Synopsis Business History is an emerging area of enquiry. Though there are a number of works on business houses of India, history of Indian business has not attracted many historians, except Oxford History of Indian Business and Ficci’s History of Indian Business through the ages. This book is a much more specialized treatment of the subject by experts on the field. This collective work critically examines the trends and patterns of Indian business through the ages bringing the story down to modern times when it fuses with nationalism. It firmly establishes the fact that India was not only steeped in spiritualism for which it allegedly remained economically backward but it also had a scintillating saga of materialist doctrines and materialist development.