Mughal public work with the ruler or officer behind it — Firuz Shah with canals and Hisar Firuza, Akbar's Shihabuddin Khan with the Shahab Nahr, and Shah Jahan/Ali Mardan Khan with the Nahr-i-Bihisht.
The Sultan of Delhi who is reputed to have built the biggest network of canals in India was
- (a) Iltutmish
- (b) Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq
- (c) Feroz Shah Tughlaq
- (d) Sikandar Lodi
Answer(c) Feroz Shah Tughlaq — famed for the largest state-built canal network of the Delhi Sultanate (Yamuna-to-Hisar and Sutlej-to-Ghaggar canals).
Same concept — Firuz Shah Tughlaq as the Sultanate's great canal-builder; his Rajabwah was the very canal the Mughals later restored as the Shahab Nahr in this question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Firuz Shah Tughlaq founded which town, watered by his canal drawn from the Yamuna?
- (a)Hisar Firuza
- (b)Fatehpur Sikri
- (c)Daulatabad
- (d)Tughlaqabad
Answer(a) Hisar Firuza — Firuz Shah Tughlaq founded it and fed it with his Rajabwah/Ulughkhani canals off the Yamuna.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Mughal 'Nahr-i-Bihisht', which brought Yamuna water to Shahjahanabad, is most commonly associated with which noble/engineer?
- (a)Ali Mardan Khan
- (b)Raja Todar Mal
- (c)Raja Man Singh
- (d)Asaf Khan
Answer(a) Ali Mardan Khan — the Shah Jahan-era noble/engineer conventionally credited with the canal that carried Yamuna water to Delhi.