Mapping early modern Bengal: polity, culture, and the literary universe -- The gealogical tradition -- Performance narratives and the Mughal factor -- Prose narratives of Kings: between 'old' and "new" -- Saving the Mughal legacy: the Tarikhs of the Nawabi world -- The English East India Company: reflections on Mughal traditions of governance -- Mughal culture and persianization in seventeenth and eighteenth century Bengal.