Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t4.209

c5.t4.209

Credit must have been an almost indispensable factor in business even in those days. There was, of course, no bank-system. The rich people had their own strong boxes or rooms.¹⁴ A great deal of wealth was hoarded in the form of gold and jewellery or even money and these were stowed away in a pillow,¹⁵ or hidden (*nidahitvā*) in other convenient places.¹⁶ The nature and amount of the wealth thus hoarded was sometimes registered on gold or copper plates.¹⁷