While studying the history of India it is necessary to study the history of different Indian communities. The Jain community has a long recorded history. Though small in number they have played a very important role in the economic and social life of the country.

A history of Jain community becomes all the more important when we find that the community anticipated new commercial practices adopted by European trading countries from the sixteenth century onwards. It seems that while they gave up some of the traditions and practices in the country, their traditional social and cultural practices continued as before.
Two Jain names stand out in history; they are Veerji Vora, in the seventeenth century and Jagat Seth of Bengal in the eighteenth century. A succession of Jagat Seths interacted with high government officials and were very influential in their time, as this book brings out.

This volume is a significant contribution to the study of merchant communities and colonial history in South Asia.