Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 48
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
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152
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPT., 1919
c. 1833. Banjar Massin in Borneo I... Last, grain mee sure 230 ganton 3,066 lbs., 10 or., 10 drs.83... Bantam, Java, Coyang of rice - 200 gantams - 8,681 lbs.85 ... Malacca, Malay, ganton, measure, 6 lbs., 8 OL.... Gantang, measure: - 4 chupahs. Prinsep, Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, pp. 115, 119f.
e. 1833. British India. 4 Kauris make 1 Ganda ; 20 Gandas make 1 Pax; 6 Pans make 1 And. Prinsep, Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, p. 2.
1833. 4 chupahs 1 Gantang, 16 Gantangs 1 Naļih....sooording to Col. Low Note to p. 19, Indo-China, 2nd Series, vol. I.
1834. It bas been stated that Nening produces annually 300 plouls of tin, 16,000 gantams of paddy, and a quantity of cofr rope. Newbold in Moor's Indian Archipelago p. 248.
1844, Dumree is commonly known as a nominal coin equal to 33 or 3f Dams, or between 2 and 3 Gundas. 84 " ...." Like the Dam, the Gunda of account and the Gunda of practice do not coincide ... The Gunda known to the common people is not of stable amount; sometimes four, and sometimes five, and even slx, go to a pucka Dumrec. . .Notwithstanding this variable amount, as a Gunda is equivalent to four Cowrees, to "count by Gundas " signifies to count by fours, or by the quaternary scale, to which the natives are very partial. Elliot, Glossary, quoted by Thomas, Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 93.
1852. Gantang, name of a dry monsure, equal to about # gallon. Crawfurd, Malay Dict., 8.0.
1855. Ganda Gunda, 84 Hind.; Ganda, Beng. To count by Gandas is to count by fours. Wilson, Glossary, 8.0.
1869. Ganda.84 This word is given under Gandal in the Printed Glossary. Beamos, Memoirs of the N. W. P., which is an ed. of Elliot's Glossary, vol. II, p. 315.
1870. Nalih, a measure of 16 gantangs, is probably the Tamil nali, a oorn measure of 8 marcals. Niemann, (Bloemlezing Maleische geschriften, p. 58 in Indo-China, 2nd Ser., vol. II, p. 1780.
1883. Measures of capacity. Pau, 1 Chupak: 4 Chupak, 1 Gantang : 10 Gantang, 1 Para. Singapore Directory, 1883. So also Swettenham, Malay Vocabulary, 1881, vol. I. Appendix on Ourrency, etc. and Maxwell, Malay Manual, 1882, p. 141.
1886. The bazár ser is named as containing so many ganda,84 a ganda consisting of four tola, or sometimes four pice, and being a constant quantity. Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, p. 430.
In Tremenheere's Report of a Visit to the Palchan River, and of some tin localities in the Southern Portion of the Tenasgerim Provinces, in 1848,85 we find that at Ranaung the collectors of tin ore were "paid a nominal price of two (Spanish) dollars for 18 viss of (tin) ore, but as the payment is made by small ingots of tin, the only currenoy in use, the actual value received by workmen, according to the present selling price of the metal, is Rs. 8 per 100 viss of ore, the same quantity being at Mergui worth Rs. 40."
The following quotation, important in this connection, shows how tin was procured and purchased by the old East Indian merchants. Stevens, Guide to Kast India Trade, 1775, p. 113, says :-"Tin is to be bought at New Queda, in the Straits of Malacca by a Bahar,
Therefore a ganton is 17 lbs. odd. 86 Therefore this ganion is 43 lbs. odd.
M I have given these quotations from India, bat ganda, a bundle of four, is not necesarily the same word as the Malay panta, a measure or even bundle.
15 In JASB., vol. XII, pp. 523-534, and Indo-China, lot Series, vol. I, p. 282.
