The greatest crisis that India is facing today is the cancer of crime which is not only jeopardizing the law and order in society but is adversely impacting the socio-economic fabric of our country. There is a general perception that there has been an increase in the incidence of crime in the post-globalization period in India. However, one must remember that crime is a social phenomenon and is therefore not of recent origin. Crime is a social disorder and crime prevention as an idea is as old as the Vedic period, where one finds copious literary references to crime and maintaining social order. Therefore, to understand the nature of crime in contemporary India and devise an effective crime-preventive strategy, it is necessary to delve deep into our ancient past. The focus of this research paper is to analyze the nature and types of crime in ancient India and thereby analyze the crime control and prevention strategies employed in ancient India to build a foolproof and effective crime control strategy for contemporary India. The study is primarily qualitative and interpretative and uses a comparative historical method to analyze the historical data and offer important insight into the burning issues of crime and crime prevention in contemporary India.