Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 335

DECEMBER, 1897.] SELECTED DATES FROM THE EPIGRAPHIA CARNATACA. 329
The divisions of the Tickal are
2 Tabbe are 1 Tammoo 2 Tammoo , 1 Mat
4 Mat » 1 Tical 100 Tical 1 Tabisa or Viss
200 Tabisa , 1 Peiya or Ava Pecal, or 250 Penang Catties." Now Tabbe tabe, i.e., 1 po: Tammoo = tamú, s. e., 1 mů: Tabisa = tabákba, probably pronounced tabissú in Mergai whence the information came, = 1 bissá or viss.
The last denomination peiya is an apparently unique piece of information, and I cannot account for it, except as a misprint for toiya, at which word we can guess from the curious table which follows on the same page :
2 Nechi Teden are 1 Tendaum
100 Tendaum 1 Teiya or Coyano For tendaum read tindaung, or tin, the well known "basket” grain-measure of Burma, equal usually to 16 viss. For nechi teden read 'nak'wè tadin, i. e., "two ('na) halves (k'we) (are) one (ta) basket (tin)." We can now see what tho pioneer reporting officer did through his interpreter. He was told that two halves, the ke'wè or half (a basket) being a recognised measure, made one basket, and he heard the people mention 100 baskets as tay, i. c., lit. 100; and straightway made out his statement of measures. No doubt also he heard 100 viss spoken of as taya (100), and knew that these equalled a local picul, or 250 Penang catties, and straightway wrote down Teiya as a weight denomination, which subsequently got misread or misprinted Peiya.
(To be continued.)
SELECTED DATES FROM THE EPIGRAPHIA CARNATACA.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. BEFORE I published my remarks on the dates of the Saka era, ante, Vol. XXV. p. 266 ff., I examined the dates of many inscriptions in Part I. of Mr. Rice's Epigraphia Carnataca. Of some of the earlier dates in that collection I have already treated in the Epigraphia Indica. Here I give 19 other dates from my list, which, on account of the details mentioned in them, are porhaps of more general interest.
The dates Nos. 1-7 quote eclipses which were all visible in that part of India where the inscriptions come from. Nos. 8.13 are dates with Samkrintis. Nos. 14 and 15 give instances of intercalary months, the month of No. 14 being described as prathama-Bhadrapadu, and that of the quite modern date No. 15 as nija-Jyéshtha. No. 16 quotes a repeated tithi (pruthamaikádasi), and the tithi of No. 17 also is shewn to be a repeated one. And Nos. 18 and 19, in addition to the weekdays, give the karaņas, nakshatras and yoyas of tbe dates.
In twelve of these dates the given Saka year was an expired year, and in four (Nos. 2, 11, 13 and 14, of S. 1118, 1395, 1396 and 1456) a current year. In No. 18 the year 1568 is wrongly
2 Practically all Burmese weight tables stop at the viss, and the capacity tables at the tin or basket. I have never come across anything like this statement of the "Ava pecul" except in Prinsep's Useful Tables, c. 1833, p. 120, where we are told that the Pegu, Birma khandi (candy), 150 vis, is reckonod 600 lbs. av.," and the "Rangoon khandi, of 150 vis, is reckoned at 550 lbs, av." The standard Indian candy or khandi is a weight of 20 man or mds.. i. e., about 1,600 lbs, av. But I find loc. cit. that it was c. 892 lbs. at Baroda, 530 and c. 538 lbs. at Bombay, 495 lbs. at Goa, c, 483 lbs, at Indor (min), 500 lbs, at Madras and c. 500 and c. 597 lbs, in Travancor. See also Stevens, Guide, p. 86.
93 The highest Malay measure, usually 10 or 30 piculs. Crawfurd, Malay Dict, 3.V.: Stevens' Guide, p. 87, who spells the word Quoyane : Crawfurd, Indian Archipelago, Vol. I. p. 271: Swetenham, Vocab. Malay, Vol. II. App. on Currency : Maxwell, Malay Manual, p. 141.
1 I have selected only regalar dates. My private list contains many dates from the Epigraphia Carnataca, which are quite incorrect.