Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 93

APRIL, 1931)
BOOK-NOTICE
On Plate II of Notes on Currency and Coinage (1.A., LVII, 44) above mentioned a series of majízis is shown in figs. 17, 18 and 19. Fig. 17 is a dried tamarind seed : fig. 18 is its imi. tation in gold with little dotted circles in the centre of each face to represent the pit marks of a similar kind often seen on fresh tamarind seeds, and fig. 19 is the conventional silver majízí in which the dotted ring has taken on a fixed form with that of the represented seed itself. It was in this form that silver majízís were usually met with in Mandalay.
So far the discussion has related to the Burmese form of the majizi, but those of the Shans were quite different in shape and construction. They were called tanthông (th as in the, this) and were in silver, being used as customary gifts, like the chúlón or Shân silver shells, and were still nearer to true coin than the conventional Burmese majízí, as they were conventionally stamped to show fineness : see fig. 20, Plate II, above mentioned. This particular form of majízí had become rare in Burma in 1890. It is shown in figs. 2 and 3 of the plate attached.
Regarding such majizi Mr. H. S. Guinness, in a letter to me from the Shan State of Wuntho in 1894, wrote: "Sometime ago I weighed 18 silver magyizi, which I bought in Mandalay. The bazaar weight thereof varied between 59 to 66 grains per magyízí: the average for the 18 being 61.92 grains. This made me think that magyizes were meant to run three to a told or four to a tickal. If the former the weight of a magyízí should be 60 grains : if the latter, 64 grains."
The Shân majizi may thus be really a quarter tickal, the well-known Siamese (Shan) standard weight or coin-perhaps rather currency. It is shown on Plate II of Currency and Coinage. fig. 21 (1.A., LVII, 44), from which its remarkable resemblance to the Shân majizi in its several forms becomes apparent. Crawfurd (Siam, 331) describes the tickal and its parts as nothing more than bits of silver bar bent and the ends beaten together, im. pressed with two or three small stamps. This is the principle of the construction of the larin or hook-money, very different in appearance : see Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ed., vol. I, pp. 232 ff. For Siamese tickals, see Bowring, Siam, I, 257 ff.
An elaborate enquiry was made into the origin and age of the tickal in Currency and Coinage among the Burmese (1.A., vols. XXVI ani XXVII), in which it was shown that it is a direct descendant-general value 1 rupee-of che ancient Indian taká, just as the corresponding: Burmese dingánow equated to the rupee-oame from farka, the nasalized form of taka. The final l in tickal arose out of Portuguese "influence" as in many other Oriental words. A large number of quotations from 1554 to 1893 are given in 1.A., vol. XXVI, pp. 255 ff., showing the history of the word.
BOOK-NOTICE. CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM. Vol. II, Part 1. outcomo of his regearches is now published in a
KHAROBTH INSCRIPTIONS, with the exception of magnificent volume of considerably more than those of Asoka. Edited by STEN KONow. Go- 300 pages, to which are added a very good map vernment of India, Central Publication Branch, and 36 plates of splendid exterior, though sometimes Calcutta, 1929.
losa clear than could perhaps be wished. Professor Professor Konow, in his short preface, tells us Konow is to be sincerely congratulated upon that originally the joint editorship of vol. II of the having happily concluded his painstaking and Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum was to have been troublesome task. entrusted to Professors Rapson and Läders, of whom An undertaking like this cannot under any one was to edit the Kharopthi, and the other the circumstances be called a happy and promising ono; Brahmi inscriptions. However, Professor Rapsonit is rather one that is partly beset with utter hope. was prevented from undertaking this laborious tasklessness. When one studies the pages of this by his editorship of the Cambridge History of India magnificent book and finds, time after another, and by the arduous publication, together with M h ow great authorities differ so widely in the deci. l'abbé Boyer and the late M. Senart, of the phermont of a number of these inscriptions that Kharoethi documente from Niya. Thus the task scarcely one word of their various interpretatione of editing the Kharosthi part of vol. II fell during is identical, one feels like sinking in the Slough of the latter part of 1922 to Professor Konow. The Despond with no friendly Holp to lift one out, Time