""Naukar", Rajput and Sepoy challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of military power and peasant society in northern India before British ascendance. It will add to our knowledge of Indian state formation and to the growing body of scholarship questioning the historical pervasiveness of caste in Indian society." Journal of Asian History

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Glossary; 1. Beyond the control of the state; 2. A Warlord's fresh attempt at empire; 3. The Rajput of pre-Mughal North India; 4. Politics and entrepreneurship of a 'spurious' Rajput clan; 5. Bhojpuri soldiering and the vicissitudes of Empire; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

""Naukar", Rajput and Sepoy challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of military power and peasant society in northern India before British ascendance. It will add to our knowledge of Indian state formation and to the growing body of scholarship questioning the historical pervasiveness of caste in Indian society." Journal of Asian History

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Glossary; 1. Beyond the control of the state; 2. A Warlord's fresh attempt at empire; 3. The Rajput of pre-Mughal North India; 4. Politics and entrepreneurship of a 'spurious' Rajput clan; 5. Bhojpuri soldiering and the vicissitudes of Empire; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

""Naukar", Rajput and Sepoy challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of military power and peasant society in northern India before British ascendance. It will add to our knowledge of Indian state formation and to the growing body of scholarship questioning the historical pervasiveness of caste in Indian society." Journal of Asian History

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Glossary; 1. Beyond the control of the state; 2. A Warlord's fresh attempt at empire; 3. The Rajput of pre-Mughal North India; 4. Politics and entrepreneurship of a 'spurious' Rajput clan; 5. Bhojpuri soldiering and the vicissitudes of Empire; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.