The paper deals with economic principles as found in the more ancient sources of the Vedic period in so far as this is possible. This should be grasped very thoroughly. Unlike a particular practice or application of a law which may well be affected by circumstances and thus appear to be different from place to place and time to time, a principle has an unchanging and eternal quality. Despite few economic terms used throughout the text like Land Value Taxation (which means simply taxing the value of land alone) there is nothing complex or complicated in this study and reading it does not require any training in Economics. By showing the relation of the Indic principles to certain modern concepts and particularly to Land Value Taxation the paper goes a long way in bringing into light many valuable economic concepts and practices supported by an institutional framework. The revisiting of the ancient Indian economy becomes much imperative while studying the phenomenal changes taking place in modern times.

The study deals with principles as found in the more ancient sources of the Vedic period in so far as this is possible. This should be grasped very thoroughly. Unlike a particular practice or application of a law which may well be affected by circumstances and thus appear to be different from place to place and time to time, a principle has an unchanging and eternal quality. The paper does not deal with actual practice except incidentally. For this reason, of course, the paper does not examine all economic practices in the medieval period and more recent times, for which there is ample documentation. Kautilya's Arthastra incorporates some of the wisdom of the principles formulated in the early Vedic period but it is obvious that conditions have changed and many of those principles have been forgotten or covered with distortions. The polity in Arthastra is a mixture of private enterprise and state control: what we call today `social democracy' or `democratic socialism' (despite labels like `liberalism' or `free economy' and the like).

Nonetheless, in the Vedic and the later texts we meet the same concern about the distribution of wealth that occupies the mind of modern economists. How much does a man or a family need to earn and how much should be given to the royal treasury (i.e., the state) and how should these be determined? Or to put it in other terms, how should taxation be levied? Then, how should the State dispose of its revenue? Also, how should lending operate and what would be fair rates of interest? The lawgivers in ancient India were fully aware of all these issues. One aspect of modern economies that is not treated by the ancients is unemployment because this problem appeared as such, on a large-scale, only with the increase of population, the land enclosures (=privatization) and the industrial revolution in Europe at the end of the 18^th century. But the texts take it for granted that people should feel secure in their different employments.

History and Culture Journal, Economic Principles in Ancient India, Land Value Taxation, Medieval Period, Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Industrial Revolution, Vedic Tradition, Civil Liberties, Economic Lliberties, Natural Ecological Systems, Natural Resources, Spiritual Development, Modern Translations, Harappan Culture.