Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/276

226 and shall restore it in the case of a minor when he comes of age.

We next turn to the usury laws of Ancient India. According to Vasishtha and Gautama, the interest for a money-lender was five mashas for twenty (karshapanas) every month.

The commentator Hara Datta reckons 20 mashas to the karshapana, so that the rate of interest comes to 1¼ per cent, per month, or fifteen per cent, per annum; and Krishna Pandita correctly states that this rate of interest applies to loans for which security is given. Gautama also says that after the principal has been doubled, interest ceases, and when the object pledged is an object used by the creditor, the money lent bears no interest at all.

Other articles might be lent at a much higher percentage of interest, apparently when no security was given, as is clear from the following rules:—

"Gold may be lent, taking double its value on repayment, and grain trebling the original price.

"The case of flavouring substances has been explained by the rule regarding grain.

"As also the case of flowers, roots, and fruit.

"He may lend what is sold by weight, taking eight times the original value on repayment"; and Gautama says: "The interest on products of animals, on wool, on the produce of a field, and on beasts of burden, shall not increase more than fivefold the value of the object lent."

Gautama likewise names no less than six different