ExpIain the observations of Ibn Battuta about Indian cities with special reference to Delhi and its rampart round the city.
Description of the Accounts of Ibn Battuta about Indian cities with special reference to Delhi:
Main architectural features of Delhi that Ibn Battuta had noted were:
(a) The rampart round the city of Delhi was without parallel. Inside the rampart, there were store houses for storing edibles, magazines, ammunition, ballistas and siege machines. The rampart was pierced through by windows which open on the side of the city and it was through these windows that light entered inside. The lower part of the rampart was built of stone : the upper part of bricks. It had many towers close to one other.
(b) Delhi had twenty eight gates of this city which were called darwazas.
(c) The city of Delhi had a fine cemetery in which graves had domes over them, and those that did not have a dome, had an arch for sure. In the cemetery they saw flowers such as tuberose, jasmine, wild rose, etc., and flowers blossom there in all seasons.
(d) According to account of Ibn Battuta, Delhi in fourteenth century had twenty-eight gates. These gates were called darwazas and of these Badaun darwaza was the greatest, inside the Mandwi darwaza there was a grain market, adjacent to the Gul darwaza there was an orchard.
Explain how Bernier and other contemporary European travellers and writers described the economic and social condition of Indian women.
(C.B.S.E., 2009 Foreign)
Ans. Contemporary European travellers and writers after highlighted the treatment of women as a crucial worker of difference between Western and Eastern societies. Not surprisingly Bernier chose the practice of sati for detailed description. However, women's lives revolved around much else besides the practice of sati. Their labour was crucial in both agricultural and non-agricultural production.
Women from merchant families participated in commercial activities, sometimes even taking mercantile disputes to the court of law. It therefore seems unlikely that women were confined to the private spaces of their homes.
