The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.123

c22.123

higher rate of interest. It is, therefore, very probable that these banks may have charged an interest of about 20% to the debtors, who could offer good security for the loan, and that private money lenders may have charged about 25%. This inference is supported by the statement of Manu that a person charging interest at 24% is not guilty of sin.⁸⁷ If the security were of doubtful value, the rate of interest must have been still higher, say 30 to 35%. The statements in Manu and Yājñavalkya⁸⁸ that Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Sudras should be charged interest at 24%, 36%, 48%, and 60%, respectively would seem to show that the poorer classes like the tillers of the soil, who could not probably have given quite a good security, were charged interest varying between 30% to 50%. This conclusion is fully supported by the above epigraphical evidence, which shows that the depositers could get from the banks of the best security an interest of about 15%. One can now well understand why the Smritis hold the usurer in low estimation and declare him to be a person unfit for being invited for a Śrāddha. The rates of interest figuring in the examples given in the Līlāvatī by Bhāskarāchārya vary from 36 to 50%.⁸⁹