The motive behind Shahjahan’s Balkh campaign was to:

1. secure a friendly ruler in Balkh and Badakhshan which bordered Kabul
2. conquer Samarqand and Farghana, the Mughal homelands
3. fix the Mughal frontier on the ‘scientific line’, the Amu Daria
4. expand the Mughal Empire beyond the sub‑continent

Explanation

Option (b) is correct

• Shah Jahan’s primary objective in sending his army to Balkh (1646–1647) was to reclaim the ancestral territories of his dynasty in Central Asia and secure the vulnerable northwestern frontier of the Mughal Empire.

Answer: (b) conquer Samarqand and Farghana, the Mughal homelands