The second half of the eighteenth century in Rajasthan was a period of continuous armed conflicts with consequent weakening of the state structure. This perceptive study seeks to examine the growth of agrarian economy in Eastern Rajasthan in the background of prevalent anarchy, laxity in administration and extortionist demands of revenue officials and dominant classes.

It analyses such developments as related to the production system, movement of prices and revenue rates, the pattern of agrarian relations in terms of ecology, the nature of administrative control and the state of rural society. The study also focuses on the stratification in the village society, its impact on the form of production, the working of the land revenue system particularly the relationship between demand and actual realisation, distribution of resources among different constituents of rural society, the nature of inherent contradictions in rural social structure, the authority system in the villages and the role played by the panchayats in containing conflicts therein.

For a proper analysis of economic development in India during s period, it is necessary to look to regional dimensions of these developments – contradictory at times. Using hitherto untapped archival sources and with a fresh focus the study admirably does that, in addition to supplementing earlier studies which have hitherto remained largely confined to eastern India.