Explanation:

• The term that Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period most frequently used to denote a peasant was raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian. In addition, we also encounter the terms kisan or asami. • Sources from the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants – khud-kashta and pahi-kashta. o The former were residents of the village in which they held their lands. The latter were non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis. o People became pahi-kashta either out of choice—for example, when terms of revenue in a distant village were more favourable—or out of compulsion—for example, forced by economic distress after a famine. • Seldom did the average peasant of north India possess more than a pair of bullocks and two ploughs; most possessed even less. • In Gujarat, peasants possessing about six acres of land were considered to be affluent; in Bengal, on the other hand, five acres was the upper limit of an average peasant farm; 10 acres would make one a rich asami. Cultivation was based on the principle of individual ownership. Peasant lands were bought and sold in the same way as the lands of other property owners. • Hence option (d) is the correct answer.