260 



On Ancient Indian Weights. 



[No. 3, 



available and comparatively equable product of nature ; in the form 

 of seeds of cultivated or other indigenous plants; and in the Indian 

 instance we find, after some definitions of inappreciable lower quanti- 

 ties, the scale commencing with a minute poppy seed, passing on to 

 the several varieties of black and white mustard seed, barley-corns 

 and centering in that peculiarly Indian product, the Bati, or seed of 

 the wild Ghinja creeper, Ahrus precatorius [Sanskrit, Krishnala or 

 Maktika], which forms the basis of all local weights, and whose repre- 

 sentatives of modern growth still retain their position as adjuncts to 

 every goldsmith's and money-changer's scales. Next to the rati in 

 ascending order comes the MdsJia, which in its universal acceptance 

 has almost achieved the title to be considered as a second unit or 

 ponderable standard, and, as such, its name now primarily signifies 

 " an elementary weight ;" 26 but on reverting to its earlier equivalent 

 meanings it would seem that the term, in its original static sense, like 

 the whole of the weights hitherto quoted, referred to another of 

 Nature's gifts, the seed of the Indian-bean (Phaseolus radiatus, 

 ^^Aifc^U), 27 which, like the rati, claims especially an Indian habitat 

 as an extensively cultivated plant ; and, to complete their associate 

 identities, the bean as at present raised would seem to correspond with 

 the weight assigned to it nearly 3,000 years ago, and to average about 

 the amount of five ratis. The next advance upon the masha is, in the 

 gold table, a suvarna, a word meaning gold itself, and which probably 

 implies in this case the particular divisional quantity of that metal 

 which in earlier times constituted the conventional piece or lump 

 current in commerce. While the silver increment on the masha is 

 designated by the optional title of purdna, or old, which may be 

 supposed to allude to the, even then, recognition of this measure of 

 value as emanating from high antiquity ; and it is precisely the re- 

 quired amount in corresponding ratis of silver incorporated in the 

 earliest extant prototype of coins I am now about to exhibit. 28 The 



26. Wilson's " Glossary of Indian Terms," " Masha.. .. an elementary weight 

 in the system of goldsmiths' and jewellers' weights throughout India, and the 

 basis of the weight of the current silver coin." 



27. Wilson's " Sanskrit Dictionary," Calcutta, 1832, sub voce, cc Masha." 



28. J. A. S. B. iv. Plate xxxv. figs. 25—29. Prinsep's Essays, PI. xx. figs. 25—29 

 and vol. i. pp. 53, 209, 211. Madras Journal of Lit. and Science, 1858, p. 220. 

 Mr. W. Elliot. These pieces of metal, or " punch coins" as Prinsep named them, 

 average about 52 grains. I have met with one as high as 54 gr. and Mr. W. Elliot 

 gives one at 51*2 gr. Supposing an original Mint issue at 55 grains, the authorized 



