ABSTRACT
The picture of a burgeoning economy and the beginning of urbanization in the Ganga valley is more or less agreed upon by historians. But there are sharp differences of opinion regarding the key factor behind second urbanization. The foregoing discussions may highlight the fact that the most distinctive feature of the material milieu of early historical India is the process of urbanization. This urbanization had its primary manifestation in the middle Ganga valley, but it gradually assumed a pan-Indian character. Urbanization as a social and cultural process manifests the tendencies of the transformation of a simpler society into a more complex one. This was more or less valid in the case of second urbanization also. The crystallization of a state-society in the Deccan seems to have facilitated demanding and then realizing the surplus from the agrarian sector, which in turn led to the emergence of cities in trans-Vindhyan India.
