Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 192

164
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( SEPTEMBER, 1931
The commercial equivalents in this table are taken from numerous foreign business records, particularly those of the Dutch, who were very punctilious in putting such matters on paper. It will be noted that merchants usually took the nearest whole number, neglecting fractions ; but occasionally they used simple fractions, as when the Gujarat Shahjahani was taken 88 36 2/3 lb. (English Factories, si, 110).
I have not found in the chronicles any formal record to the effect that Akbar prescribed the unit which bears his name. The Ain-i Akbari (ü, 60) says merely : "from the beginning of the present reign it (the ser) was 28 dam, and today it is 30." This passage will be discussed in a later section; it is quoted here merely as showing that the 30-dám ser was introduced in the course of Akbar's reign. The inference that it was officially prescribed is practically certain, but the fact is not formally proved. The corresponding maund was in general use over a wide area when Dutch and English merchants first came to India, and it survived as a special maund used for certain commodities after it had been superseded in general use by the Jahangiri. The most noteworthy survival was in the Bayana market, where indigo continued to be sold by the Akbari maund until late in the seventeenth century.
In the year 1619 Jahangir was told by a Hindu ascetic that according to the scriptures the ser ought to weigh 36 dám : I do not know the ascetic's authority for this statement, but Jahangir accepted it, and the Jahangiri maund dates from 1620 as a general institution, though possibly it had been introduced somewhat earlier for particular purposes.
The introduction of the Shahjahani maund has not been traced in the chronicles, but it was in use in Agra in 1634 (Dagh Register, 22nd October), and later commercial reeords show that its introduction was effective throughout the empire, except in the markets of Gujarat. At the time of its introduction Gujarat was employing a ser of 18 ddm, giving a maund of just over 33 lb.; but Shahjahan ordered the local ser to be raised to 20 dám. This was done in Ahmadabad about the end of 1634, and in Surat in February, 1636, so that, to quote William Methwold,"now the maen of this place [Surat] is just the halfe of a maen Jehann [Shahjahân), which consisteth of 40 seares, and every seare 40 pice weight." (English Factories, v, 156.)
I have not traced any definite origin of the Gujarat maund of 33 lb, which has just been mentioned. The fact that the corresponding ser was reckoned in dâm might suggest that it was prescribed by Akbar; but it is more probable that the unit was much older, and that the ser was found to weigh just about 18 dám when that cain became current in the course of the sixteenth century. As will be shown in a later section, the range of this unit was extensive, reaching as far north as the neighbourhood of the Jumna. This maund is familiar in commercial records from the time of William Finch, who, however, took it as 321 lb. (Letters Received, i, 34.) Finch noted that a smaller maund of 27 lb. was also known in Surat, but its use there was exceptional; this smaller maund brings us definitely away from the region of official prescription, and is discussed in the next section.
A word of caution may be added on the risk of using any of these official maunds to interpret figures of a date earlier than that of their known introduction. The caution may seem superfluous, but I have seen & promising bit of research-work ruined by interpreting eighteenth-century figures in terms of the British standard maund, and it is well that students should always bear such risks in mind.
(To be continued.)
Memoirs of Jahangir, tr. A. Rogers, ed. H. Beveridge, London, 1909-1914; ii, 108 ; also the Persian text, ed. S. Ahmad, Aligarh, 1864.