The Economic Aspects in the Ṛgvedic Period

Abstract

The Economic Aspects of the Indian society are vividly reflected in the Ṛgveda. The Ṛgvedic people were conscious in economics. The main factor of all the sciences is man. Without man, neither economics nor anyother progress may occur. So, the Ṛgvedic people stressed upon well- organized society. The social life of the people was connected with the economic factors. The base of economics and the economic activities is to acquire happiness. One of the important characteristics of the Ṛgvedic economics is that it was based on morality. The Ṛgveda declares that an ideal Vedic person never utilizes other’s wealth for one’s sake to nourish himself. In the Ṛgveda, the people are advised to earn honestly. The Ṛgveda mentioned that the wealth earned through truth is the pure. The people of the Ṛgvedic age earned their livelihood through various occupations. Those are – agriculture, cattle rearing, weaving and knitting, metal work, leather work, trade and commerce etc. From the Ṛgveda, we can know the different means of living in the Ṛgvedic society and the members of the same family took different professions for their livelihood. The present paper is unique because it attempts to look into the Economic Aspects in the Ṛgvedic period.