The present article is a study of the process of Mughal empirebuilding in early modern North India using war as the point of entry. Specifically, it focuses on three sieges from the early years of Akbar’s reign—Chitor (1567–68), Ranthambhor (1569) and Kalinjar (1569). It teases out certain aspects of these sieges and discusses them at length individually. Bypassing historiographically-popular themes like combat and technology, it explores less-probed issues such as the fate of defeated enemies, the involvement of zamindars and mansabdars, military finance and the role of quasi-military labour in imperial military campaigns. In the process, it strives to write a social, cultural and economic history of Mughal military expansion focused primarily on the second half of the sixteenth century. © 2018 South Asian Studies Association of Australia.