[INDOLOGY] debt

Antonio Ferreira-Jardim antonio.jardim at gmail.com
Wed May 22 01:57:48 UTC 2013


Dear Professor Silk,

Another useful work on debt is Prof HARA Minoru's article in "Langue,
Style et Structure dans le Monde Indien. Centenaire de Louis Renou." -
éd. N. Balbir & G-J Pinault. Paris:BEHE (1996) simply entitled:
“AnR.N.ya" pp.235–261.

Kind regards,
Antonio Ferreira-Jardim

On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 12:16 AM, Donald R Davis Jr <drdavis at wisc.edu> wrote:
> Dear Jonathan,
>
> Charles Malamoud's classic articles on debt also appear in his Cooking the
> World (Oxford, 1996). I will send the "Theology of Debt" piece to you.  For
> the Dharmasastra view, as always, one should begin with Kane, History of
> Dharmasastra, Vol. 3, pp.411ff.  The most thorough Indological treatment of
> debt, however, is Heramba Chatterjee Sastri, The Law of Debt in Ancient
> India (1971).  For what it's worth, I have a chapter on debt in the Spirit
> of Hindu Law (Cambridge, 2010).  Finally, I can't help but mention David
> Graeber's sprawling and wonderfully provocative Debt: A History of the First
> 5,000 Years, which includes ruminations on debt in ancient and medieval
> India.  In all of this, I, like Patrick, have not seen a general forgiveness
> of debt as an act of state or other authority.
>
> Best, Don
>
> On 5/21/2013 8:25 AM, Patrick Olivelle wrote:
>
> Jonathan:
>
> Debt (ṛṇādāna) is the first of the so-called Title of Law (vyavahārapada) --
> found in Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra and Manu -- this is taken as the standard
> (prakṛti) legal dispute, and it is within this subject that most early
> authors (Manu, Yājñavalkya) present legal procedure (evidence etc.). So debt
> was a BIG DEAL in Indian thought, and it is from this that the theology of
> innate debts (Taittirīya Saṃhitā etc.) arose. But I do not see anywhere a
> concept of forgiving debts -- such as Jubilee. The only comparable thing is
> the rule that the interest cannot be reach a level more than the original
> sum: thus what is ever payable is double what was borrowed. Once the
> interest reaches that level, the principal ceases to accrue interest. There
> are ways around this, but that is a whole other story.
>
> Best,
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
>
> On May 21, 2013, at 5:15 AM, Jonathan Silk wrote:
>
> dear Colleagues,
>
> I've been asked whether (tout court) Buddhism or Hinduism have any clear
> attitudes toward debt. I understand the question not to refer to spiritual
> debt, but to monetary debt, and the origins of the questions to probably be
> whether we find things comparable to the idea of the Jubilee, or the
> Biblical necessity to release Hebrew slaves after 7 years of service (the
> origin of the Sabbatical, by the way!), and the like (at least as far as I
> know, there is no such provision in pre-modern India for manumission).
> Any advice would be most welcome, thanks!
>
> Jonathan
>
> --
> J. Silk
> Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Johan Huizinga Building, Room 1.37
> Doelensteeg 16
> 2311 VL Leiden
> The Netherlands
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