History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.162

c12.162

The law of debt was severe in the middle ages in India. Marco Polo who wrote in the thirteenth century observes that when a debtor refused to pay his debt, the creditor went to the king's palace to invoke his protection. Concerning the law of debt, which prevailed in Ma'bar when Marco Polo visited it, he writes: "If a debtor shall have been several times asked by his creditor for payment and shall have put him off from day to day with promises, then if the creditor can once meet the debtor and succeed in drawing a circle round him, the latter must not pass out of his circle until he shall have satisfied the claim, or given security for its discharge. If he, in any case, presumes to pass the circle, he is punished with death as a transgressor against right and justice." The traveller himself witnessed a case of this kind, when a foreign merchant drew a circle round the king, which the latter would not pass until the merchant was satisfied.⁶¹ The practice of *Dohāi* or seeking royal protection to enforce the payment of debt was prevalent in India in Ibn Batūṭah's time.⁶² Bonds were properly executed and attested by the Qazi. When the creditors failed to recover their money, they resorted to the royal palace to seek the king's protection. When a big man was in debt, his creditors stood before the gate of the palace, and when the indebted nobleman came, they shouted aloud ' *dohāi hai Sultan ki*,' implored royal protection and did not allow their client to enter the palace without paying his debts. Reduced to such an awkward position at the palace gate, the debtor either paid the money or requested time for payment. Sometimes the king also paid off the debts of insolvent debtors, and it appears from Ibn Batūṭah's statement that some of these men had recourse to this stratagem in order to avoid paying their debts out of their own money. It was considered nothing disgraceful, for Ibn Batūṭah himself conspired with his creditors to avoid paying them from his own pocket and asked them to cry ' *dohāi* ' at the royal gate and prevent him from entering it. The clerks at once communicated this to the Sultan, and forthwith an order was issued that the traveller's debts amounting to fifty-five thousand *dinars* be paid out of the public treasury. Officers were appointed to examine the bonds and documents in possession of creditors, and when they submitted their report regarding the genuineness of the debts the *Khat-i-Khurd* or certificates of payment were issued. Frauds were practised and bribes were demanded and paid.⁶³ From Ibn Batūṭah's writings, it appears that public opinion did not condemn it, and in the absence of any restraint on public opinion there was nothing to foster probity among the servants of the state except the fear of the Sultan.