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ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
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leather coin ( cammalato ) or to the coins issued by king Vammalāta (Dhanamalāta' according to another reading ) which were used in Bhillamāla. In the commentary on the Bịhtakal pa Bhāşya, however, it's variation is to be found in dramma, which is mentioned as a famous silver coin.2
Besides, cowries (kavad? daga, varādaga ) were also used in buying and selling the commodities.3 Fa-hien* as well as Yuan Chwang5 noted that cowries were used as media of exchange. Sulaiman, the Arab traveller who visited Gujarat in 851 A. D., also observed that 'shells are current in this region and serve for small money, notwithstanding that they have gold and silver.'6 Weights and Measures
The four-fold classification of the trade articles clearly reveals that there was a class of articles which was to be weighed (dharima) by keeping on a weighing balance (tula),? while the others were measured (mejja) by a measure (māņa).8
1. The current reading in the present edition of the NC. is GET THIS
777FATTTT (NC. 3, p. 111), But in one of the Mss. of the NC. the text runs : GET CSATO QFhat, while the press copy of the NC. prepared by Muni Punyavijaya reads as TET PACATS Tharat, which is quite unintelligible. It is difficult to decide any meaning with certainty. However, the first reading will show the existence of a leather coin, which has been mentioned in the Bhavabhāvanā (pt. II, p. 378, Bhavanagar, 1938 ) of Maladhāri Hemcandra also. On the basis of the second reading Muni Kalyanavijaya has suggested that it refers to the coins issued by king Vammalāta during the 7th century whose inscriptions are to be found near Vasantagagh.--Prabandha Pārijāta,
pp. 18-19. 2. The ar florati Hafa, 41—f CSATA: Bih. Vr. 2, p. 573. 3. $TETTI farsifat-NC. 3, p. 111; Bịh. V . 2, p. 573. 4. Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms, p. 43. 5. Watters, op. cit., I, p. 178; Beal, op. cit., 1, pp. 189–90, also II, p. 43. 6. Rās Mālā, p. 45. 7. TH—TSIT aftesla-NC. 1, p. 144. 8. Hi Hidroj grytarfag Fifa-Ibid.
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