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 61

Marca, 1898.]
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
57
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
BY R. C. TEMPLE. (Continued from p. 49.)
6.
Southern Indian Weights. TN Prinsep's Useful Tables, Thomas Ed., p. 110, there occurs & notable passage :-" As 1 with the coins, so with the weights, Southern India retained most of the names aud terms properly Hindu, pala, tulá, visa, bhúra, khari (klundi ?), baha." Just so, and as the old trade between South India and Indo-China is beyond all doubt, it is of value here to make some examination of South Indian weights.
This subject is no less thorny than those which have preceded it in this Chapter. Indeed, so surrounded is it with difficulty and uncertainty that the local experts who wrote the article niray! in Vol. III. of the Madras Maruol of Adininistration dared not go beyond such cautious statements as "the following is an attempt at Natire avoirdupois standards," "average Troy tables," and "approximate actnal valnes." I note also that the tables given under this article in Vol. III, do not quite coincide with those given by (? other) local experts in Vol. I. p. 616 ff., and Vol. II. p. 505 ff., nor with those given in Vol. III. itself under the names for the denominations.
It is from the article niray in Vol. III., howerer, that I have extracted for the present purposes the following tables of the "average weights" at present recognised in Southern India.
A. - General Southern Indian Denominations.
Average Troy..
Average Avoirdupois,
Anglo-Indinn Equivaleots.
Musalman.
Sanskrit.
. Sanskrit.
sarshapa 6 yava
mustard seed ... harleycorn rice in husk ... abrus seed
zara... 6 jan ... 2 chân 4 gumchi
... ...
3 gunja 6 anaka 2 misha
black gram
...
...
misha
8 måsha 4 misgal 3 tôla ...
180 grs. Troy15 1,440 grs. Troy 15
...
8 tola 8 pala 8 sarava
16 karsha 4 pala
100 tula 20 bhara 10 achita
The above table shews that the A voirdupois and Troy denominations meet at the pala of 1,44) grs., and that the modern Muhammadan denominations are merely an effort to give a Musalman form to indigenons denominations without interfering with the established SouthIndian standards. It also works ont the gunja, gumchi or abrus seed to an average of 1.876 grs. Troy : in South India 96 to the tola.
15 Niray is for the Tamil nirai, weight. Invaluable as the Article is, I may warn the enquirer that the transliteration adopted is such as will oblige him to go direct to Nativen, or to look up every vernacular word in some work of reference, or to wander all over this bnge third volume, in search of the true form thereof. Experto crede.
1 Read "xarra 6 = jan: jau 9dhin :" and so on. 15 A: per statements in the Article quoted.