In both the Vedic and the classical periods, a special elite class of people
existed that were called Brahmins. In a rough manner, one might say that their
material wellbeing depended on dak¿i¿¿ in the Vedic period and on d¿na in the
classical one. Broadening the perspective beyond dak¿i¿¿ and d¿na, this book is on
all sorts of giving in the context of pre-modern India, using Vedic, Sanskrit,
Buddhist and, to a much lesser extent, Roman and Christian sources. The Brahmanical
theory of the gift (i.e., the theory of dutiful gifting, dharmad¿na) is a major
focus of, and has provided a major motivation for, this study.