Indian Antiquary Vol 27

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

Page 52

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1898.
)
India Siam-Cambodia ...
masha pê kupong
seeds 5
Malay
mû
Burma ... ... Siam-Cambodia Burma ... Siam-Cambodia ... Malay Barma ... India Siam-Cambodia ... Malay India ... ** Burma ... ... Siam-Cambodia ... Malay
füang màt salung måyam kyat karsha bật tâhil pala bộ(1) tamling bangkal
***
"
As I have shewn the ancient Chinese scale concurrently on p. 46 with the other FarEastern scales, it will be of use here to note the places its denominations would take if included in the above table. The chu would be 1 seed and therefore rank with the kôndari, etc. The hwa would be 6 seeds and would rank between the mi and kupong, etc. The che, 12 seeds, would rank between the fúang and the mat. The liang at 24 seeds and its double the kin at 48 seeds would rank between the kyat and the mayam (and salüng). Similarly the yuen would come before the b6(1), etc., with 192 seeds.
There is, however, a point in the Malay scales, weich requires reconciliation with the above facts. The Singapore existing scale (ante, p. 44)10 is stated to be:
12 saga are 1 mâyam 16 mayam 1 bûngkal
12 bûngkal , 1 kati By this, clearly only 192 standard seeds go to the búngkal instead of 320. Bat assuming the katí to be constant, 12 of these búngkals = 20 old búngkals, 20 búngkals (or taels) being the old recognised division of the katt. Therefore, on this assumption, 1 modern búngkal would equal 14 old búngical, and if of 192 is 320. Therefore also, the existing 192 seeds represent the old 320 seeds. However, this is not what I apprehend has actually taken place, which is rather that the modern scale has been reduced to about three-fifths of the old scale. Thus, by the old scale, taking the standard seeds at 45 grs., as the modern one does, we get 1,387 grs, as the actual weight of the old búngkal against 832 of the present one. 11. There is nothing surprising in such a local reduction in standards, and I put forward the above argument to shew the part played by continuity of thought and castom in the reduction of the bungkal from the rate of 320 to the precise rate of 192 standard seeds. The commercial object of the reduction would seem to have been to make the búngkal equal the weight of two Spanish dollars (i. e., twice 416 grs.), instead of the weight of three or three and a third. The resultant standard of 192 seeds in place of the old 320 was found to be a convenient proportion.
10 So slso Swettenham, Vocabulary, 1882, Vol. II., Appr. on Currency, etc.
11 The old Burmese b$(t) (and P Also the old Malay bingkal and Siamese tamling) must have weighed nearly 320 seeds of c. 4 grs, each - 1,280 grs., because that gives a kyat or tickal of 228 grs, and the actual weight of the standard tickal (odt and kyat) was 225 grs.