Public Administration in Ancient India c21.2

c21.2

AGRICULTURE was in ancient days—as it still is—the most important industry of the people of India. And, naturally, it received encouragement at the hands of the State in a variety of ways. Credit has always been an essential condition of agriculture in India, as in all other agricultural countries, and the practice of granting loans to needy cultivators began from very early times. In the Mahābhārata, Nārada is made to ask Yudhishthira: “Grantest thou with kindness loans unto the tillers, taking only a fourth in excess?”¹