88 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |N.S., XIII, 



So far then, it appears that the passage quoted at the 

 head of this paper is not, as has been hitherto supposed, the 

 only reference to the Muradi tanka in Indian Historical Litera- 

 ture, and that a copper coin or tanka of which the value was 

 equal to the double dam is referred to at least six times by 

 Badaoni and Nizamu-d-din. But it is not only in these two 

 historians that this tanka finds mention. I have traced an 

 explicit allusion to it in the Mirat-i-Sikandari , a history of the 

 Gujarat Sultans finished about 1611 a.c. — about six years only 

 after Akbar's death — by Sikandar bin Manjhu, who appears to 

 have himself entered the Imperial service, after the conquest 

 of the province by Akbar's arms. This writer appears to have 

 been perfectly familiar with this denomination of currency, for 

 in the course of his account of an invasion of the territories of 

 the Rana Kombha of Chitor by Qutbu-d-din Ahmad Shah II, 

 of Gujarat, in 861 a.h., he remarks : " It is said that the battle 

 lasted for five days, and that a cup of water was sold for five 

 phadiyahs, equivalent in that neighbourhood to twelve Muradi 

 tonkas" (Bayley, History of Gujarat, p. 151. See also F.izal 

 Lutfullah's Translation, p. 35). 



It is evident that the Phadiyah had become obsolete in the 

 writer's day, and so, to bring home to his readers the extraordi- 

 nary scarcity of water in that arid region, he has taken care to 

 give the equivalent of the Phadiyah in a denomination of 

 money familiar to his contemporaries. Unfortunately, the ex- 

 planation conveys to us but little illumination, and a cloud now 

 hangs over the Muradi tanka which is, if possible, thicker and 

 darker than that which surrounds the Phadiyah or Fedea. of 

 which Yule and Burnell say : 



Fedea, Fuddea. A denomination of money formerly cur- 

 rent in Bombay and the adjoining coast; Mahr[attl], p' had yah 

 (qu. Ar. Fidya, ransom?). It constantly occurs in the account 

 statements of the 16th century, e.g. of Nunez, (1554) as a money 

 of account of which 4 went to the silver tanga, [see TANG A], 

 20 to the Pardao. * * * Prof. Robertson Smith suggests that 

 this may be the Ar[abicj denomination of a small coin used in 

 Egypt, fadda (i e. ' silverling '). * * * But, according to Lane, 



was 



the fifteenth century, and these would be worth about 5$d. 



fedea 



This rather indicates the 



identity of the names. " (Hobson-Jobson,ed. Crooke, s.v. Fedea) 



Now, taking Nunez's value for the Phadiyah, or rather, 

 Yule's estimate of it, and regarding the rupee of Akbar (of full 



mand at • three pounds and a noble." i e. £3 (k. 8d. (Travels, p. 232)- 

 According to Kelly s Universal Cambist, it represented a value of onb 



7 «7 "V-S v '?" ai \ T? fc the P re 3ent day it is said to be worth only 

 7».6d. Vide Yule and Bmnell, Hobson Jobson. ..». Toman and Ball 1 

 Tavernier T. 415, from which this note is compiled. 





