Indian Antiquary Vol 48

SR No.: 032540
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 458
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 54

50
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1919
standard silver, as his table given below shows; but this "standard" silver of the Court was never "pare" silver, or anywhere near it. He writes :"The several modifications are as follows:
Rouni, or pure silver, Rounika, 5 per cent. of alloy, Rounizee, 10do. do. Rotlassee, 20 do d o. Moowadzoo, 25 do. do.
Woombo, 16 30 do. . do." Rouni 11 is merely a rough attempt to transcribe ywetni into English characters (y=r in this as in many Burmese words, and the t is hardly heard): rounika is perhaps for ywelniye, a lump of yweint : rounizee yweinizi, & piece of yetní: rouassee, perhaps = ywetsi, a piece of leaf, or flowered silver: 18 moowadzoo, I can only conjecture to be mojo, a gold standard, to be described later on: woombo, there is little doubt, must stand for wun-b'o, i.e, official "pure" silver. I think we may, therefore, take it that whatever Symes was told as to alloys referred to ywelni as the standard, and that he was either misinformed about or misunderstood the vernacular terms for the various classes of alloyed silver, 19
The question, however, as to what was meant by "flowered silver" may be looked upon as set at rest by the observations of Maloolm in his Travels, Vol. II, p. 269. He there tolls us: "The price of a thing is always stated in weight, just as if we should say in answer to a question of prioe,' an ounce' or 'a drachm.' When an appearance like orystallisation is upon the centre of oake, it is known to be of a certain degree of alloy and is called 'flowered silver.' Of this kind which is called Huetnee (ywetnt ] the tickal is worth fifteen per cent. more than the Sicca rupee. The Dyng [dain] has the flowered appearance all over the cake in larger and longer crystals." Flowered silver, thon, meant firstly ywetni,' and secondly "dain.'
That Symes, irrespectively of the above remarks, meant ywetní silver when he speaks of standard or recognised payments is proved by his remarks, Ava, p. 317. Talking of the military tax, he says "Commonly every two, three or four houses are to furnish among them the recruit, or to pay 300 tickal in money, about £40 to £45." Taking the English pound to be in his day Rs. 10, then 300 tickals are equal to Rs. 400 to Rs. 450, or 1 tickal - Rs. 1-5-0 to RA, 1-8-0. In other words, he reckoned the tax in ywetni silver. Cox, however, intending, I think, to speak in terms of yweini silver, works out the tickal (Burmhan Empire, p. 44) at Rs.1.4-0, when valuing the outturn of the Yênangyaung oil wells. 30
16 For the true names of alloyed standards, see later on in these pages. 17 The variants of this word are given later on.
18 Of Jays we road in the Chinese New Hist, of the Tang Dynasty "They cut los vos of silver and use them as money." See note 14 above.
19 As late as 1889 I was given equivalente in leed for silver in terms of yoshi. It should be remembered that Col. Symes Wm a real pioneer, and though his book shows him to have been an acute observer and quite the right kind of man to send on the delicato embassy he had to conduct, he was evidently not an Oriental scholar. Hence his statemente must be taken with the caution that these two facto demand of the enquirer. His mistake as to ytotnf being "pure silver" is natural enough, for in 1893 an official bom and bred in Rangoon and an intelligent man, told me that yweink and b'd were one and the same thing!
20 In an account of these wells, communicated in 1801 to Asiatic Researches, Vol. VI, p. 132, Cox says distinctly - The cost of Binking new well is 2,000 tecals flowered silver of the country, 2,500 sioca rupees."