The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.105

c22.105

We get copious data to determine the current rate of interest during the latter half of the 10th century A.D. An inscription from Tiruvurrur in Chingleput district, dated in the 22nd year of Kṛṣṇa III, ⁷³ mentions an investment on which the village assembly of Kuattur had agreed to pay in perpetuity an interest of 15%. This rate of interest seems to have been not far removed from the normal rate on perpetual deposits; a number of inscriptions from Tanjore belonging to the first half of the 11th century disclose 12½% as the current rate on such deposits. ⁷⁴ Sometimes the interest on capital in cash i. e., Kaḷanjus, is stated in kind i. e., in Kalams of paddy. But here again, if we convert the Kalams into their cash equivalent, the rate of interest is found to be varying between 10 to 15%. Thus an inscription of the time of Kṛṣṇa III ⁷⁵ records a gift of 20 Kaḷanjus by a queen of Vaidumba Mahārāja, a feudatory of that emperor. The interest on these 20 Kaḷanjus is stated to be 20 Kalams of paddy. Another inscription from south Arcot district, belonging to the reign of the same emperor, shows that the rate of interest in that locality also was 1 Kalam per Kaḷanju. ⁷⁶ This Kalam is, however, by the Perilmai measure which was 25% bigger than the normal Kalam, as will be soon shown. The rate of interest will thus work out to be 1¼ Kalam per Kaḷanju, if we take the Kalam to consist of 12 Marakkals of 8 and not of 10 Nāris. The price of paddy at this period varied between 8 to 12 Kalams per Kaḷanju, as will be soon shown; an interest of 1 Kalam per Kaḷanju would thus be somewhere between 8 to 12½%, and an interest of 1¼ Kalam would be between 10 to 15%.