India - Government and Economic Life in Ancient and Medieval Periods

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The Chapters contained in this book are extracts from the Gazetteer of India - History and Culture'. The book deals with Indian Polity and the general socio-economic Conditions prevailing in ancient and medieval times. It provides an objective and authentic account of the period to the readers.

Sir William Hunter's well-known book The Indian Empire was published in 188l. It was revised and published in four volumes in 1907-09 under the title The Imperial Gazetteer of India. These four volumes have now been revised and brought up-to-date. They are entitled The Gazetteer of India: Indian Union. The second volume- History and Culture-was published in 1973.

Some of the chapters of this volume, namely, Government and Economic Life; Society, Religion and Literature; Arts and Architecture; Pre-Historic and Proto-Historic Periods; Early History of India up to A.D. 1206; and History of Medieval India (A.D. 1206-A.D. 1761) which have a wider public opinion, are being published separately in the form of booklets. The idea is to provide to the general public especially the university students, low-priced publications containing authentic and objective information on these subjects by well-known writers who are experts in their respective fields.

There was no chapter on Government and Economic Life in the Imperial Gazetteer. In the revised Indian Gazetteer, there are a number of contributors to the chapter on Government and Economic Life in Ancient and Medieval India on which this booklet is based. They are U.N. Ghoshal and S.K. Mitra for Ancient Period and M. Mujeeb, Sukumar Ray, B.R. Grover, U.N. Dey, Irfan Habib and Tapan Raychaudhuri for Medieval period. It is hoped that not only this booklet but the entire series will have a useful purpose and meet the requirements of the general public.