Through the Eyes of Travelers: Perceptions of Society — NCERT Solutions

The lives of ordinary women workers did not attract much attention because travellers like Ibn Battuta and Bernier were mostly interested in unusual, striking, or elite subjects such as courts, cities, trade, slavery, and sati. Also, the social contexts of their own writing shaped what they noticed. Everyday labour of women, being routine and less visible to them, was often ignored.

The sculpted panel shows different modes of transport, such as travel on foot and travel on animals, especially horses and bullocks/carts. It depicts travellers moving in more than one way, showing the variety of transport in the period.

The Kitab-ul-Hind was Al-Biruni’s famous work written in Arabic. It is a voluminous book divided into 80 chapters on subjects such as religion, philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws, and metrology. Al-Biruni usually began a chapter with a question, then gave the Sanskritic view, and finally compared it with other cultures. He probably intended the work for people living along the frontiers of the subcontinent and wanted to improve existing translations and explanations of Indian knowledge.

Ibn Battuta and Bernier wrote from different perspectives. Ibn Battuta was a traveller who delighted in the unfamiliar and recorded rich details of new customs, cities, foods, and people. He often used vivid description to surprise and inform his readers. Bernier, on the other hand, mainly compared India with Europe, usually in order to show India as inferior and to argue about politics and society. Ibn Battuta was more interested in curiosity and variety; Bernier was more analytical and critical, with a European frame of reference.

Bernier’s account presents urban centres as dependent on the empire and shaped by imperial power. He describes cities as camp towns that grew when the imperial court was present and declined when it moved away. He also notes crowded markets, manufacturing activity, and prosperous merchants, but overall he emphasizes what he saw as decline, poverty, and lack of private property. The chapter corrects this oversimplified picture by showing that cities included many kinds of towns—manufacturing, trading, port, sacred, and pilgrimage centres—and had diverse social groups.

Ibn Battuta’s account gives clear evidence that slavery was widely present. He mentions buying horses, camels, and slaves as gifts, showing that slaves were treated like property or commodities. He says slaves were given as gifts to officials and rulers, and that Muhammad bin Tughlaq gifted slaves to a preacher. He also notes that some female slaves were trained in music and dance, while others worked as scavengers or household servants. This shows both the normality of slavery and the different types of labour slaves performed.

Bernier was especially struck by the sati of a young widow. The elements that drew his attention were the widow’s youth, her fear and tears, and the fact that she was forced toward the pyre by Brahmanas and an old woman, with her hands and feet tied so she could not escape. He saw both the apparent willingness of some women and the coercion used in other cases.

Al-Biruni tried to understand the caste system by comparing it with social divisions in other societies, especially ancient Persia. He accepted the Brahmanical division into four varnas—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra—and explained them through the idea of origin from different parts of Brahman’s body. He also noted that Brahmanas were considered the highest, and that the groups lived together in towns and villages. However, he disapproved of the idea of pollution, saying it went against the laws of nature. So his understanding was partly based on Sanskrit texts, but also shaped by his own comparisons and criticisms.

Yes, Ibn Battuta’s account is useful for understanding urban life in his time. He describes crowded streets, busy bazaars, mosques and temples, performances by singers and dancers, manufacturing and trade, and the postal system. He also shows that cities such as Delhi and Daulatabad were large and prosperous. His account helps historians see the diversity, wealth, and connectivity of urban centres. At the same time, it should be read carefully because he was fascinated by the unfamiliar and may have highlighted what seemed most strange or impressive to him.

Bernier’s account is useful but limited for reconstructing rural society. It is useful because he noticed fertility of land, poverty of peasants, pressure from governors, and the existence of craft production and trade. But his description is strongly shaped by his belief that Mughal India lacked private property and was ruled tyrannically. He therefore exaggerated decline and presented rural society as if it were made only of rich rulers and poor peasants. The chapter shows that rural society was actually differentiated, with big zamindars, big peasants, smaller peasants, and landless labourers, so Bernier’s account must be used critically.

The crafts mentioned are musket-making, fowling-piece making, gold ornament making, and painting. In the chapter, artisanal activity is also shown as highly varied: embroiderers, goldsmiths, painters, lacquer workers, joiners, turners, tailors, shoemakers, silk and muslin manufacturers, and others worked in karkhanas. So Bernier’s passage fits the chapter’s larger picture of a lively and skilled craft world, even though he often failed to see the social complexity and economic strength behind it.