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. Contents: Foreword by Princess Diya Kumari of Jaipur; Acknowledgements; Cataloguing terms; Introduction; Daggers; Katars; Swords; Children's Arms; Lances, Spears and Shields; Armour; Axes, Ankus, Chhadi and Maces; Bows and Arrows; Accoutrements; Guns and Pistols; Map; The Rulers of Amber - Jaipur; Endnotes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index. Robert Elgood studied Islamic History at SOAS and has a DPhil from Oxford University in Indian Anthropology before working as a consultant on Indian and Islamic arms at Sotheby's in the early 1980s. He is a freelance consultant, lecturer and the author of a number of books which can be seen on his website robertelgood.co.uk In 2007 he was invited to catalogue the armory at Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur (Rajput Arms and Armour, in publication); and this Jaipur catalogue was a consequence of that research.