India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.t1.45

c9.s6.t1.45

The Jātakas refer to lending money at interest (*iṇa-dāna*) as a means of lawful occupation, together with tillage, trade, and harvesting as four honest callings (*Jāt*. IV. 422; *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, p. 218). Pāṇini distinguishes interest on a loan as *vṛiddhi* (V. 1. 47) from usury as *kusīda* (IV.4.31), which is condemned (*Prayachchhati garhyam*, IV.4.30). The special term *kusīdika* was meant to mark out the usurer for social opprobrium. The odium attaches even to his family, singled out as *kusīdāyī* (wife of a usurer, IV.1.37).