Eastern India in the early eighteenth century 'crisis': Some evidence from Bihar

also allowed me free access to his personal collection of relevant materials. Gautam Bhadra and Sanjay Subrahmanyam commented on an earlier draft. I ackl1’Owledge their help with gratitude. In recent years there has been a significant shift of emphasis in the study of eighteenth century India, from the high imperial government and administration to the regional economy and local social context of politic. Scholars of the Mughal empire now have a far better understanding of the conditions that preceded and accompanied Mughal decline in Delhi and in the different parts of the empire, both independently and in their interactional context. One result of these recent studies is that the validity of explaining Mughal decline in purely economic terms is now open to serious doubts. Many South Asians support the contention of these studies that eighteenth century Indian history, of which Mughal decline evidently formed an important part, ought to be studied in its own idiom. What has, hence, emerged is a