The present work brings to completion the author’s work From Sultanat to the Mughals, a volume devoted to the Delhi Sultanat having been published earlier. Tracing the rise and fall of the Mughal empire upto 1761, an attempt has been made to probe the basis on which the Mughals mobilized support for themselves and the nature of the polity they evolved. The societal, economic, political, administrative and ideological challenges faced by an essentially liberal polity and the role of Aurangzeb have been carefully analyzed. The author contends that if a regional balance of power based on states with different social structure had been stabilised, some parts of India could under favourable circumstances, have moved in the direction of capitalism. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Satish Chandra (b. 1922) his book “Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court 1707-40”, and subsequent researches helped to give a new shape to Indian history after independence. He was Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Vice Chairman and Chairman, University Grants Commission (1973-81). He taught at the Universities of Allahabad, Aligarh Muslim, Delhi and Rajasthan. He was Smuts’ Visiting Professor, Cambridge University (1971), and associated with many national and international agencies. He was Secretary and later President, Indian History Congress (1973), Council Member, United Nations University, Tokyo (1980-86), Associate Director of Research, Maison des Sciences de I’Homme, Paris; Member, Executive Board, International Congress of Historical Sciences, Paris, etc. He was also Chairman of the Committee to review Civil Services Examination in Delhi.