Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.s4: Interest
Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.s4
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Interest
c9.s4.1
Interest is the remuneration or the price for the services of capital. Loans and usury were common. *Aṇaya* or debt is mentioned. It is stated that, if the debtor (*dhāraṇiya*) was staying in his own country, he was bound to pay the debts, but if he went abroad and had no money, he was not responsible, for it is said that if a debtor went abroad on a sea-voyage and on the way his ship foundered and he saved his life with great difficulty with one piece of cloth on his person, he was not liable to pay the debts. If the debtor, however, had money, although not sufficient to pay the creditor in full, the latter could sue him and get his partial payment, which would be reckoned in full settlement of his debt. If the debts could not be paid in time, the debtor, however, had to work as a slave to the creditor.²⁰ We have already referred to a widow who purchased two *palis* of oil from a grocer on credit. The heavy interest meant doubling the debt every day and in course of time, when the woman could not clear it off, she had to serve him as a slave-girl.²¹
c9.s4.2
²¹ Supra, p 107 f. n
c9.s4.3
The term which appears in the Jain texts is *vaddhi*, meaning profit or interest. *Gāhāvai* Ānanda of Vāṇiyagāma is said to have kept four crores of gold for lending on interest.²²
c9.s4.4
²² *Uvās* 1. p. 6.
Linked texts (1)
- Uvāsagadasāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit