Chakra-vriddhi: Why economists call it the eighth wonder and how people feared it as a force that could destroy lives

In India, interest was called vriddhi, meaning growth. When this growth itself was allowed to grow, the word used was chakra-vriddhi, circular increase, like a wheel that keeps turning. The Arthashastra of Kautilya in the Mauryan age set clear limits for how interest could be charged, but it also recognised the practice of compounding. Later mathematical texts, such as the Bakhshali Manuscript, even offered progressions that look very much like our modern compound interest calculations. Yet India went further than mathematics. It turned this financial principle into a way of speaking about morality and karma.