Akbar and Technology

Water and Work in Mughal Gardens and Landscapes

“…Deeper wells required more arduous work by animals pulling ropes tied to leather buckets (charas). Animals also turned geared Persian wheels (charkh, rahaṭ), lifting chains of terracotta water pitchers circling round and round in more mechanically efficient but still grueling shifts (Habib, 1997;Schiøler, 1973;Singh, 1985).…”

“…He criticized wells with draft animals pulling ropes up and down an inclined slope as the dirty ropes slid back into the well. He contrasted them with the ingenuity and productivity of geared Persian wheels driven by draft animals yoked to a pull-bar (Babur, 1996, p. 333; for a rich discussion of this technology, see Habib, 1997;Schiøler, 1973;Siddiqui, 1986;Singh, 1985;Wahi, 2014). Nevertheless, Babur's early technological and environmental observations had limited impact because even the grand waterworks at the Taj Mahal complex, built a century later, employed teams of animals pulling ropes down an inclined earthen ramp to lift water from the Yamuna riverfront to the aqueduct above.…”

Indian Ocean in the Shaping of Late Medieval India

“…53 The Mughal port of Surat turned out to be one of the biggest outlets for the cloth produced in the hinterland of Gujarat, Deccan and northern India. 54 With Akbar's introduction of new technologies in the manufacturing of cotton and silken cloths aimed at quality innovation, skill upgradation and making Indian pieces excel the Persian and European ones, 55 there was an eventual acceleration in the process of textile production catering to the taste of the consumer classes of the Ottomans, the Saffavids and the Europeans. The foreign experts were used to teach the Indian weavers about the method of quality innovation in cloth-making, at times mixing the Iranian, European and Chinese patterns with Indian.…”

Knowledge and divergence from the perspective of early modern India

“…41 To Akbar, Abul Fazl attributed the popularization of two pieces of water management: the cooling of water and the Persian wheel. 42 The most systematic of such initiatives was taken by Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88), who embarked on a network of canals by harnessing the perennial tributaries of the Indus in Punjab and the Ganges-Jamuna system near Delhi. This major network connected the Sutlej with a canal taken out of Jamuna.…”