24 



NATURE 



\May 13, 1875 



devoted to the advancement of science, and pursuing it 

 with energy and discretion, is an example of which we 

 cannot have too many ; and the history of Murchison 

 shows how much valuable material may yet be lying 

 dormant in some who have as yet shown no devotion to 

 anything but pleasure and sport. 



MARSDEN'S NUMISMATA ORIENTALTA 

 Marsden^s Numismata Orientalia. A New Edition, 

 Part I. "Ancient Indian Weights." By Edward 

 Thomas, F.R.S. (London : Trubner and Co., 1874.) 



THIS is the first part of a new edition of 

 " Marsden's Numismata Orientalia," on an en- 

 larged scale, and is the reproduction of an essay 

 published some years ago. As it treats of the earliest 

 information that has come down to us of the system 

 of monetary weights in use amongst ancient Eastern 

 nations, it is considered as an appropriate introduction 

 to subsequent numbers, upon the coins of various Eastern 

 countries, to be contributed by other authors. 



Mr. Thomas's essay is a work of considerable interest, 

 not only as regards the information contained in it re- 

 lating to ancient Indian weights and coins, but also for 

 its philological and ethnological information. The 

 earliest and most important authority cited is from the 

 Sanscrit text of the original code of Hindu law by Manu, 

 the exact date of which is undetermined. Although por- 

 tions of it are assigned by some authorities between the 

 twelfth and thirteenth centuries B.C., yet the body of the 

 compilation is more generally referred to a period about 

 400 B.C. 



The Indian weights mentioned in the Code of 

 Manu were those of Central India, south of the Hima- 

 layas, and comprised between the rivers Indus and 

 Ganges. They were in use after the occupation of this 

 country by the Aryans, whose invasion from the north- 

 west is referred to a period as early as 1600 B.C. Mr. 

 Thomas, however, claims a still earlier origin for this 

 system of ancient Indian weights, and that they were 

 already in use before the Vedic Aryans entered India. 

 The old system appears to have been based on the weight 

 of native seeds. The principal unit was the Rati, the 

 seed of the wild liquorice plant. A second unit or stan- 

 dard of weight is stated to have been the Mdsha, a small 

 wild bean, which is also mentioned in the Code of Manu 

 as a food grain. The following tables of monetary weight 

 are taken from the ancient record, and include the smaller 

 seed-grain weights, which, in the original Sanscrit text, 

 are made to originate and lead up to the larger weights in 

 metal, together with the smaller sub-divisions of the seed- 

 grain unit. Their equivalent weight in Troy grains is 

 given by Mr. Thomas as computed from the mean of 

 experimental weighings of the several seeds, and as con- 

 firmed from the ascertained weights of less ancient 

 Indian coins. 



Table 1.- -Minor sub-divisions of the Unit, the Rati. 



Troy grain. 



/Ta/'/ (seed of wild liquorice) = i'7S 



Yava (barley corn husked) =^ \ Rati = 05833 



G«ji'rrt-^ar^^r/«( white mustard seed) = i Java =: ^ Rati = 00972 

 Raja-sarsJiapa (black mustard seed) = \ Gaura = -5^ Rati = 00324 

 Likhya (small poppy seed) . . . = | Raja = y.V, Rati = o'oioS 

 /"rowtfr-??*?* (mote of sunbeam) . . = I^Likhya = yjVs Rati = 0-00135 



Table W.— Multiples of the Unit, the Rati. 

 Silver. Troy grain . 



Rati. = I 75 



il/rts/2a,i'rt (small wild bean) . = 2 Rati = 3.5 



Dharana Purana .... =16 Mashaka= 32 Rati = 56'o 



Salamana = to Dharana = 320 Rati = 5600 



Gold. 



Masha = 5 Rati = 8-75 



Suvarna = i6 Masha = 80 Rati = 140 o 



Pala, or Nishka =4 Suvarna = 320 Rati = 56o'o 



Dharana. = to Pala = 3200 Rati = 5B00 o 



Copper. 



Karshapara = 80 Rati = i4o'o 



The fanciful introduction of the" "[very small mote 

 which may be discerned in a sunbeam passing through a 

 lattice " throws doubt on the practical use of this table ; 

 but there appears abundant evidence of the continued use 

 of seed-grain weights in India from a very early period. 



The earliest record of Indian measures of capacity, 

 which are only incidentally mentioned in Manu, are 

 quoted from a Sanscrit work for which very high antiquity 

 is claimed. It gives the measures of (^hi, or clarified 

 butter, in equivalent weights of the masha and other 

 multiples of the rati. 



As to Indian measures of length, though permanently 

 based upon natural units, as the digit, span, and cubit, 

 yet the same seed principle is applied in Manu to the 

 small sub-divisions of the digit. Thus, taking the cubit 

 as the unit, the sub-divisions are stated to have been as 

 follows : — 



Hosta (cubit). 



Vitasti (span) '= \ Hosta 



Ani;ula{iX\%\X) =t'i Vitasti 



Yava {very small barley com) ^= i Angula 



yuka . . , = i Yava 



Liksha (poppy seed) = | Yuka 



Bala^ra (hair's point) =^ J Liksha 



Renti = \ Balagra 



Transriarenu (mote of sunbeam) = j Renu 



The Hosta, or cubit, was thus \ equal to twenty-four 

 digits, or six palms. Mr. Thomas does not assign any 

 particular length to the cubit of Manu, but inferentially 

 defines its length from the determined length of the 

 Sikendari gaz, or yard, at the end of the fifteenth century, 

 which is rather more than thirty imperial inches. This 

 gaz is stated to have been equal to 41*5 digits, and the 

 digit is computed as being equal to 072976 inches. This 

 would make the ancient Indian cubit equal to above 

 I7"5 inches. 



Mr. Thomas considers that the system of Indian weights 

 here described was indigenous, and he differs from Don 

 V. Queipo, who traces the derivation of the Indian 

 system of weights to primary Egyptian sources. He 

 prefers the " wise reserve of Boeckh," who expresses him- 

 self in the following terms : — 



" In cases where the weights of measures of different 

 nations are found to be in a precise and definite ratio one 

 to the other — either exactly equal, or exact multiples and 

 parts of each other — we may fairly presume, either that 

 the one has borrowed from each other, or that each has 

 borrowed from some common source. When the ratio is 

 inaccurate or simply approximative, it is to be treated as 

 accidental and undesigned." 



The more recent discovery, since the publication of 

 Don V. Queipo's work, of the unit of ancient Egyptian 

 weight, the Kat = 140 grains, equivalent in weight to the 

 Indian copper unit, the Karshapara, to the gold Suvarna, 

 and to one-fourth of the silver buvarna, tends to confirm 

 Don V. Queipo's hypothesis of the identity of the prac- 

 tical units of Egyptian and Indian weights. The Indian 



