1865.] Ancient Indian Weights. 25 



and special respect seems to have been shown to a currency called by 

 the local name of Ndndigera. 



In attempting to ascertain the relation of the weights of ancient 

 and modern days, and to follow the changes that time and local custom 

 may have introduced into the static laws of India, the capital point 

 to be determined is the true weight of the rati, as it was understood 

 and accepted when the initiatory metric system was in course of form- 

 ation. Two different elements have hitherto obstructed any satisfac- 

 tory settlement of the intrinsic measure of this primary unit — the one, 

 the irregularity of the weight of the gunja seeds themselves, which 

 vary with localities and other incidental circumstances of growth ;* 

 the other, the importance of which has been rather overlooked, that 

 the modifications in the higher standards, introduced from time to 

 time by despotic authority, were never accompanied by any rise or 

 fall in the nominal total of ratis which went to form the altered 

 integer. From these and other causes the rate of the rati has been 

 variously estimated asf 1"3125 grains, T875 grains, 1*953 grains, and 

 even as high as 2'25 grains. 



We have Manu's authority for the fact that 32 ratis went to the old 

 silver dharana or purdna, and we are instructed by his commentator, 

 in a needlessly complicated sum, that the kdrsha was composed of 80 

 ratis of copper. We have likewise seen that this kdrsha constituted a 

 commercial static measure, its double character as a coin and as a 

 weight being well calculated to ensure its fixity and uniformity in 

 either capacity within the range of its circulation. I shall be able to 

 show that this exact weight retained so distinct a place in the fiscal 

 history of the metropolis of Hindustan, that in the revision and read- 

 justment of the coinage which took place under Muhammad bin 



* Colebrooke, As. Ees. v. 93. 



f Sir W. Jones, " As. Res.," ii. 154, " Rati=\ r 5 ^ of a grain." Prinsep, U. T. 

 (180-^-96) ; Jervis, " Weights of Konkan," p. 40 ; Wilson, " Glossary." sub voce 

 Rati. Col. Anderson, working from Akbar's coins, which were avowedly in- 

 creased upon the old ratios, made the rati l - 94 (Prinsep's " Essays," ii., U. T., 

 p. 22). We need have no further difficulty about Shir Shah's or Akbar's coin 

 weights now that we know the bases upon which they were founded. Indeed, 

 the determination of the true value of the kdrsha enables us to explain many 

 enigmas in the numismatic history of India ; why and whence Muhammed bin 

 Toghlak adopted his new 140 grain standard; why the unequally-alloyed billon 

 coins of Firoz and others were all kept at one determinate weight, &c , &c.; N. C, 

 xv. 136, and notes, pp. 153, 163. 



4 



