Among the four alternatives, Assignment of revenue from a territory alone satisfies the full historical condition. A jagir assigned the right to collect assessed revenue from a territory in lieu of salary; it did not normally confer permanent proprietary ownership. Mughal administration linked rank, military obligation and revenue assignment without making every office hereditary. Terms such as mansab, jagir and zabt describe different parts of this structure and should not be treated as interchangeable. The distractors need separate rejection: Independent kingdom belongs to a different institution, context or chronology; Hereditary ownership of the soil does not perform the function described in the stem; and Tax-free temple land only fails the required association. The wording of “A Mughal jagir was best understood as what?” is deliberately specific, so the candidate should isolate its operative clue before recalling names. — Assignment of revenue from a territory”, but also remember the factual reason stated above.