Taking a pause from direct focus on the Jhaveris, Chapter 4 is an interlude that outlines major shifts across the Mughal Empire between the 1680 and 1720s. I suggest that military campaigns in the Deccan region impinged the Mughal treasury and undermined administration to an extent never seen before. Officials in Gujarat started to engage in behavior that undermined Mughal sovereignty. Yet, they also had little choice as monetary resources were becoming scarce. Financial limitations impacted the quality of state machinery including the upkeep of buildings, delay in salary payments, and even the ability of officials to legitimately demand taxes. Despite this, local Gujarati poems suggest that residents preferred Mughal rule to ruthless attacks from the Maratha marauders, whose periodic raids were increasing in frequency and intensity. After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, successive Mughal emperors were poorly equipped to revive the grandeur of their ancestors. Their short stints as emperors, sometimes as brief as a few months, led to the further breakdown of Mughal authority. This manifest most clearly in the form of rivalries between Mughal governors sent to control and profit from Gujarat. Insecure in their positions and strapped for cash, these governors turned to assaulting key members of the business fraternity in the city of Ahmedabad.

Chapter eight probes changes between 1650 and 1750, emphasizing developments that contributed to Mughal decline. The Islamic cast of Aurangzeb’s reign was not a dramatic change, but a gradual trend that had been building under his two predecessors. We then move to Aurangzeb’s vision of Islam in his multicultural, multiethnic state and his prolonged effort to subdue the Deccan Sultanates and the Marathas under Shivaji, as well as their political and economic consequences. Next the Maratha’s martial roots, Shivaji’s political ideology, and the growth of Maratha power outside the Deccan along with their cultural contributions are addressed. Finally, we examine the shifting balance of power in the subcontinent where former imperial territories emerged as successor states with flourishing political centers.