1916.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXVII. 139 



parts and languages of this country in regard to the nomen- 

 clature of weights and measures. One has only to glance at a 

 book like Prinsep's < Useful Tables > to stand bewildered at the 

 various equivalents of the seer and the maund, the gaz and the 

 Bingha. The Tank or Tank also has several significations 

 assigned to it in the Dictionaries. " Tanka, Sanscrit **," 

 says H. H. Wilson, "is a weight of silver equal to four mashas ; 

 among the Marathas, the Tank or Tank (^ 3 fa ) i s variously 

 rated at four or nine mashas, or as the same with a tola, or the 

 seventy-second part of a pucca seer; a coin, a stamped coin in 

 general, whence it came to be applied, sometimes slightly 

 modified, to specified coins in different metals. (Glossary of 

 Judicial and Revenue Terms, s. v.). Two of the many mean- 



ings which &$ Tank bears in Sanscrit are given by Moniei 

 Williams as (1) "a weight of silver equal to four mashas, or 

 twenty-four Raktikas^ and (2) a stamped coin." (Sanscrit- 

 English Dictionary, s. v.). The author of a Gujarati-English 



Dictionary says <Jl!f, Tank, is (1) the seventy-second part of a 



sher and also a standard of weight used in weighing pearls. 

 ( Belsare, Gujarati-English Dictionary, s. v.). Now it certainly 

 does not make for lucidity or clarity to be told that a Tank 

 or Tank is equal to four mashas, and also to nine mashas, and 

 also to a tola, and also to the seventy-second part of a pucca 

 seer, but all this confusion notwithstanding, it is still possible 

 to state with confidence what Akbar or Akbar's mint masters 

 of Agra, Allahabad, Lahor and Kabul understood by the 

 'Tanki\ which they inscribed in his coppers. In other words, 

 I submit that there can be no difficulty in saying which of these 

 different equivalents of the Tank was adopted by them as the 

 standard. Just as, in spite of all the local variations of the seer 

 and the maund, the Gaz and the Bingha which are recorded in 

 the Ain-i- Akbari and elsewhere, it has been possible to deter- 

 mine with such certainty, as to leave, at the worst, a very 

 small margin of error, the weight of the Akbari ser, and the 

 length of the Akbari gaz (Thomas' Prinsep, II, pp. 88. Elliot, 

 Glossary, Ed. Beams, II, pp. 177-8. Thomas, Chronicles, ed. 

 1871, pp. 429-430). So it is possible to declare, that whatever 

 the variations of the Tank among the Marathas or the Gujaratis, 

 the Tank or Tanki of Akbar was about 63 grains. 



For this we are indebted to an equation in the Ain-i- Akbari, 

 to which I invite the attention of Numismatists. ■ ■ The Dam," 

 he says. " weighs 5 tanks, i.e., 1 tolah, 8 mashas and 7 surkhs. 

 It is the fortieth part of a rupee." (Blochmann, Ain. I. 31.) 

 Now 12 mashas make a tola, and 8 surkhs or ratis make a 

 masha. (Ain. ib. 16 note ) A Dam of Akbar's was therefore 



i 



X * 5 



= \% 7 = 4/ () mashas, = 4 mashas and If surkhs = 60 + 3£grs« 

 at 15 grains to the masha. 



