UGC NET History Practice Question

The term Madad-i-Ma'ash during the Mughal period referred to:

Hereditary land assignments made for the maintenance of scholars and religious figures ✓

Emergency cash loans given to peasants during drought

Special allowance given to foreign merchants

Military pensions paid to imperial guards

Madad-i-Ma'ash grants supported scholars, religious figures, and institutions with tax-free or revenue-assigned land — functionally similar to the earlier Agrahara system, aimed at sustaining learning and religious life rather than military or administrative service.

In the Shivaji/Maratha administration, what was the council of eight ministers serving the state known as?

Ashta Pradhan ✓

Ashta Diggajas

Ashtasena

Raj Sabha

The Ashta Pradhan was Shivaji's council of eight ministers (including the Peshwa, Amatya, and Sachiv), each with defined portfolios — a structured administrative innovation distinguishing the early Maratha state from a purely personal or tribal chieftaincy.

The Chauth tax collected by Marathas in neighboring non-Maratha territories was calculated as what fraction of the total land revenue?

One-third (33%)

One-fourth (25%) ✓

One-tenth (10%)

One-half (50%)

Chauth was fixed at one-fourth (25%) of the standard land revenue of a territory, paid by non-Maratha rulers to the Marathas essentially as protection money against raids — a major, if resented, revenue mechanism of Maratha expansion.

What was the Sardeshmukhi tax demanded by Maratha rulers?

Additional 10% levy claimed by the king as hereditary paramount head of the land ✓

Toll tax collected at river crossings

Tax levied on urban markets

Import duty on foreign luxury goods

Sardeshmukhi was an additional 10% levy the Maratha king claimed as the hereditary Sardeshmukh (paramount headman) of the Maratha homeland — collected on top of Chauth, together forming a major, and separate, revenue stream from regular land tax.

In the Mughal agrarian economy, peasants who cultivated lands in their own villages where they resided permanently were classified as:

Khudkasht ✓

Pahi-kasht

Muzarian

Mujarian

Khudkasht peasants were resident cultivators farming their own village's land continuously — contrasted with Pahi-kasht, non-resident cultivators who migrated in to farm land in a village not their own, often on more favorable terms to attract labor.

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This question is part of our free Unit-Wise mock test series, drawn from the same real question bank used across every UGC NET History mock test on this site. For structured, chapter-by-chapter notes covering everything these questions test, see our UGC NET History Notes, or try the History Glossary Flashcard Quiz for daily term-by-term practice.