24 Ancient Indian Weights. [No. 1, 



taken advantage of by the ruling powers. For, while the primitive 

 currencies which hear no royal impress, were endued with, and retain to 

 the present, a remarkable uniformity of weight and fineness of metal, as 

 in the very nature of things it was necessary for them to be full measure, 

 that they might exchange against full measure in return ; on the other 

 hand, from the moment true coins, in our modern sense, make their 

 appearance, irregularity accompanies them, so that in the Indian series, 

 in one of the first completely fashioned mintages, that of the silver 

 Behat type, bearing the name of Kunanda* the weights of fully- 

 gtamped well-preserved specimens vaiy from 29 to 38 "2 grains. 



The Ceylon annals casually illustrate the subdivisions of the kdrshd- 

 pana, as they may be inferred to have existed under Manu (viii. 404), 

 in the descending scale as 1, J, 4;, -J-. The Bhikkhus of " Wesali " 

 (Bassalw, north of Patna) asking alms, in 443 B.C., say, " Beloved I 

 bestow on the priesthood either a Jcdhdpan, or half, or a quarter of 

 one, or even the value of a mdsa."f Without insisting upon this last, 

 which would constitute T ^ of the kdrshdpiana, I may notice once again 

 the permanency of Indian institutions, in the fact that Akbar's copper^ 

 coins were retained under the original and simple division of 1, J, 4/, 

 J-, in the presence of, and associated with, the most curious complica- 

 tions of the weights and values of the currency of the precious metals. 



There is little else that will immediately serve our purpose in the 

 notices of Ceylon coins. § Nor do the more promising inscriptions of 

 the Western Caves throw any particular light on the primitive coin- 

 ages of Northern India. They contain numerous records of donations 

 of kdhdpanas, and in one place notice a Kdhdpan Sdla, or Hall for 

 the distribution of kdrshdpanas.\\ Huns^ and Padikas are often cited 



* Prinsep's "Essays," i. p. 203, pi. xi., fig. 16; vol. ii., pi. xliv., figs. 2, 3, 4j 

 " Ariana Antiqua," p. 415, pi. xv., fig. 23. 



f Mahawanso, J. A. S., Bengal, vi. 729. 



X " Ayin-Akbari," i. 36. 



§ Other references to money are to be found, " Mahawanso," pp. xli., 10 j 

 Spence Hardy, " Manual of Buddhism," pp. 119, 218, 219. 



|| " Bombay Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc," 1853 ; Dr. Stevenson's " Kanheri 

 Caves, Inscrip." No. x. p. 9, and the revision by Mr. E. W. West in 1862, p. 1, 

 et seq. See also "Nasik Cave Inscriptions," 1853, p. 3; and " Sahyadri 

 Inscriptions," 1854, p. 1. 



% The mention of Huns thus early is of some value in this inquiry, as showing 

 the age of the name, associated with the near coincidence of its authorised 

 weight with that of the old Purana. Mr. Elliot derives the word from pon, 

 " gold ;" Canarese honna. The Varaha, or modern Pagoda, being merely a 

 double honna of 32 gunjas. 



