Indian Antiquary Vol 61

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

Page 13

JANUARY, 1932 ]
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS
(7) i. 308. At one time the weight of spirits which Jahangir drank in a day was “6 sers of Hindustan, equal to 11 maunds of Iran." The spirit was strong, for it is described as doubly-distilled, and it was taken undiluted. Under this régime the Emperor's health suffered very seriously, and the Court doctor said that "in six months matters will come to such a pass that there will be no remedy for it." Jahangir then reduced his allowance to a comparatively moderate amount.
If these sers are Akbari, the daily ration of strong, undiluted spirit was over 8 lb. ; such spirit would weigh practically a pound the pint, so the ration would be more than a gallon. The doctors whom I have consulted agree that this is utterly impossible, because alcoholic poisoning must have resulted immediately. If the unit is Hindustani, the ration would be a little over two pints, which, I am informed, is within the limits of possibility, though the Court doctor was perhaps sanguine in thinking that his patient could live for as long as six months under such a régime.
(8) ii. 150. In describing the temples in Kashmir, Jahangir gave the weight of some of the building-stones as 30 to 40 maunds (denomination not specified). With the Akbari unit, this would be from 1650 to 2200 lb., or say about a ton. The huge size of the stones in these buildings is notorious, and one of them in the temple of Payech measures 256 cubic feet (Impl. Gazetteer, xv. 98), which would weigh from 15 to 20 tons according to the kind of stone. With the smaller unit, the stones would not be much out of the common, and it may be inferred that Jahangir was here thinking in terms of the Akbari maund.
(9) ii. 163. A cannon ball weighed "10 maunds as current in Hindustan, equal to 80 maunds of Khurasan." This would be either 550 or 150 lb.; on the data given in the preceding section even the smaller figure is impossible, and it looks to me as if the teller of the story reproduced by Jahangir had spoken in terms of the artillery-maund of about 2 lb. (making the ball about 20 lb.); and that Jahangir had carelessly treated it as an Indian unit.
These passages may be classed as follows:No. (4) is quite ambiguous : Nos. (2), (3), (5) and (8) certainly refer to Akbari units, though in two of them the name Hindustani is used : Nos. (7) and (9) certainly do not refer to Akbari units : Nos. (1) and (6) probably do not refer to Akbari units. Of the last four, three can be interpreted in terms of a unit about 15 lb., while the other requires the smaller artillery unit.
The only conclusion I can draw is that, while Jahangir knew of the 'maund of Hind' of about 15 lb., he used the term Hindúståni, not in this specific sense, but loosely in the sense of Indian' as contrasted with foreign,' so that it might denote whatever Indian unit was in fact used,- ordinarily the Akbarî, but the Hindustani certainly in the cellar, and probably in the treasury, and the 2 lb. maund in the artillery. This conclusion is supported by the equivalents given in terms of foreign units.
Jahangir names successively the maunds of Iraq, Wilayat, Iran, and Khurasan. It is not likely that he was practically familiar with various foreign maunds bearing these distinctive names, and I take the truth to be that he knew of & small foreign maund in the countries lying to the west, to which he gave one name or another according to the fancy of the moment; and further that he converted Indian to foreign weight by the use of a single simple formula, which was sometimes, but not always, correct-in fact that he multiplied by 8 and rounded to the nearest foreign maund.
The ratios, foreign to Indian, given by his equations are as follows: Passage (1) Iraq to Hindustan, 32 to 4, or 8:1. , (3) Wilayat to Akbari (i), 21 to 2; ; or allowing for rounding, 8:1.
(ii), 17 to 2,8; or allowing for rounding, 8:1.
(iii), 76 to 9: ; or allowing for rounding, 8:1. , (4) Wilayat to Hindústån (i), 4000 to 500; or 8: 1.
(ii), 3200 to 400 ; or 8:1.