India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s3.9

c9.s3.9

*EARNEST-MONEY*—In settling the sale and purchase of goods it is customary for the buyer to advance earnest-money to the seller as gurantee of good faith. Pāṇini refers to such a contract as *satyāpayati* (III. 1. 25) or *satyā karoti* (V. 4. 66) (*mayaitat kretavyamiti tathyaṁ karoti, Kāśikā*), and to the earnest money as *satyaṁkāra* (VI.3.70; cf. Hindi *sāī*, part of the price paid in advance).¹ The system of *satyāpana*, paying earnest money extends even to hired workmen, as confectioners engaged to work for a feast.