The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c23.31

v1.c23.31

Regarding the use of money, an old Sūtra rule confirmed by Manu permits interest at fifteen per cent. annually, but for men (debtors) of low caste the interest may be sixty per cent.; yet this is where there is no security. The amount differs in any event according to caste, as already explained (p. 248). No stipulation beyond five per cent. *per mensem* is legal. Debts unpaid shall be worked out by labour by men of low caste. These rules obtain from the Sūtra age and vary scarcely at all. Megasthenes erroneously reports that the Indians do not take interest (οὔτε δανείζουσι οὔτε ἴσασι δανείζεσθαι, Fr. 27). Possibly he has in mind the provision that no Brāhman shall be a usurer. Wages are often paid in kind; one fifth of the crop or of the increase in flocks goes to the man who cares for the work. The tender of cattle, in contrast to the epic rule (*v. sup.* p. 269 f.), gets the milk of one cow out of ten (Manu, VIII, 231). If a man work without food or clothing given to him he may take a third of the produce; otherwise a fifth (Bṛihaspati, XVI, 13). But Nārada gives a general rule to the effect that the servant of a trader, a herdsman, and an agricultural servant shall respectively take a tenth part of the profit, whether from the sale of merchandise, the increase of flocks, or the grain-crop (Nārada, VI, 3). This is also the provision of Yājñavalkya (II, 194)¹. The agricultural servant is a Çūdra slave or a member of a mixed caste².