About the Book: In Badshah, Bandar, Bazaar, historian Jagjeet Lally challenges standard narratives of the Mughal Empire by shifting focus from royal decrees to the everyday people — bankers, money-lenders, merchants, middle-men and artisans — whose actions shaped the empire’s rise and eventual decline. Global trade and the spread of markets transformed daily life in subtle but dramatic ways, even influencing the spiritual teachings of Sikh gurus and Sufi saints. Traversing fertile hinterlands, buzzing cities, ports, legal battlefields and succession wars, the book offers a fresh, lively perspective on Mughal India