262 



On Ancient Indian Weights. 



[No, 3, 



The sixes and sixties of the banks of the Euphrates 33 find no coun- 

 terpart to the southward of the Sewalik range beyond the inevitable 

 ten and the included five. The system, like all else pertaining to it 

 had its own independently devised multiple, fas four. Whether the 

 first suggestion of this favourite number was derived from the four 

 fingers of the hand, four-footed beasts, or the higher flight of the four 

 elements, we need not pause to inquire, but the Indians have at all times 

 displayed an unprecedented faculty for figures, and were from the first 

 able to manipulate complicated arithmetical problems, and especially 

 delighted in fabulous totals ; but with all this they have ever evinced 

 their allegiance to the old 4, which we find in its place of honour 

 in the earliest extant writings and inscriptions. As the nations of the 

 West, to meet their own wants, speedily produced a separate symbol 

 forfve, 34 * and abbreviated the five perpendicular strokes of the Phoeni- 

 cian into < . The Indians, apart from their indigenous Pali signs for 4, 

 simplified the tedious repetition of the four lines the Bactrian writing 

 had brought with it from Mesopotamia into a cross like a Roman 

 X, which was doubled to form eight, while they left the five utterly 

 uncared for, to follow in. a measure the original Phoenician method of 









Authori- 









tative Practical Unit. 





Grains. 



Divisional Scale. 



Unit. Coins. 



Hebrew Gold (double) 



1,320,000 



-r' 100 -f- 100 == 



= 132 gr. 



„ Silver 



660,000 



-i. 3000 -4- = 



220 220 shekel. 



Babylonian (full) ...... 



959,040 



+ 60 -4- 120 = 



133-2 [126-7] 84'5siglos 





or --i- 60 -f- 60 = 



266-4 



„ lesser 



479,520 



-r- 60 ~- 60 = 



133-2 



Persian Gold 



399,600 



840,000 



■4- 3000 == 



133 2 129 Dane. 



Egyptian „ , 



-3- 600 -4- 10 - .= 



140 140 Ke T. 



^Eginetan, a ,.„. 



660,000 



_5_ 60-4- 100 == 



110 110. 



Attic (commercial), ... 



598,800 



-4_ 60 — 100 = 



99.8 



„ (lowered), 



558,900 



-r- 60 -4- 100 = 



93-1 92-3 



„ (Solonian), 



430,260 



[-r- 120 -f- 100 == 



71-7] 67-5 



„ (ditto double), .,, 



860,520 



-4- 60-4- 100 == 



71-7 717 



„ (ditto lowered). 



405,000 



-r- 60-4- 100 = 



67-5 



Eubo'ic, , 



387,000 



[-4- 6000 == 



64-5] 57*0 denarius, 



Hebrew Copper. 250 gr.= I 



125 „ = ± 

 83 '3 j3 = £ 



Egyptian Copper. A. 1400 gr.— 1 Men. 



B. 700 ,, = 5 Ket. 



C. 280 -„ = 2-' : „ 



D. 140 „ = 1 „ 



E. 70 „ = k „ 



33. Sir H. Rawlinson, te Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 53 xv. p. 217. 



34. Gesenius, p. 88 ; M. Pihan, " Signes do Numeration usites chez les Peuples 

 Orientaux," Paris, I860, p. 167. 



