This volume focuses on Akbar, his empire and environment, to present a picture of the polity and culture of India 400-500 years ago

The book attempts to supply such a beginning, by furnishing an account of the economic position at the close of Akbar`s reign; there is little prospect that adequate materials for a similar study of earlier periods will ever become available, but our knowledge of the closing years of the 16th century appears to be sufficient to justify the attempt. The aim of the book is to present a sketch of the economic life of India at the opening of the 17th century that is to say, at the period immediately antecedent to the first appearance of those new forces which were destined to exercise an increasing and eventually predominant influence on the development of the country. Starting from 1608 when the English ship Hector reached Surat, it is possible to trace the economic story of the next three centuries, first in the narratives of travellers and the early Letter-Books of the East India Company, and then in the more copious official records and publications of later times to that a well-defined period for study is within the reach of our academic institutions

The book speaks of the nature of the Mughul administrative institutions. A number of controversial problems have been discussed compared with the earlier book: The administration of the Sultanate of Delhi.

In the book an integrated picture of the Mughul administration has emerged. Moreover, an attempt has been made to create a greater synthesis in the data and to bring out the logical correlation among the different institutions. A number of controversial problems have been discussed in greater detail and a more satisfactory
interpretation of the available data has been offered. But no effort has been made to include all the available details into the study. However, the availability of the details has helped the author in understanding the nature of the Mughul administrative institutions. Nevertheless,an attempt has been made to describe the mansion,not to court its bricks.

It is unnecessary to argue that the administrative institutions of the Mughul Empire were mostly a continuation of the administration of the Sultanate with some alterations and improvements, which form the subject matter of the book

This book is different from the usual descriptive accounts of the Islamic monuments in India and their style. It seeks to understand the background to the architectural creations of Islam, the problems of integrating indigenous techniques with the new environment and purpose. It tries to examine the formal structural motivations in the Pre-Mughal and Mughal stages and the subtle distinctions between the two. It reviews certain open and knotty aspects of the structural beginning of this architecture and material evidence on hand. Above all it tries to understand the regional styles (wrongly called provincial) in their proper perspective, both of common factors and specialties as between Upper Indian and Deccani modes. It is a sympathetic study and an archaeologist’s approach to the historical developments related to the structural modes and lay out patterns. It is to be used for a better and deeper appreciation of the special and complementary place. Islamic architecture has in the unified heritage of Indian architecture. It is profusely illustrated and with many helpful charts and comparative data. It fulfill a void in our overall understanding of the synthesis underlying the spectacular creative spectrum unfolded by Islam after its total and unqualified domicility in India as a partner in its art and cultural endeavors.