India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.t1.55

c9.s6.t1.55

*CORPOREAL INTEREST*—According to Gautama there were six special forms of interest, *viz.* compound interest, periodical interest, stipulated interest, corporeal interest, daily interest, and use of a pledged article (*Gautama Smṛiti*, XI.34-35). Of these Pāṇini knows of periodical interest as in *daśaikādaśa*; stipulated interest as in *pañchaka*, *saptaka*; compound interest as in *pravṛiddha* (VI.2.38); and use of pledged article as in IV.4.89. A reference to corporeal interest may be traced in *sūtra* II.3.34 (*Akartary-ṛiṇe pañ-chamī*) intended to regularise the formation of such linguistic expressions as *śatād baddhaḥ*, *i.e.* 'bound for a debt of one hundred'. We know it from Kauṭilya that free persons pledged or mortgaged themselves to repay debts contracted by them; this custom was also known in Pāṇini's time.