The book has a selection of 186 of the most interesting arms in the Jaipur royal palace and discusses them as weapons in their social and historical context. The book breaks new ground in Indian arms scholarship and is also a very readable account that takes in Rajput, Mughal and British Indian history, anthropology and art history. The objects are stunning: swords belonging to the Mughal Emperors Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, wonderful court daggers with hilts of carved rock crystal, jade, ivory and gilt steel, ferocious tribal arms, some remarkable historic firearms and beautiful painted shields, some of which were decorated in Japan for the Mughal court. There is even a device for extracting arrows from wounds with toe-curling ancient medical remedies. Most of these arms are from the reserve collections and published for the first time.
One in a series illustrating the collections of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur, Arms & Armour at the Jaipur Court: The Royal Collection will be essential for all museum curators, dealers and collectors working in this field. Others in the series are Festivals at the Jaipur Court by Vibhuti Sachdev, Costumes and Textiles at the Jaipur Court by Rahul Jain and Painting & Photography at the Jaipur Court by Giles Tillotson and Mrinalini Venkateswaran.