The eighteenth century was regarded as a ‘dark period’ in the history of the Punjab before N.K.Sinha and Hari Ram Gupta turned their attention to this period. For both of them, however, the history of the region was synonymous with the history of the Sikhs and the twelve Misals, and both of them wrote on past politics.

This book takes into account the non-Sikh as well as the Sikh rulers of the eighteenth century who established themselves as autonomous chief­tains in the Punjab after the weakening of the hold of the Mughal govern- ment and Afghan invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Among the non-Sikhs were the Hindu chiefs in the hills and the Muslim chiefs in the plains of the Punjab. The book deals with their administrative organiza­tion, agrarian production, urban economy, jagirdari and state patronage as well as polity. Consequently, it adds altogether new dimensions to our understanding of the history of the Punjab in the context of historical writing on the Mughal Empire and the Sikhs. It makes a substantial advance upon all previous studies of eighteenth century Punjab.

The conclusions drawn by the author are based on information culled from contemporary sources in Persian, Punjabi and English, and from printed and manuscript materials produced by the British during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.The map prepared by the author shows a large number of places identified on the basis of contemporary evidence. The Appendix gives basic information on nearly a hundred principalities, many of them identified for the first time. A much revised version of her doctoral thesis, the book embodies the results of a study meticulously carried out for nearly a decade.