Economic history of early India

The book contains eleven chapters written for different occasions. In Chapter One the material background of the Vedic warfare has been presented on the basis of literary references and hitherto discovered archaeological finds. Chapter Two deals with as many as seven stages of ancient Indian economy viz., (i) Harappan, (ii).Rgvedic, (iii) later Vedic, (iv) the period of c. 500–322 BC, (v) Mauryan, (vi) post-Mauryan (200 BCÐAD 200) and (vii) Gupta. The various modes of production are discussed in Chapter Three, while the fourth chapter draws the north Indian economic life during the Gupta period. In the fifth chapter eight economic aspects of the caste system have been pointed out, while the sixth chapter presents the early medieval land grants with Rastrakuta examples. In the seventh chapter problems regarding the peasant protest in early medieval India have been brought to light. Chapter Eight deals with usury in early medieval times. In Chapter Nine different aspects of urbanism in early historic India are discussed, while the urban growth and decline have been explained in Chapter Ten. The economic trends and prospects in India upto AD 1200 have been stressed in Chapter Eleven.