sahukarn.

1785 E. Burke Speech Nabob Arcot's Debts in Wks. VI. 289 When a saucar, that is a money dealer, becomes security for any native prince [etc.].

1799 Duke of Wellington Suppl. Dispatches (1858) I. 378 A debt due by him to a soucar, by name of Rugobah.

1858 J. B. Norton Topics for Indian Statesmen 180 When these new tenants are wealthy soucars..they will not cultivate the soil themselves.

1875 J. Wilson in G. Smith Life J. Wilson (1878) App. 633 Money which he had borrowed from Soukars and bankers.

1883 Madras Mail 5 Dec. 22/2 The Indian Sowcar has come to possess a notoriety hardly surpassed by that of the European Jew.

1913 J. M. Keynes Indian Currency & Finance iv. 95 Notes, even of the value of Rs. 5, are looked upon with distrust by the village yokels and even by the village sahukars.

1927 Blackwood's Mag. May 745/1 A Sowkar is, generally speaking, a banker and moneylender.

1930 Economist 12 Apr. 820/1 The majority..consists of rural sahukars, who, though shrewd, are primitive in their methods, and prefer the use of cash and notes to cheques and bills.

1936 J. Nehru Autobiogr. xxxix. 302 The tenant's position was even worse. He was also a sahukar's serf.