ADVISORY EDITORS Ashok Mitra ^ f1 P 1 A 1 Amalendu Guha W U U 101 Irfan Habib 0^;^.^A;^4i Amiya Bagchi bCieHllSt Kishorc Theckedath Jacob Eapen Monthly Journal of the CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Indian sch001 °f social Sciences Thomas Isaac (Trivandrum) VOLUME 15 FEBRUARY Sanjaya Baru (Hyderabad) NUMBER 2 1987 Atis Dasgupta (Calcutta) Javced Alam (Shim la) V K Ramachandran (Madras) Venkatesh Athreya (Madras) EDITORIAL BOARD Madhu Prasad Utsa Patnaik R.R. Krishnan D. Raghunandan C. Rajamohan C.P. Chandrasekhar MANAGING EDITOR Rajendra Prasad EDITOR Prabhat Patnaik EDITORIAL OFFICE 423, V P House, New Delhi-110 001 CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISEMENT CONTENTS B-l, Second Floor LSC, J Block Saket, Editorial Note New Delhi-110017 Cultural Transaction and Early India : SUBSCRIPTION RATES* Tradition and Patronage INLAND -Romila Thapar 3 3 years : Rs 150 Prostitution in 'Ancient India 2 years : Rs 120 —Sukumari Bhattacharji 32 Annual :Rs 65 (Students : Rs 50) Institutions and Libraries NOTE (Annual): Rs 100 w omen in Islamic Ideology ^ slDglecoPy:RS 6 -G.JavedRasool 62 *Rs 3 extra if by cheque FOREIGN BOOK REVIEW (Annual in US dollars) Kapitza AirMail: 50 —Rajendra Prasad 66 Articles and review express the views ef the authors and not necessarily of the editors or of the Indian School of Social Sciences.