Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 48

44
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Newbold adds "at Malacca 10 saga besar or 4 kupangs are equal to 1 maiam."
88
The existing tables are thus stated in the Singapore and Straits Directory, 1883, p. 34:
A.-Bullion Weigths.
12 saga90 1 mayam grs. 52 16 mayam 1 bongkal 12 bongkal 1 kati
39
B.
832 9,984 Commercial Weights. 13
1331
400
5,3331
16 tahil 1 kati 100 kati 1 pikul00 3 pikul 1 bhara 40 pikul 1 koyan
lbs. av.
33 37
30
39 39 33
We have already seen, in this Section of this work, in the table culled from the First Dutch Voyage to the East Indies, 1595-7, that those early traders gathered from the Malays they met with a Chinese table of commercial weights as known to the Malays identical with that still in use. We have also seen, from Stevens' Table of 1775 and the Malayu Vocabulary, footnote to its Table of 1810, notices of what may be called the Chinese scale in use in the Indian Archipelago, while Chinese influence crops up in the commercial scale just quoted as in use in the Straits Settlements in 1883. So it will be of value here to trace further Chinese influence on commercial measures in the Archipelago generally.
19
In Yule's Hobson-Jobson, s. v. candareen, is given the general Chinese-Malay scale thus, from Fryer, East Indies, for say 1873 as follows:
10 Cashi
is 1 Quandreen 10 Quandreens, 1 Mass (in silver) 1 Teen (? Taie) 1 Cattie
10 Mass
11
16 Taies
10 amas 3 16 taels
Again from a paper by J. Hunt on the Sulo Archipelago in Moor's Indian Archipelago, Appx., p. 45, under date c. 1814, we are told that "the China weights are in universal use here; the catty is regulated at 23 Spanish dollars, but they have particular names for the subdivisions." We can also get from this source so essentially a Chinese table as this:
10 muhuks : 1 chuchuk.
1 candareen
10 chuchuks = 1 amas
1 mace
= 1 tael
= 1 catty
1 babut
1 laxa
8 panchangs
10 gantongs
2 ragas
[FEBRUARY, 1898.
5 catties
10 babuts
2 laxas = 1 picul
Side by side with this there is given a table for capacities, which is Malay altogether :
Half a cocoanut-shell
= 4 catties
= 50 catties (100 catties)
1 panchang
1 gantong:
1 raga = 1 picul
So also Swettenham, Vocabulary, 1881, Vol. II., Appx. on Currency, etc.: Maxwell, Malay Manual, 1882, p. 141, "Therefore the sagd 3'25 grs., and so represents the local candareen.
The influence so far may be, and would probably be generally called, Chinese, but strictly, I think, it is the general Far-Eastern commercial influence on China merchants that has brought about the 16 taels to the catty, rather than the other way round.
1 Sala, Solo, Sulu; see Crawfurd, Malay Dict., s. vv.
92 I. e., cash,
mace.
93 I. 6., más I. 6., a derivative of laksha lakh, not necessarily meaning 100,000 outside of India proper, but any large number from 1,000 to several millions.