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economics in ancient india: The Economic History of Ancient India Santosh Kumar Das, 1925 |
economics in ancient india: An Economic History of Ancient India (300 B.C. - A.D. 700) Manilal Bose, 2020 |
economics in ancient india: IIMA - Economic Sutra Satish Y. Deodhar, 2024-03-21 A general perception exists that ancient Indian literature on economic matters is fatalistic and an admixture of sacred and secular thoughts. Economic Sutra provides a comprehensive perspective on the elements of Indian economic thought leading up to and after the Arthashastra. Economic Sutra is a perception-correction initiative to distil the Indian mind in the realm of economic thoughts and behaviour as brought out by the ancient Indian authors. It highlights the broader spread of economic ideas both prior to and sometime after Kautilya, giving insights into the purpose, actions and vision of our forefathers. |
economics in ancient india: Economic History of India N. Jayapalan, 2008-04 For a proper understanding of India s economy as we find today with its fast development, a study of its past economic conditions is necessary. India s economic history spans nearly 5000 years and dates back to Indus Valley Civilisation the two prominent cities of which Mohanjodaro and Harappa were big industrial centres having trade relations with West Asia and other parts of the world. Several sources provide us valuable information about the economic condition of the people of India at various stages of history. From Vedic literature we get a detailed description of the economic life of the Aryans. The Buddhist literature, particularly Jatakas and Tripitaka give us a glimpse of the economic condition of India from 650 to 321 B.C. when every village was a self-sufficient unit. Kautilya s Arthasastra, Magasthenes Indica and Vishakhadatta s Mudrarakshasa give detailed description of the economic systems of the Mauryan period. The accounts of Chinese travellers Fa-hien and It-sing are remarkable evidences of the socio-economic life in Gupta period. Historians like Manucci tell us about the economic reforms undertaken during Mughal rule in India. The British who carved out their empire in India in the 17th century, drained India of its wealth, destroyed the self-sufficient character of villages, increased agricultural indebtedness, and gave rise to a capitalist class in India with the growth of new urban centres. After the achievement of independence in 1947 started the process of nation-building through economic planning. With the liberalisation of Indian economy in the 1990s, the country has been put on a high growth path and is making fast economic progress. The book captures the salient features of India s economic history in chronological order. It will fulfil the needs of students and teachers of this subject and prove immensely useful to the aspirants of Civil Services and other competitive examinations. |
economics in ancient india: Political Economy in Ancient India Bhagwan Sahai Mudgal, 1965 |
economics in ancient india: Indian Economic Thought Joseph John Spengler, 1971 |
economics in ancient india: The Economic History of Ancient India Santosh Kumar Das, 1925 |
economics in ancient india: Arthashastra Tom Trautmann, 2016-01-15 This book is a definitive introduction to the classic text, the Arthashastra, the world’s first manual on political economy. The 2000-year-old treatise is ascribed to Kautilya, the prime minister of King Chandragupta Maurya, and is as important to Indian thought as Machiavelli’s The Prince is to Europe. Arthashastra, or ‘the science of wealth’, is a study of economic enterprise, and advises the king-entrepreneur on how to create prosperity. Thomas Trautmann’s exploration of this seminal work illuminates its underlying economic philosophy and provides invaluable lessons for the modern age. |
economics in ancient india: The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity Matthew Adam Cobb, 2018-09-03 The period from the death of Alexander the Great to the rise of the Islam (c. late fourth century BCE to seventh century CE) saw a significant growth in economic, diplomatic and cultural exchange between various civilisations in Africa, Europe and Asia. This was in large part thanks to the Indian Ocean trade. Peoples living in the Roman Empire, Parthia, India and South East Asia increasingly had access to exotic foreign products, while the lands from which they derived, and the peoples inhabiting these lands, also captured the imagination, finding expression in a number of literary and poetic works. The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity provides a range of chapters that explore the economic, political and cultural impact of this trade on these diverse societies, written by international experts working in the fields of Classics, Archaeology, South Asian studies, Near Eastern studies and Art History. The three major themes of the book are the development of this trade, how consumption and exchange impacted on societal developments, and how the Indian Ocean trade influenced the literary creations of Graeco-Roman and Indian authors. This volume will be of interest not only to academics and students of antiquity, but also to scholars working on later periods of Indian Ocean history who will find this work a valuable resource. |
economics in ancient india: Ancient Indian Coinage Rekha Jain, 1995 This Book Studies Ancient India S Monetary Economy In Terms Of Its Coinage Through Six Successive Periods From The Janapadas To The Pre-Medieval. It Establish Linkages Between The Ancient Coins And Their References In Ancient Texts. |
economics in ancient india: The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean Raoul McLaughlin, 2014-09-11 This study of ancient Roman shipping and trade across continents reveals the Roman Empire’s far-reaching impact in the ancient world. In ancient times, large fleets of Roman merchant ships set sail from Egypt on voyages across the Indian Ocean. They sailed from Roman ports on the Red Sea to distant kingdoms on the east coast of Africa and southern Arabia. Many continued their voyages across the ocean to trade with the rich kingdoms of ancient India. Along these routes, the Roman Empire traded bullion for valuable goods, including exotic African products, Arabian incense, and eastern spices. This book examines Roman commerce with Indian kingdoms from the Indus region to the Tamil lands. It investigates contacts between the Roman Empire and powerful African kingdoms, including the Nilotic regime that ruled Meroe and the rising Axumite Realm. Further chapters explore Roman dealings with the Arab kingdoms of southern Arabia, including the Saba-Himyarites and the Hadramaut Regime, which sent caravans along the incense trail to the ancient rock-carved city of Petra. The first book to bring these subjects together in a single comprehensive study, The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean reveals Rome’s impact on the ancient world and explains how international trade funded the legions that maintained imperial rule. |
economics in ancient india: The Economic History of Ancient India Santosh K. Das, 1987 |
economics in ancient india: Ancient Indian Economic Thought Ratan Lal Basu, Raj Kumar Sen, 2008 Economic thought in Arthaśāstra by Kauṭalya and Mānavadharmaśāstra by Manu, two ancient Hindu texts and its relevance in the globalized arena. |
economics in ancient india: Critical Reflections on Economy and Politics in India Raju J. Das, 2020-03-02 In this book, Das presents a class-based perspective on the economic and political situation in contemporary India in a globalizing world. It deals with the specificities of India’s capitalism and neoliberalism, as well as poverty/inequality, geographically uneven development, technological change, and export-oriented, nature-dependent production. The book also deals with Left-led struggles in the form of the Naxalite/Maoist movement and trade-union strikes, and presents a non-sectarian Left critique of the Left. It also discusses the politics of the Right expressed as fascistic tendencies, and the question of what is to be done. The book applies abstract theoretical ideas to the concrete situation in India, which, in turn, inspires rethinking of theory. Das unabashedly shows the relevance of class theory that takes seriously the matter of oppression/domination of religious minorities and lower castes. |
economics in ancient india: A History of Indian Economic Thought Ajit K. Dasgupta, 2002-01-04 The history of Indian economic thought provides rich insights into both economic issues and the workings of the Indian mind. A History of Indian Economic Thought provides the first overview of economic thought in the sub-continent. Arguing that it would be inappropriate to rely on formal economic analyses it draws on a wide range of sources; epics, religious and moral texts for the early period and public speeches, addresses, and newspaper articles for controversies from the nineteenth century onwards. What emerges is a rich mosaic reflecting India's different cultures and civilizations. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam all address economic issues and British colonial rule had a deep impact, both in propagating Western economic ideas and in provoking Indian theories of colonialism and underdevelopment. The author concludes with chapters on Ghandian economics and on Indian economic thought since Independence. |
economics in ancient india: Economic Organisation in Ancient India, 200 B.C.-200 A.D. Shyamsunder Nigam, 1975 |
economics in ancient india: Taxation History, Theory, Law and Administration Parthasarathi Shome, 2021-04-09 Tax practitioners are unfamiliar with tax theory. Tax economists remain unfamiliar with tax law and tax administration. Most textbooks relate mainly to the US, UK or European experiences. Students in emerging economies remain unfamiliar with their own taxation history. This textbook fills those gaps. It covers the concept of taxes in regards to their rationale, principles, design, and common errors. It addresses distortions in consumer choices and production decisions caused by tax and redressals. The main principles of taxation—efficiency, equity, stabilization, revenue productivity, administrative feasibility, international neutrality—are presented and discussed. The efficiency principle requires the minimisation of distortions in the market caused by tax. Equity in taxation is another principle that is maintained through progressivity in the tax structure. Similarly, other principles have their own ramifications that are also addressed. A country’s constitutional specification of tax assignment to different levels of government—central, state, municipal—are elaborated. The UK is more centralised than the US and India. India has amended its constitution to introduce a goods and services tax (GST) covering both central and state governments. Drafting of tax law is crucial for clarity and this aspect is addressed. Furthermore, the author illustrates different types of taxes such as individual income tax, corporate income tax, wealth tax, retail sales/value added/goods and services tax, selective excises, property tax, minimum taxes such as the minimum alternate tax (MAT), cash-flow tax, financial transactions tax, fringe benefits tax, customs duties and export taxes, environment tax and global carbon tax, and user charges. An emerging concern regarding the inadequacy of international taxation of multinational corporations is covered in some detail. Structural aspects of tax administration are given particular attention. |
economics in ancient india: King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India Kauṭalya, 2013-01-31 King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India presents an English translation of Kautilya's Arthashastra (AS.) along with detailed endnotes. When it was discovered in 1923, the Arthashastra was described as perhaps the most precious work in the whole range of Sanskrit literature, an assessment that still rings true. This new translation of this significant text, the first in close to half a century takes into account a number of important advances in our knowledge of the texts, inscriptions, and archeological and art historical remains from the period in Indian history to which the AS. belongs (2nd-3rd century CE, although parts of it may be much older). The text is what we would today call a scientific treatise. It codifies a body of knowledge handed down in expert traditions. It is specifically interested in two things: first, how a king can expand his territory, keep enemies at bay, enhance his external power, and amass riches; second, how a king can best organize his state bureaucracy to consolidate his internal power, to suppress internal enemies, to expand the economy, to enhance his treasury through taxes, duties, and entrepreneurial activities, to keep law and order, and to settle disputes among his subjects. The book is accordingly divided into two sections: the first encompassing Books 1-5 deals with internal matters, and the second spanning Books 6-14 deals with external relations and warfare. The AS. stands alone: there is nothing like it before it and there is nothing after it-if there were other textual productions within that genre they are now irretrievably lost. Even though we know of many authors who preceded Kautilya, none of their works have survived the success of the AS. Being textually unique makes it difficult to understand and interpret difficult passages and terms; we cannot look to parallels for help. The AS. is also unique in that, first, it covers such a vast variety of topics and, second, it presents in textual form expert traditions in numerous areas of human and social endeavors that were handed down orally. Expert knowledge in diverse fields communicated orally from teacher to pupil, from father to son, is here for the first time codified in text. These fields include: building practices of houses, forts, and cities; gems and gemology; metals and metallurgy; mining, forestry and forest management; agriculture; manufacture of liquor; animal husbandry, shipping, and the management of horses and elephants- and so on. Finally, it is also unique in presenting a viewpoint distinctly different from the Brahmanical party line we see in most ancient Indian documents. |
economics in ancient india: A Little History of Economics Niall Kishtainy, 2017-03-07 A lively, inviting account of the history of economics, told through events from ancient to modern times and the ideas of great thinkers in the field What causes poverty? Are economic crises inevitable under capitalism? Is government intervention in an economy a helpful approach or a disastrous idea? The answers to such basic economic questions matter to everyone, yet the unfamiliar jargon and math of economics can seem daunting. This clear, accessible, and even humorous book is ideal for young readers new to economics and for all readers who seek a better understanding of the full sweep of economic history and ideas. Economic historian Niall Kishtainy organizes short, chronological chapters that center on big ideas and events. He recounts the contributions of key thinkers including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and others, while examining topics ranging from the invention of money and the rise of agrarianism to the Great Depression, entrepreneurship, environmental destruction, inequality, and behavioral economics. The result is a uniquely enjoyable volume that succeeds in illuminating the economic ideas and forces that shape our world. |
economics in ancient india: India Unbound Gurcharan Das, 2002-04-09 India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future. |
economics in ancient india: Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies Sitta Reden, 2019-12-02 The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires. The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections. Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history. |
economics in ancient india: The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris, Richard P. Saller, 2007-11-29 In this, the first comprehensive survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. They reflect a new interest in economic growth in antiquity and develop new methods for measuring economic development, often combining textual and archaeological data that have previously been treated separately. |
economics in ancient india: Ancient India and Ancient China Xinru Liu, 1988 India and China are two of the most important civilizations of the ancient world. Looking at the relations between these empires before the 6th century A.D., Xinru Liu conclusively establishes the transmission of Buddhism from India to China, and describes the various items of commercial trade. |
economics in ancient india: Ashoka in Ancient India Nayanjot Lahiri, 2015-08-05 In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that extends beyond the bounds of Ashoka’s lifetime and dominion. At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor—a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects. Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph—a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.” |
economics in ancient india: Economic History of Ancient India S. Kalyanaraman, 2016-12-23 This volume is a sequel to the successful decipherment of Harappa Script Corpora as metalwork catalogues. Rigveda which is the oldest document of the civilization of India contains unambiguous indicators related to the idea of rastram which is, in effect, a pathway for wealth creation for the commonwealth of people, ensuring abhyudayam for all and environment including flora and fauna. While attempts have been made to reconstruct the Economic History of the World (pace Angus Maddison) from 1 CE, there have been no major efforts to rewrite the Economic History of the millennia Before Common Era, say, from the days of the Rigveda dated ca. 8th millennium BCE. This monograph is a preliminary attempt at building upon the idea of rastram as the movement of wealths across communities as commonwealths and at narrating historical evolution of sreni as a social corporate form. In this attempt, significant leads are provided by the decipherment of the Harappa Script Corpora; in particular, the unique ceramic stoneware responsibility badges with Harappa Script which describe the assignment of specific functions to participants in a guild. The treasurehouse of ancient texts of India provide the literary framework to define the weltanschauung of the people of the rastram. Archaeological discoveries, sculptures and iconography help validate this framework chronologically in an extensive contact area of Hindu Veda civilization that travelled along a maritime Tin Route stretching from Hanoi (Vietnam) to Haifa (Israel) through Eurasia, about two millennia before the dawn of the Silk Road. Given the complex nature of the task, this volume is but a continuum of Harappa Script primer --Cryptography for metalwork trade (2016) and will continue to be a work in progress as multi-disciplinary researchers report their findings to enable us to narrate the History and Culture of India. with fidelity. In a nutshell, this is an extraordinary history governed by the primordial value of dharma-dhamma as performance of one's responsibilities for abhyudayam and nihsreyas-a veritable Pilgrim's Progress in an enquiry from Being to Becoming, uniting the atman with the paramatman. Economic history of Ancient India is a story of artha in civilization - artha as defined in Kautilya's Arthasastra: The subsistence of mankind is termed artha, wealth; the earth which contains mankind is also termed artha, wealth; that science which treats of the means of acquiring and maintaining the earth is Arthasastra, Science of Polity. (R. Shamasastry, tr., Kautilya's Arthasastra). The weltanschauung of Meluhha people who encrypted Harappa Script is expressed in a precise, unambiguous example of Harappa Script cipher: kole.l 'temple' rebus kole.l 'smithy, forge' (Kota language). This is an affirmation of a value system which governed the life-activities of Bharatam Janam that 'Work is worship'. This is the principal lesson learnt from the Economic History of Ancient India. Metalwork is one form of creating wealth of a rastram. (RV 10.125) atma is devata of the sukta (RV 10.125); Soma is atma of yajna. Creation of wealth is dharma and a positive affirmation of one's life activity consistent with one's proclivities and competence. kAyakave kailAsa -- Basava. The idiom means: work is worship. medha also has the semantics of: 'dhanam, wealth and yajna'. |
economics in ancient india: The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy Chetan Ghate, 2012-03-13 India's remarkable economic growth in recent years has made it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. This Oxford Handbook reflects India's growing economic importance on the world stage, and features research on core topics by leading scholars to understand the Indian economic miracle and the obstacles India faces in transforming itself into a modern 21st-century economy. |
economics in ancient india: Historical And Political Economy Of Education In India Dr. M. Kumar , Dr. N. Rekha, This book is written to meet the requirements of the new B.Ed., and M.Ed., syllabus based on the common core for Tamilnadu and other state university. This book focus on education in ancient Indian, middle India, east Indian company, education under British rule, national integration, international understanding, political police of Indian, economic in education, Indian constitutional provisions on education, - political policy of education in India. This book useful for post graduate and graduate students and teachers’ educators. |
economics in ancient india: India's Ancient Past R.S. Sharma, 2006-10-20 This book presents a complete and accessible description of the history of early India. It starts by discussing the origins and growth of civilizations, empires, and religions. It also deals with the geographical, ecological, and linguistic backgrounds, and looks at specific cultures of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Vedic periods, as well as at the Harappan civilization. In addition, the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, Magadha and the beginning of territorial states, and the period of Mauryas, Central Asian countries, Satvahanas, Guptas, and Harshavardhana are also analysed. Next, it stresses varna system, urbanization, commerce and trade, developments in science and philosophy, and cultural legacy. Finally, the process of transition from ancient to medieval India and the origin of the Aryan culture has also been examined. |
economics in ancient india: Trade in Early India Ranabir Chakravarti, 2004-12-16 This collection of fifteen essays and extracts, covering a chronological span from the third millennium BC to c AD 1300 and written by leading historians of early India, highlight the changing perspectives, methods, and approaches to the study of early Indian trade. |
economics in ancient india: The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India Richard Seaford, 2020 Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities. |
economics in ancient india: Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500 Irfan Habib, 2011 |
economics in ancient india: History Of Ancient India (portraits Of A Nation), 1/e Kapur, Kamlesh, 2010 |
economics in ancient india: Bazaar India Anand A. Yang, 1999-02-01 The role of markets in linking local communities to larger networks of commerce, culture, and political power is the central element in Anand A. Yang's provocative and original study. Yang uses bazaars in the northeast Indian state of Bihar during the colonial period as the site of his investigation. The bazaar provides a distinctive locale for posing fundamental questions regarding indigenous societies under colonialism and for highlighting less familiar aspects of colonial India. At one level, Yang reconstructs Bihar's marketing system, from its central place in the city of Patna down to the lowest rung of the periodic markets. But he also concentrates on the dynamics of exchanges and negotiations between different groups and on what can be learned through the voices of people in the bazaar: landholders, peasants, traders, and merchants. Along the way, Yang uncovers a wealth of details on the functioning of rural trade, markets, fairs, and pilgrimages in Bihar. A key contribution of Bazaar India is its many-stranded narrative history of some of South Asia's primary actors over the past two centuries. But Yang's approach is not that of a detached observer; rather, his own voice is engaged with the voices of the past and with present-day historians. By focusing on the world beyond the mud walls of the village, he widens the imaginative geography of South Asian history. Readers with an interest in markets, social history, culture, colonialism, British India, and historiographic methods will welcome his book. |
economics in ancient india: Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD Angus Maddison, 2007-09-20 This book seeks to identify the forces which explain how and why some parts of the world have grown rich and others have lagged behind. Encompassing 2000 years of history, part 1 begins with the Roman Empire and explores the key factors that have influenced economic development in Africa,Asia, the Americas and Europe. Part 2 covers the development of macroeconomic tools of analysis from the 17th century to the present. Part 3 looks to the future and considers what the shape of the world economy might be in 2030. Combining both the close quantitative analysis for which ProfessorMaddison is famous with a more qualitative approach that takes into account the complexity of the forces at work, this book provides students and all interested readers with a totally fascinating overview of world economic history. Professor Maddison has the unique ability to synthesise vast amountsof information into a clear narrative flow that entertains as well as informs, making this text an invaluable resource for all students and scholars, and anyone interested in trying to understand why some parts of the World are so much richer than others. |
economics in ancient india: Measuring Ancient Inequality Branko Milanovi?, Peter H. Lindert, Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2012 Is inequality largely the result of the Industrial Revolution? Or, were pre-industrial incomes and life expectancies as unequal as they are today? For want of sufficient data, these questions have not yet been answered. This paper infers inequality for 14 ancient, pre-industrial societies using what are known as social tables, stretching from the Roman Empire 14 AD, to Byzantium in 1000, to England in 1688, to Nueva Espąa around 1790, to China in 1880 and to British India in 1947. It applies two new concepts in making those assessments -- what we call the inequality possibility frontier and the inequality extraction ratio. Rather than simply offering measures of actual inequality, we compare the latter with the maximum feasible inequality (or surplus) that could have been extracted by the elite. The results, especially when compared with modern poor countries, give new insights in to the connection between inequality and economic development in the very long run. |
economics in ancient india: Political Violence in Ancient India Upinder Singh, 2017-09-25 Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru helped create the myth of a nonviolent ancient India while building a modern independence movement on the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa). But this myth obscures a troubled and complex heritage: a long struggle to reconcile the ethics of nonviolence with the need to use violence to rule. Upinder Singh documents the dynamic tension between violence and nonviolence in ancient Indian political thought and practice over twelve hundred years. Political Violence in Ancient India looks at representations of kingship and political violence in epics, religious texts, political treatises, plays, poems, inscriptions, and art from 600 BCE to 600 CE. As kings controlled their realms, fought battles, and meted out justice, intellectuals debated the boundary between the force required to sustain power and the excess that led to tyranny and oppression. Duty (dharma) and renunciation were important in this discussion, as were punishment, war, forest tribes, and the royal hunt. Singh reveals a range of perspectives that defy rigid religious categorization. Buddhists, Jainas, and even the pacifist Maurya emperor Ashoka recognized that absolute nonviolence was impossible for kings. By 600 CE religious thinkers, political theorists, and poets had justified and aestheticized political violence to a great extent. Nevertheless, questions, doubt, and dissent remained. These debates are as important for understanding political ideas in the ancient world as for thinking about the problem of political violence in our own time. |
economics in ancient india: India Today Stuart Corbridge, John Harriss, Craig Jeffrey, 2013-04-03 Twenty years ago India was still generally thought of as an archetypal developing country, home to the largest number of poor people of any country in the world, and beset by problems of low economic growth, casteism and violent religious conflict. Now India is being feted as an economic power-house which might well become the second largest economy in the world before the middle of this century. Its democratic traditions, moreover, remain broadly intact. How and why has this historic transformation come about? And what are its implications for the people of India, for Indian society and politics? These are the big questions addressed in this book by three scholars who have lived and researched in different parts of India during the period of this great transformation. Each of the 13 chapters seeks to answer a particular question: When and why did India take off? How did a weak state promote audacious reform? Is government in India becoming more responsive (and to whom)? Does India have a civil society? Does caste still matter? Why is India threatened by a Maoist insurgency? In addressing these and other pressing questions, the authors take full account of vibrant new scholarship that has emerged over the past decade or so, both from Indian writers and India specialists, and from social scientists who have studied India in a comparative context. India Today is a comprehensive and compelling text for students of South Asia, political economy, development and comparative politics as well as anyone interested in the future of the world's largest democracy. |
economics in ancient india: The Economic History of India, 1857–2010 Tirthankar Roy, 2020-09-10 From the end of the eighteenth century, two distinct global processes began to transform livelihoods and living conditions in the South Asia region. These were the rise of British colonial rule and globalization, that is, the integration of the region in the emerging world markets for goods, capital, and labour services. Two hundred years later, India was the home to many of the world's poorest people as well as one of the fastest growing market economies in the world. Does a study of the past help to explain the paradox of growth amidst poverty? The Economic History of India: 1857–2010 claims that the roots of this paradox go back to India's colonial past, when internal factors like geography and external forces like globalization and imperial rule created prosperity in some areas and poverty in others. Looking at the recent scholarship in this area, this revised edition covers new subjects like environment and princely states. The author sets out the key questions that a study of long-run economic change in India should begin with and shows how historians have answered these questions and where the gaps remain. |
economics in ancient india: Essays in Ancient Indian Economic History Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, 2014 Essays in Ancient Indian Economic History is part of a three-volume set focusing on the developments in the economic history of India during the last millennium. The essays in this volume provide an outline of the change in the status and orientation of early Indian economic history and in the approach to the economic features of ancient Indian history. The essays traverse diverse subjects such as the function of property, family and caste, the origin of the state in early India; agriculture, surplus appropriation and distribution, and labour; the role of crafts and craftsmen in the economy of early India; and trade and trade organizations, and coinage. In doing so, the volume attempts to provide a chronological and spatial view of early Indian economy. Re-issued in a revised form to synchronize with the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian History Congress, the essays are accompanied by a new Preface and an Introduction that highlight the changing contours of emphases, shifting focus and methodologies and projections of research, both encouraged and documented under the aegis of the Indian History Congress. |
economics in ancient india: Producing India Manu Goswami, 2010-01-26 When did categories such as a national space and economy acquire self-evident meaning and a global reach? Why do nationalist movements demand a territorial fix between a particular space, economy, culture, and people? Producing India mounts a formidable challenge to the entrenched practice of methodological nationalism that has accorded an exaggerated privilege to the nation-state as a dominant unit of historical and political analysis. Manu Goswami locates the origins and contradictions of Indian nationalism in the convergence of the lived experience of colonial space, the expansive logic of capital, and interstate dynamics. Building on and critically extending subaltern and postcolonial perspectives, her study shows how nineteenth-century conceptions of India as a bounded national space and economy bequeathed an enduring tension between a universalistic political economy of nationhood and a nativist project that continues to haunt the present moment. Elegantly conceived and judiciously argued, Producing India will be invaluable to students of history, political economy, geography, and Asian studies. |
Economics - Wikipedia
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Economics is a broad discipline that helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines, and make predictions about the coming years. Economics ranges from the very …
What is Economics? Definition of Economics, Economics …
Economics Economics is the study of scarcity and how it affects the use of resources, the production of goods and services, the growth of production and well-being over time, and …
What is Economics? - Northwestern University
Economics is the study of how we make choices in the face of scarcity and how those choices motivate behavior. THE FIELD OF ECONOMICS. As individuals, families, and nations, we …
What Is Economics? - Econlib
Economics is the study of given ends and scarce means. Lionel Robbins, biography, from the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Robbins’ most famous book was An Essay on the Nature …
What is Economics - Definition, Methods, Types - Research Method
Mar 26, 2024 · Economics. Economics is a social science that analyzes how people make decisions to satisfy their wants and needs, given limited resources. It explores the processes …
What is Economics - Definitions, Criticisms. Modern Economic …
Instead, economics was merely used to analyze the action of individuals, using stylized mathematical models. Modern Definition of Economics The modern definition, attributed to the …
Economics - Wikipedia
Economics (/ ˌ ɛ k ə ˈ n ɒ m ɪ k s, ˌ iː k ə-/) [1] [2] is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. [3] [4]Economics focuses on …
Economics Defined With Types, Indicators, and Systems
Jun 28, 2024 · Economics is a branch of the social sciences focused on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Microeconomics is a type of economics …
Economics | Definition, History, Examples, Types, & Facts
May 12, 2025 · economics, social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. In the 19th century economics was the hobby of …
The A to Z of economics | The Economist
In economics, a transfer is a payment of money without any goods or services being exchanged in return. Governments make transfers in the form of welfare benefits but individuals make …
What is Economics? - American Economic Association
Economics is a broad discipline that helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines, and make predictions about the coming years. Economics ranges from the very …
What is Economics? Definition of Economics, Economics …
Economics Economics is the study of scarcity and how it affects the use of resources, the production of goods and services, the growth of production and well-being over time, and …
What is Economics? - Northwestern University
Economics is the study of how we make choices in the face of scarcity and how those choices motivate behavior. THE FIELD OF ECONOMICS. As individuals, families, and nations, we …
What Is Economics? - Econlib
Economics is the study of given ends and scarce means. Lionel Robbins, biography, from the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Robbins’ most famous book was An Essay on the …
What is Economics - Definition, Methods, Types - Research Method
Mar 26, 2024 · Economics. Economics is a social science that analyzes how people make decisions to satisfy their wants and needs, given limited resources. It explores the processes …
What is Economics - Definitions, Criticisms. Modern Economic …
Instead, economics was merely used to analyze the action of individuals, using stylized mathematical models. Modern Definition of Economics The modern definition, attributed to the …