The book addresses an extremely important question, namely, the nature of "history" writing in precolonial India. It is anchored by two themes: a study of historical traditions in early modern India, specifically, in Bengal during the 17th and 18th centuries and secondly, a study of Mughal political culture as manifest in the cultures of history-writing in Bengal. The second theme of the book also touches upon the topic of the interaction between Islamicate cultural traditions in the South Asian sub-continent with Indic, vernacular traditions.