Indian Antiquary Vol 61

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

Page 31

FEBRUARY, 1932)
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS
23
To the east of the settling tanks the earth had been excavated to the depth of about twenty feet. At ground level the foundations of a demolished European bungalow could be seen; beneath which was a quantity of pottery fragments. The most important of these represents a seated figure, probably Siva, in which case the missing right leg must have been pendant. The head had been broken off, but was found a few feet away from the torso. The fabric is of medium texture and yellow-red in colour. The figure has been moulded, and may be classed as Pallava, and dated about the eighth century A.D. It has since been acquired by the India Museum, South Kensington, and is now exhibited there. Very few Pallava terracottas of fine workmanship are known to exist ; this figure therefore is of the greatest importance as a standard of comparison with the copper and bronze castings.
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS. By W. H. MORELAND, C.S.I., C.I.E.
(Continued from page 8.)
VII. Bengal and Bihar Maunds. I have failed to obtain any early data for the country between Agra and Bengal. The records of the English factory which was established at Patna in 1620 (English Factories, i, 191-283) show that silk was dealt in there by the ser of 341 pice, which is contrasted with the ser of 30 pice (i.e., the Akbari) prevailing at Agra. This would give a maund of just under 64 lb., almost identical with the Bengal unit mentioned below; and it will be remembered that the silk came from Bengal, so that this may be the Bengal unit, used in Patna as a special maund for silk. In two places (pp. 205, 213) the figure is given as 331 ; this may be & slip, or it may indicate a trade-allowance of one pioe in the ser compare the allowance of two pice in five sers mentioned by Pelsaert in the indigo-market of Bayana). At the same time and place lignum aloes was sold by the ser of 33 pice (pp. 200, 258); this would give a maund of just 61 lb. The Jahangiri was, however, already known in the market, for (p. 199) cartage was arranged in terms of it, and later records indicate that, so far as wholesale commerce was concerned, the local units gave way to the official maunds. Thus Peter Mundy 20 found that the ser was 37 pice, which must, I think, be the Jahangiri of 36 pice with an allow. ance of one pice ; while the Dutch records of somewhat later date use the Shahjahânî.
The earliest information I have found regarding Bengal is in Nunez' Book of Weights. In the Porto Grande, that is to say, Chittagong and the Meghna estuary, the maund, af 40 sers, there given works out at just under 461 lb. A maund of approximately this size (42 Holland pounds, or nearly 46 lb.) was the unit regularly employed in the next oentury in the Dutch factory at Arakan, which traded principally at Chittagong, and this unit may be accepted for the Meghna.
For the Porto Piqueno, that is Satgdon and the Hagli estuary, Nunez gives a figure which works out to 64.6 lb. We meet & maund of approximately this size at Balasore in 1642 (English Factories, vii, 72), when the freight on cloth was charged per maund of 64 lb.; on the same occasion, freight on sugar was charged per maund of 128 lb., obviously a double unit. Thus a maund of about 64 lb. is established for the Hagli estuary in the sixteenth, and up to the middle of the seventeenth century. A little later we find the Shahjahani in use in this region (e.g., Dagh Register, 24th Feby. 1682).
A change, of which I have failed to trace a record, ooourred subsequently. At the end of the eighteenth century, two units were current in Caloutta, the factory,' and the 'bazaar.' According to Useful Tables (i, 69), the bazaar maund was based on the Murshidabad rapoe of
* A description of this figure will be published separately.
10 Travels of Peter Mundy (Hakluyt Society), ii, 156 ; there is an error of calculation in the footnote which makes the maund equal to 50 lb. Writing of the year 1671, John Marshall (ed. Sbafeat Ahmad Khan, Oxford, 1927) recorded & Patna maund of 80 lb., which I have not met elsewhere.