Passage Based Questions: An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara | History Class 12 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

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Direction: Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow:

AU Colin Mackenzie
Born in 1754, Colin Mackenzie became famous as an engineer, surveyor, and cartographer. In 1815 he was appointed the first Surveyor General of India, a post he held till his death in 1821. He embarked on collecting local histories and surveying historic sites in order to better understand India’s past and make governance of the colony easier. He says that ‘‘it struggled long under the miseries of bad management ... before the South came under the benign influence of the British government.’’ By studying Vijayanagara, Mackenzie believed that the East India Company could gain ‘‘much useful information on many of these institutions, laws and customs whose influence still prevails among the various Tribes of Natives forming the general mass of the population to this day.’’

Q1: Who was Colin Mackenzie?
Ans: Colin Mackenzie was an engineer and a cartographer. He was an employee of the East India Company. He prepared the first survey map of Hampi. His source of information about the city was based on memories of the priests of Virupaksha temple and the shrine of Pampadevi.

Q2: What methods did Mackenzie use to rediscover the Vijayanagara Empire?
Ans: He recorded the tales of local histories and surveyed sites to gain a better understanding of the past. This helped in making the governance of the colony easier.

Q3: How did the study of the Vijayanagara Empire benefit the East India Company?
Ans: He felt that the East India Company could gain useful information on many of the institutions, laws, and customs that still influenced the various native tribes, who formed the general mass of the population. This could help the East India Company to govern the country more effectively.