Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 190

162
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1931
meant is that the local maund in question contained 16 standard sers. It cannot be positively asserted that every maund always contained 40 sers of its own denomination ; but it is reasonable to assume this relation when the contrary is not expressly stated, while, if some ather number is given, the context should be examined to see if the case comes under one or other of the two rubrics stated above, ox is susceptible of any other explanation.
For readers of English the most convenient way of giving equivalents of the various maunds is to state them in pounds avoirdupois (lb.) and either a fraction of the lb., or the number of grains (gr. 7,000 to the lb.); ounces and drams are nuisances in this work, while indication of the number of grains is occasionally convenient, as it links up the maund in question to the troy scale as well as the avoirdupois. Other western units which may come before the student stand to the lb. in round figures as follows: kilogram, 2.2 lb.; Holland pound, 1.09 lb. ; Portuguese 'new' arratel, 1.01 lb.; the 'old' arratel (of 14 ounces) was ths of the last figure.
Classification of the numerous maunds would be premature at this stage: it is the end, not the beginning, of the investigation. A few distinctions however can be drawn with advantage at the outset. When I write maund' without qualification, I mean a maund ruling in ordinary commerce, and not known to have been prescribed : 'official maund' means a maund known to have been prescribed by authority : special maund' means a unit, differing from the ordinary maund, used, in dealings in some particular commodity : retail maund' means a unit used by shopkeepers, but not by wholesalers.
In order to reduce the bulk of the footnotes, I shall assume that readers are familiar with the classics of the subject, such as Hobson-Jobson (new edition, London, 1903), Dalgado's Glossario (Coimbra, 1919-21), Prinsep's Useful Tables (issued by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1834), Elliot's History of India (London, 1867-77), the calendars of the India Office records (Letters Received, and English Factories), the Batavia Dagh Register, and the like. Other authorities will be cited in full once only, and thereafter in abbreviated form. All references to Indian texts are to the Bibliotheca Indica issued by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, unless some other text is specified. As the interest of these notes is not primarily linguistic, I have adopted generally the simplified transliteration used in the Imperial Gazetteer of India.
Many scholars have helped me generously with information on particular aspects of this enquiry. I hope all due acknowledgments will be found in the text or notes, but I must here express my gratitude to Dr. L. D. Barnett, to Sir Wolseley Haig, and to Sir Richard Burn, who have answered a large number of enquiries; to Mr. C. H. Rao, who furnished me with a detailed note on the maunds of South India, and to Professor S. H. Hodivala, who has been most generous in criticisms and suggestions.
II. Omeial Maunds, I begin with the official maunds because the facts are clear and can be stated shortly. So far I have found these maunds only in the British and Mogul periods, though there are some grounds for thinking that standardisation began with Sikandar Lodi. The fluctuating Bouthern maund, which will be described in the next section, was standardised early in the British period at 25 lbs. for Madras, and 28 lbs. for Bombay, the latter figure, which was slightly too high, having been chosen as being one quarter of a cwt. More important, however, was the fixation in Bengal of the standard maund of 82 2/7 lb. The story is briefly that in 1833, when the rupee was being fixed at the uniform weight of 180 gr., the Aseay Master at Caloutta urged that this rupee should be taken as the standard tola, so that & ser of 80 tolas would be exactly 21 pounds troy, giving a maund of 100 pounds troy
3 Useful Tables, 61 ff.; Report of the Weights and Measures Committee, 1913-14 (cited below 19 Silberrad, after the name of the Chairman).