1865.] Ancient Indian Weights. 25 
and special respect seems to have been shown to a currency called by 
the local name of Nandigera. 
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 ratz, 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 
fallin 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 ast 1°3125 grains, 1875 grains, 1953 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. Res. v. 93. 
+ Sir W. Jones, “ As. Res,,” ii. 154, “ Rati—1,§ 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- 
ereased upon the old ratios, made the rati 1:94 (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 
Tughlak 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 
