With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term ‘Araghatta’ refers to

The correct answer is C. Araghatta (also spelt arghatta) was a waterwheel, commonly called the Persian wheel, used to lift water from wells and channels for irrigation. It came to India with Persian-speaking rulers and was widely used in the northern plains and Deccan, and Ain-i-Akbari refers to such devices in its account of agrarian practice.

Why the others are wrong:

• A: Bonded labour is a separate institution. Forced or bonded service in medieval sources appears under terms like vishti or beth-begari, not araghatta.
• B: Land assignments to military officers were iqta under the Delhi Sultanate and mansab-jagir arrangements under the Mughals. Araghatta has nothing to do with land tenure.
• D: Uncultivated land was called banjar, and its reclamation was encouraged through revenue concessions. The term for the wheel is not the term for the land.

The concept here is the technology of irrigation in the agrarian economy. In Mains, this links to the discussion of how the Mughal state expanded cultivation, the role of lift irrigation in the Rabi and Kharif economy, and why water technology mattered for revenue assessment.

Trap: Aspirants mix up the revenue-land terms (iqta, jagir, banjar) and assume a Persian-sounding word must be a land or labour term.