The Colas c30.16

c30.16

Wide divergences are traceable in the rate of interest on loans, and also in the manner in which the rate is expressed and calculated. The rate of 12½% per annum, of ⅛ *kaḻañju* per *kaḻañju* of gold, was for long the standard rate on the investment of religious endowments,³⁸ though 15 per cent or 3 *mañjāḍis* per *kaḻañju*³⁹ also obtained in many instances. The lowest rate met with is 5 per cent or one *mañjāḍi* per *kaḻañju*, though this rate is coupled with the reign of Vijaya Kamapavarman, and not a Cōḷa king.⁴⁰ Higher rates of money interest are also found though not so frequently as the normal 12½ or 15 per cent. Thus we have rates like 12½ per cent per half-year (*pū*) working to 25 per cent per annum;⁴¹ four hundred *kaḻañjus* yielding one hundred and fifty per annum, 37½ per cent;⁴² or even a 50 per cent rate expressed as half *kāśu* per annum per *kāśu*.⁴³ These rates cannot be explained easily at present; it is certain, however, that they are not due to differences either in the purpose of the loan or investment or in the political conditions affecting social security. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa invasion made little difference in the prevailing rate of interest as can be seen from inscriptions quoting Kṛṣṇa's regnal years;⁴⁴ the higher and the lower rates of interest alike prevail in the reign of Rājēndra I, when there was little or no disturbance to internal security. Very often the rate of interest is expressed in terms of commodities and sometimes even the principal of the loan is also a given quantity of some commodity, usually grain. The divergences in the commodity-rates are quite as wide and as unaccountable as in money-rates. The lowest grain-rate of interest per *kaḻañju* of gold is one *kalam* per annum;⁴⁵ the highest rate goes up to 3 *kalams*,⁴⁶ and even four;⁴⁷ the more common rate is in the neighbourhood of a *kalam*, or a *kalam* and third. In one and the same region and at the same time, two village assemblies are seen borrowing from one creditor, a temple, at the different rates of ⅔ *kalam* and one *kalam* per *kaḻañju* per annum.⁴⁸ Generally high rates of interest, seldom less than 25 per cent, are quoted when the principal is expressed in terms of grain,⁴⁹ and in one case there occurs the impossibly high rate of 75 per cent per annum.⁵⁰ Another way in which different rates of interest find expression is by means of the adoption of different rates of capitalisation for purposes of endowments of the same service; thus the supply of a quarter measure of oil every day is provided for by the endowment of 18 *kaḻañjus* 3 *mañjāḍis* and 1 *kunri* of gold in one instance, and by that of just 10 *kaḻañjus* in another.⁵¹