Synopsis The present work is a pioneering attempt to survey the economic life in ancient India right from Palaeolithic to the age of Harsha. It critically discusses the available data on stone age economics. Much new evidence has been collected and critically assessed for reconstruction of economic conditions in Rigvediac and later Vedic periods. After an interesting discussion of economic conditions in the age of the Buddha, the author makes a penetrative survey of the economics of empires, Maurya, Kushan and the Gupta. The survey ends with the depiction of economic conditions in the age of Harsha, which, as recent researches tend to demonstrate, marks the beginning of early mediaeval period.