Begam Samru

Among the large number of free lances who emerged on the Indian political scene in the wake of the dissolution of the Mughal empire in the second half the 18th century none has left a more fascinating life-story than Begum Samru, "a Kashmiri girl, who from abject proverty and abscurity rose to the command of a European-drilled brigade, the sovereignty of a territory and the honoured position of a shield to the Delhi imperial family; and died in the fullness of her years in the odour of sanctity as the honoured ally and social associate of the Roman Catholic Church." Her career, made up of truths stranger than the most imaginative romance has been the subject of numerous treatises in the past. But from the historical point of view these narratives are at the best superficial, based as they are for the most prt on bazaar gossip recorded by foreign visitors to her court. The present work is the first attempt to study her career on the basis of a critical assessment of the original sources materials available in Persian, French, Materials available in Persian, French, marathi and English. It is besides, a substantial contribution to the true history of the fall of the Mugal empire which cannot possibly be composed, as Sarkar observes in his Foreword. Except by a synthesis of many monographs, each exhaustively and critically dealing with its special subject." This exhaustive and authentic history of a very extraordinary woman whose life was closely linked with the chief political powers in her time ought to prove an invaluable book to all serious students of modern Indian history.