Studies in Aurangzib's Reign has a total of 18 essays. Of the six new essays that have been included in the present volume, three are devoted to Aurangzeb's sons Bahadur Shah I, Muhammad Azam Shah and Kam Baksh; one on Shah Jahan's daughter Jahanara; while the other two are dedicated to trade and commerce in Aurangzeb's empire, and to letters written by him. The remaining 12 chapters published earlier have been thoroughly revised/rewritten. While the essays on Emperor Aurangzeb and his children analyse their life and times, the other chapters are on the conquest of Chatgaon, the efforts of Shaista Khan in Bengal and the Orissa of the seventeenth century. The chapter on trade and commerce in Aurangzeb's empire deserves special mention. One gets a glimpse of the trading and manufacturing climate; the trade of the Dutch Company and the English Company were doing well while that of the Portuguese was by now negligible; the main exports of the time; and the products imported, their country of origin and the trade routes. The chapter on Aurangzeb's letters will be of particular interest to researchers scholars and students of Mughal India.
