1 SOCIAL SCtENttSt larised form of prostitution appear by the later Vedic Age, i.e., around the eighth or seventh century B.C. Its origin is associated with the social subjugation of women in general which follows the breakdown of tribal society and the emergence of settled agricultural communities. When a woman belongs to some man, no other man can approach her without trespassing upon the owner's property ; and any woman who dropped out of this orbit of belonging had to fend for herself through an institutionalised exchange relationship. From this, there is of course a long transition to prostitution as an organised institution ; but the expansion of commerce and the growth of surplus on the one hand, and the systematic pushing down of women inside families into dullness and domesticity on the other, must have created conditions which facilitated this transition. The paper discusses the plight of the prostitutes and draws attention to the ambivalent attitude of society towards them, as objects both of male desire as well as of contempt. What is striking too is the relationship between the State and the profession of prostitution which it treated as a source of revenue and also occasionally of potential spies. While Social Scientist has over the years carried a large number of articles on different aspects of Modern Indian history, the considerable amount of valuable historical research being undertaken on Ancient India has perhaps remained somewhat under-represented in the pages of this journal. We are particularly happy therefore about the contents of the present unmber.