The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.180

c22.180

We can state the prices of land in the terms of their annual produce. The Melpadi inscription<120> shows that land purchased for 15 Kaḷanjus was sufficient for feeding one perpetual ghee lamp, which used to consume 180 Nāris, i. e., about 67 seers of ghee. 180 Nāris of ghee used to cost about four Kaḷanjus.<121> The price of this piece was thus about four times the annual net produce. We have seen already how the banks of our period were allowing an interest of about 15% to their depositors, how Manu states that the person who charges an interest of 24% is not guilty of sin, and how ordinary persons in our period had to pay an interest of about 30 to 40 per cent on their debts. If the rate of interest was thus so high, it is but natural that the land should cost only about four times its net produce, and yield an interest of about 25% on the capital invested.