The Mughal Empire is a fascinating phase in the history of India. Its power and wealth, extent and territoriality, socio-economic dynamism, and its cultural vibrancy have kept scholars engaged in an animated, contentious debate.

This volume is an attempt to understand the idioms and institutions, ethnic, racial, religious, and linguistic groups, and the regions that constituted the empire. Focusing on varied interpretations, complexities, and perspectives on the Mughal Empire across the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, it studies:

• different literary genres, including vernacular languages and Persian compositions, the scribes and travelogues.
• contexts and milieus of power and authority, legitimacy and consolidation, cultural patterns, gender and art, agrarian and commercial trends, religious patterns and social movements.  
• regions and regional formations. It also delves into the different paradigms and assumptions that shaped the understanding of the transition period and the eighteenth century.

The value of the book is enhanced by maps and a number of coloured and black-and-white images.

The book will be an essential reading and reference text for all students and scholars of history, particularly those interested in medieval and early modern period and the transition period of Indian history.

Meena Bhargava is Associate Professor, Department of History, Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.