(a) "The Chola rulers were not only mighty conquerors, efficient administrators but also builders of fine temples." Comment. (15…

(a) The Cholas as conquerors, administrators and temple builders

The statement is accurate. As conquerors, Rajaraja I (985–1014) took the Chera and Pandya lands and northern Sri Lanka, and his son Rajendra I marched to the Ganga, took the title Gangaikondachola, and sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya in 1025. Under them the Chola navy made the Bay of Bengal a Chola sphere.

As administrators, the Cholas divided the empire into mandalams, valanadus and nadus, with local bodies. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of Parantaka I describe village assemblies (sabha and ur) chosen by lot, with committees for tanks, gardens and justice. Land was surveyed and revenue assessed in kind and cash, and a large bureaucracy handled accounts.

As temple builders, they raised the great Dravida temples: the Brihadisvara at Thanjavur (completed about 1010), the Gangaikondacholapuram temple of Rajendra I, and the Airavatesvara at Darasuram under Rajaraja II. Temples were also landowners, banks and employers, and centres of art, including the famed Chola bronzes of Nataraja, so they linked religion, economy and royal legitimacy.

(b) Akbar and the Rajput states

Akbar followed a policy of conciliation and incorporation. He married Bharmal of Amber's daughter in 1562 and brought Amber into the empire; Bhagwan Das and Man Singh rose to high mansabs, and Todar Mal was a leading revenue minister. He abolished the pilgrim tax and jizya (1563–64) and respected Hindu sentiment, thereby winning Rajput loyalty.

Where rulers resisted, he used force: Chittor fell in 1568 after a siege against Rana Udai Singh, and Ranthambore in 1569. Mewar under Rana Pratap stayed defiant; Man Singh fought him at Haldighati (1576). Several Rajput states such as Bikaner and Jaisalmer accepted his suzerainty through marriage and service.

The relationship gave the empire excellent military leaders and political stability in Rajasthan, and gave Rajputs rank and influence, though Mewar's resistance showed that incorporation was not universal.

(c) Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad as 'successor states'

The term has partial justification. These states arose from Mughal provinces: Murshid Quli Khan in Bengal (from 1717), Saadat Khan in Awadh (1722) and Nizam-ul-Mulk in Hyderabad (1724) were Mughal governors who became hereditary rulers as the centre weakened after 1707. They kept the mansab and jagir vocabulary, Persian administration, revenue systems built on Mughal practice, and formal loyalty to the emperor, minting coins in his name.

But historians such as Muzaffar Alam, C. A. Bayly and Chetan Singh note differences. These states made regional elites, merchants and zamindars into partners, introduced new revenue methods such as revenue farming in Bengal, and acted independently in diplomacy and war. They may be viewed as regional states emerging in response to Mughal weakness and not simply as heirs. The truth lies between the two: they inherited Mughal forms while following local paths.