Ancient & Medieval History · Agrarian Structure, Zamindars & the Village Economy
The concept being tested: Araghatta (Persian wheel) - water-lifting device with pots on wheel spokes.
The irrigation device called 'Araghatta' was
The araghatta, also called the rahat or Persian wheel, was a medieval water-lifting mechanism built around a large vertical wheel to whose rim or spokes a chain of earthen pots (ghatis) was tied. As the wheel turned, dipping into a well or stream, each pot filled with water at the bottom and emptied it into a channel at the top, giving continuous irrigation. In its developed form the wheel was geared to a second, horizontal wheel turned by yoked bullocks, a technology noted in Sultanate-period records and associated with a marked expansion of well irrigation in medieval north India. This pot-and-spoke wheel design is exactly what option 'a large wheel with earthen pots tied to the outer ends of its spokes' describes, which is why it is the correct answer.
What UPSC was testing
UPSC is testing whether aspirants can distinguish the araghatta from other medieval water-lifting devices that get bunched together in revision notes, particularly the leather-bag-and-pulley charas system; the trap is picking an option that sounds equally plausible as 'a traditional irrigation device' without recalling the specific pots-on-a-wheel construction.
How often this comes up
This concept has appeared 10 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2025.
The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.