18 Ancient Indian Weights. [No. 1, 



might have been understood ; but the deliberate enumeration of ten 

 horses and ten lumps of gold,* would seemingly enforce the conclusion 

 that those lumps were fixed and determined sections of the metal of 

 habitually recognised value, or precisely such divisional portions of 

 gold as we see in the parallel cases of the silver and copper of which 

 Manu speaks, and whose extant survivors find a place in our medal 

 cabinets. 



In addition to this allusion to what I suppose to have been Suvarnas, 

 the Vedas, on two occasions, distinctly name the Nislika. The first 

 reference to this money-weight is to be found in a hymn by that most 

 mercenary Rishi, Kakshivat,| devoted to no deity, but to the glori- 

 fication of a mundane prince dwelling on the Indus, whose beneficence 

 is eulogised, in an extended play upon the number of his gifts, among 

 which the Rishi confesses to having " unhesitatingly accepted 100 

 Nishleas, 100 vigorous steeds, and 100 bulls ;" evidencing, as in the 

 previous instance, a numerical computation by pieces of recognised 

 value — much in advance of the primitive test of scales and weights. 

 Again, in a subsequent Sukta, G-ritsamada, a Rishi of some celebrity, \ 

 in addressing the divinity Rudra, says, " He shines with brilliant golden 

 ornaments."* * " Worthy thou bearest arrows and a bow; worthy 

 thou wearest an adorable omniform necklace. "§ 



The mediaeval scholiast substitutes the word hdra, a necklace, for 

 the Nislika of the original text,|| an interpretation which is followed 

 by the modern translator. It would seem that one of the derivative 

 meanings of the word Nislika, as in the parallel instance of Dindra^ 



* " Eig Veda Sanhita," 4th Ashtaka, 7th Adhyaya ; " Sukta," xlvii. verse 

 23 — "I have received ten horses, ten purses, clothes, and ample food, and ten 

 lumps of gold, from Divodasa." 



I should prefer the substitation of " cakes or balls" of gold for the " lumps" 

 of the translator. Mr. W. Elliot mentions that " the Canarese gulige (Sanskrit 

 gutika) was the ancient name of a class of small spherical coins." See figs. 3, 

 4, 5, pi. vii., vol. hi., " Madras Journal" (1858). Whence, also, the gold A'dal 

 Gutkah (Gutka) of the " Ayin-Akbari," i. p. 32. 



t Wilson,'" Eig Veda Sanhita," ii. p. 17. See also i. 312, 316, &c. 



+ Wilson, " Eig Veda Sanhita," ii. p. 207. 



§ Wilson, " Eig Veda Sanhita," 2nd ashtaka, 7th adhyaya. Sukta xxxiii. vol. 

 ii. p. 291-2. 



^sHHN^fw TTT^Tfa ^T^fsPSff ^cT f3_WT I ^4%5 ^*jf fV^fl*? *T 

 ^T ^T5Tl*ft ^3^f^T II \° II 



|| Max Midler, " Eig Veda," ii. p. 579. 



•jf Max Muller, " Sanskrit Literature," p. 247, 



