1917.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXVI II. 91 



ces to this Tankd-i-Muradi , which occur in later, but by no 

 means contemptible, authorities. One of them occurs in the 

 Mirat-i-Ahmadi, the other in the Ma,asir-ul-Umard. The first 

 shows that the phrase Muradi Tankd was used in official docu- 

 ments and supposed to require no explanation so late at least 

 as the time of Aurangzeb, while the second proves that the 

 author of the Ma.asir was not unacquainted with the equation 

 of which we have already had so many illustrations. 



1 (Muradi) Tankah — ^ of an Akbari rupee, i.e. 2 dams. 



Let me first quote the Mirat-i-Ahmadi : — 



,J* a? [ ±2* ] {£*> aiilj <*J£|<X> ^ii *ijj &> ^a^L** jl ^4-a. ^Uiy y 





* *Lib a^/o JlJ| cu^j *>])£. jl ^f&lj* ASjJ ij ^ ^U. ^ 



Z 



Mir at 



p. 322. 11. 5-8. 



" And in the year one thousand and ninety-four [a.h.], it was 

 ordered, in accordance with the request submitted [respectfully 



made] by the Administrator ( <*£li ) of the Subah (or Province 



of Gujarat), on behalf of those prisoners and deceased persons, 

 who belonged to the Musalman community and had no well-to- 

 lo relatives (lit. heirs) , that every such prisoner [kept] in the 

 k'uard-house of the Kotwal should have, per head, one seer of 

 wheat flour, and every individual defunct should have two sheets 

 (or shrouds) and five Muradi tankas given [for burial expenses] 

 from the Public Treasury." 



This author, it will be seen, clearly mentions the Muradi 

 tanka. We may think it unfortunate that he has not cared 

 to explain what a Muradi tankd was equal to in his day, but 

 the omission is probably due to the fact that the phrase was so 

 well understood when he wrote, as to require no gloss or com- 

 mentary. It is clear, however, from the passage I have quoted 

 in the Note on the '• Weight of Aurangzeb's Dams,' from an- 

 other part of his work (Part I, p. 282, 11. 10-11), that the 

 Tankd was valued in Gujrat at two Falus, i.e. Dams, before 



1077 a.h. 



My second quotation is from the Ma 9 dsir-ul-Umara. a very 

 valuable Biographical Dictionary of the celebrated persons who 

 flourished in this country under the House of Timur. In the 

 Life of Qasim Khan, Mir-i-Bahr, under whose supervision the 

 great Fort of Agra was completed in 972 a h. (1564-5 a.c.), the 



writer says: 



