Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 64

56
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCH, 1916
The mistakes of Nelson and Srinivasa Raghava Aiyangar.
"
The calculations of these writers have been vitiated by certain mistakes. I have already shewn how Nelson was not justified in holding the sum of £880,000 as land revenue, and how it would be more proper to hold that, out of a total revenue of £880,000 a sum of £550,000 or roughly £600,000 alone formed the land revenue. A second mistake of Nelson is that he gives too low a value for a fanam. It is true that there were various fanams,81 gold and silver, current in the middle ages, and it is difficult to say to what fanam Father Martin has referred. But a little investigation into the numismatic history of the peninsula and a more careful study of the chronicles tell us that the fanam usually in currency was in gold and was in value one tenth of a pagoda and one fifth of a pon. The fanam weighed, as a rule, about 5 grains, and thus formed a tenth of the pagoda in value. The Tanjore fanams, for example, which had "a Swâmi on the con cave side and, on the convex, double lines crossing each other at right angles," weighed 5 grains. The Madura fanams resembled the Tanjore fanams, but the lines on the convex side intersected less regularly and were accompanied by two minute circles. They also weighed 5 grains. The Negapatam farams weighed 5 grains and the Tinne velly or "Koili " fanams which, as Marsden says, were current from the Koleroom river to the southern extremity of the peninsula, are thin and flat, with impressions that have too little apparent meaning to admit of description," weighed 5 grains.82 The point to be noted is that it is these gold fanams which must have been referred to by Father Martin, and not the small silver fanams which exchanged for a few kâius and which were used only in very small transactions. Nelson is therefore wrong in equating a faṇam to 21d. The correct value is one tenth of 78. 6d. that is 8. Now it will be seen that, according to Martin, 8 marakals of husked rice, which we may take as the equivalent of 16 marakâls of paddy, were worth 9. It follows from this that a kalam (12 marakâls) of paddy sold for 64d. in 1713, and we may presume in the earlier period of the Nâik History also. The equivalent of 63d. in 1713 was 6 annas, as the ratio between gold and silver was then 1 to 15, and to 4 annas in 15601600, as the ratio was then 1 to 10. Now in the year 1902 the price of paddy was Rs. 1, and so the purchasing power of money in the 16th century was a little less than 6 times. The crown land revenue of 60 lakhs was therefore equivalent to 375 lakhs of rupees; and as the land revenue in the same districts in 1902 was 120 lakhs, it is plain that the Naik land revenue was 3 times the British one. Nominally, of course, it was half; but in reality, on account of the greater purchasing power of money, thrice the burden on the ryot of 1902. Similar proportions can be found out for the other periods; but what has been thus far said is enough to shew that the Naik land tax was not so burdensome as scholars have hitherto imagined it to be.
(To be continued.)
81 See Marsden (Numismo 'a Orientalia, 1825, II) p. 739. Bidie's Coin Collections gives a number of Janams the general weight of which may be said to be 5 grains. Of these we may note Calicut fanams (5.79 grs.), Cochin fanams (Puttan, 5.85), Cully fanam (Tinnevelly 4:512 grs. to 5:55 grs.), Ikkéri fanama (5.725 grs.), Ghidda fanam (5.79), Guligai fanam (5-846), Gôpâla fanam (Salem, 5-0625), Kanterâi farams (5-6875), Lakshmi fanam (5-6125), Moolakavirai or Puttan fanam (5-1375-5-35 grs.), Nagur farams (5-075-5-525), etc. See Bidies, Coin Collections, 41-9. Marsden points out that the average fanams weighed between 5 and 6 grains. According to Buchanan, gold fanam was 1/12 pagoda, but "in all those I have compared" says Marsden," the proportion of weight is as 1 to 9." (Numis. Orient. II, 736). The silver fanams were much less valuable. According to some 8 kaś went to make one fanam, and 42 fanams one pagoda. Later on, 12 fanams were equal to one Arcot Rupee, i. e., 231d. English. (Bidie, p. 27). According to another, 9 kds went to make one fasam, and 15 fanams one pagoda. Still another says, 9 kds were equal to one fanam and 16 fanams to one pagoda (See Factory Records, 1619, p. 263). The Madura Gazr, says that 161 Kali fanams made a pagoda (Star pagoda). The value of a fanam varies, however, in different localities. In Madura it is 3 annas and 4 pies and in the Dindigul division 4 annas." (p. 153) According to Buchanan 10,000 Gopala fanams were equal to £139-13-3. i. e. A fanam-31d, roughly. (Vol. II, p. 9.)
82 Marsden, p. 746.