Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 191

SEPTEMBER, 1931)
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS
163
(or 82 2/7 lb). The proposal was accepted, the tola of 180 gr. was recognised in Regulation VI) of 1833, and the equivalent maund was adopted for Government transactions, as well as by Calcutta merchants; but its general vogue really dates from 1854, when its use was prescribed on the railway system.
In 1833 the local unit known as the bazaar maund contained just about 82 lb., so that this action was doubtless convenient for Calcutta and the immediate neighbourhood ; but all the same, it must, I think, be regarded as a tragedy. In the fluid conditions which prevailed a century ago, it would have been equally easy to link the Indian unit directly to either of the two great systems, in one or other of which India's foreign trade is carried on: in fact it was linked to a system already obsolescent, and of interest to nobody outside a mint. As a matter of fact, the standard ser worked out almost to a kilogram, the lifference between the two being lesa than 7 per cent, and proposals have occasionally been made to eliminate this difference.
The Mogul official maunds were, like the British standard maund, based on the weight of a coin, but it was the copper dám, not the silver rupee. In the literature the dam is sometimes called paisd, but the latter word is quite indeterminate, being applied to whatever copper coin was ordicarily used in any locality. Edward Thomas calculated the weight of the dám as 323.5 gr., and this figure fits in very closely with the approximate equivalents of the various maunds used in the Dutch and English commercial records, and shewn in the table given further on.
In interpreting these coin-weights, it has been usual to take them at somewhat less than the mint-weight, on the assumption that the coins used in weighing would be somewhat worn. This assumption seems to me to be open to criticism. Where the sellers provided the weights, as in the case of retail shopkeepers, it is safe to assume that some of them, if not all. used the lightest coins available. We know (Ziya Barni, 318) that giving short weight waa common in Delhi under Alauddin Khalji, and it is by no means unknown in India at the present day; the practice may reasonably be regarded as continuous. On the other hand, if it was, as it still is, usual for the buyers to provide the weights in what was formerly the most important class of transactions, the purchase of goods from peasants and artisans, it is reasonable to assume that the coins used were as nearly new as possible, if indeed their weight was not fraudulently increased. Francisco Pelsaerts described the 5-ser weight used in buying indigo at Bayâna in Jahangir's reign as consisting of 152 paisá i.e., dám) sewn in a bag of doubled cloth. In his time the Akbari maund (30 dám to the ser as explained below) was used as a special maund in this trade ; 150 dám therefore made 5 sers, and hence there was a formal allowance in favour of buyers of 2 dâm plus the weight of the bag. It is safe to assume that the coins were new when placed in the bag by the buyers, to whose commercial astuteness Pelsaert renders due homage, and that they were packed so as to minimise friction while in use ; whether anything else was put surreptitiously into the bag is matter for conjec. ture. It seems to me to be best to take the new coin as the basis for calculation, and to allow for the fact that in any particular transaction the precise figure probably depended on the interests of the party who chose the coins. Taking the dåm as 323 5 gr., the Mogul official maunds were as follows:
No. of dam in Calculated wt. Commercial Date of one ser of maund. equivalent. introduction.
16. gr. Akbari
30 55.3200
Before 1595. Jahangiri
36 66.3840
66 1620. Shahjahani
73.6600
74 1634, or a little earlier, Do.
36.6800
37 1635-6 ; Gujarat only. Edward Thomas, The Chronicles of the i'athan Kings of Delhi. London, 1871 (quoted below as тотая).
5 Jahangir's India, tr. W. H. Moreland and P. Geyl, Cambridge, 1925, p. 16 quoted below as Pelaagri).
ib.
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