Indian Antiquary Vol 27

SR No.: 032519
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 125

May, 1898.]
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
121
II. - MahagàndA Bell, Rangoon.
Date.
Authority.
Viss.
lbs.
Tons.
............
(1778) 1853 1895
Inscription ...
15,555 Laurie, Burma, Ed. 1853, p. 126. 4,915.06 Hesketh-Biggs, p. 55, popnlar 25,555
statement.
18,000
25-32
8.03 41.7
III. - MahatibàddagandA Bell, Rangoon.
Date.
Authority.
Viga.
lbs.
Tons.
(1843) c. 1852
Inscription41
25.9405 Bigandet, op. cit. Vol. I. p. 74 n.... 25,939.02
94,687 94,682
42.05 42-05
IV. - Dhammacheti's Bell, Rangoon.
Date.
Authority.
Viss.
lbs.
Tons.
(1476) (1476) 1895
Inscription, 1st comp. ... ...
Do. 2nd do. ... Taw Sein Ko, ante, Vol. XXIV.
75,000
11.4
33.5 1814
120,000
I
p. 332.
Scott, who has a peculiar knack of picking up scraps of information of the greatest interest about the Burmese, tells us in The Burman, Vol. I. p. 250, of a small bell in the South Kensington Museum, bearing the following inscription :
In the month of Tabohdwe, on the fifth of the waning moon, in the year 1204, on a Sunday, at about four in the afternoon, this bell was cast and moulded of pure copper, IIR weight is 594,049 kyats. There are four lions on the hanging apparatas. Its height is nine fingers' breadth, the diameter is five inches, the circumference fifteen, the thickness twentyfour. It is called the Manahtee Thadda Ganda. The man who had this royal bell moulded was the Barman king Tharrawaddy, Kong Boung Min."
Here we have, almost certainly, preserved for us a memorial model of the Mahâtibàddagkuda of King Darawadi (i. e., Kông-baung). If we may read 2,594,049 for the 594,049 kyats of the text, we get within one kyàt of the statement on the original bell, as above giren, because 25,940.5 viss == 2,694,050 kyats or tickals. Also Sunday, the 5th waning Tabod we, 1204 (B. E.) is the date on the original bell. One would like to know if it has been the custom to make such memorial models of the great bells. At any rate the South Kensington Museum specimen is exceedingly interesting.
(To be continued.)
Mentioned by Alexander, Travels, p. 48: Trant, two years in Ava, p. 34. But no weight is given in either care.
11 Hesketh-Biggs saye 26,000 viss or 48 tons; p. 43. ** Ante, Vol. XXVI. p. 210.
19 Ante, p. 117. # This figure is arrived at by taking the tul to be 40 vias, instead of, as I now think, a little less than 8 Vix. I do not know the authority for the computation, and it seems to be clearly wrong. At 8 vins to the tuld the weight would be 8. 2 tons.