1867.] The Initial Coinage of Bengal. 15 



though exceptional cases are mentioned in localities within the reach of 

 Indian traders, where the ratios of six to one and five to one severally 

 obtained. 



Ibn Batutah, in the middle of the fourteenth century, when 

 he was, so to say, resident and domesticated in India, reports the 

 relative values of the metals as eight to one.* 



brought from India." — Chap. xl. ; also Pinkerton (London, 1811), vol. vii., 143. 



The Province of Kahdandan. "The currency of this country is gold by 

 weight, and also the porcelain shells. An ounce of gold is exchanged for five 

 ounces of silver, and a saggio of gold for five saggi of silver ; there being no 

 silver mines in this country, but much gold ; aud consequently the merchants 

 who import silver obtain a large profit." Chap. xli. 



The Kingdom of Mien (Ava). '"You then reach a spacious plain [at the 

 foot of the Yunnan range], whereon, three days in every week, a number of 

 people assemble, many of whom come down from the neighbouring mountains, 

 bringing their gold to be exchanged for silver, which the merchants who repair 

 thither from distant countries carry with them for this purpose; and one 

 saggio of gold is given for five of silver." Chap, xliii. Travels of Marco Polo, 

 by W. Marsden, London, 1818 ; and Bohn's Edition, 1854. 



iv. 10, t\y* lj&\ ^A jiaJfc pW*)Z> J f*\)Z> ty^Jj* ^AJI J^^l 

 " J'ai vu vendre le riz, dans les marches de ce pays [Bengale], sur le pied de 

 vingt-cinq rithl do Dihly pour un dinar d' argent : celui-ci vaut huit drachmes, 

 et leur drachme equivaut absolument a la drachme d' argent. " (iv. 210.) 



The difficulty of arriving at any thoroughly satisfactory interpretation of 

 theoebscure Arabic text, as it now stands, may be frankly admitted, nor do I 

 seek to alter or amend the French translation, further than to offer a very 

 simple explanation of what probably the author really designed to convey in 

 the general tenor of the passage in question. It was a crude but established 

 custom among the early Muhammadan occupying conquerors of India to issue 

 gold aud silver coins of equal weights, indentical fabric, and analogous central 

 legends ; hence, whenever, as in the present instance, the word Dinar is used 

 in apposition w r ith and contrast to the secondary term Durham, the one prima 

 facie implies gold, the other silver ; and there can be little doubt but that the 

 original design of the text was to specify that one gold piece of a given weight 

 passed in situ for eight silver pieces in similar form and of slightly greater 

 bulk. It is possible that the term Dinar may in process of time have come to 

 stand for a conventional measure of value, like the " pound sterling" suscep- 

 tible by common consent of being liquidated in the due equivalent of silver ; 

 but this concession need not affect the direct contrast between the Dinar and 

 Dirhams so obviously marked in the case in point. 



Ibn Batutah, in an earlier part of his work (iii. 426), [Lee's edition is imper- 

 fect at this portion, p. 149] gives us the comparative Delhi rate of exchange 



of which he had unpleasant personal experiences : he relates that he was 

 directed to be paid (55,000 + 12,000 =) 67,000 pieces of some well understood 

 currency, neither the name or the metal of which is defined, but which may 

 legitimately be taken to have been " Silver Tankahs," and in satisfaction of 

 this amount, deducting the established one-tenth for Dasturi, which left a 

 reduced total of 60,300, he received 6,233 gold tankahs. Under this scale of 

 payment the gold must have borne a rate of exchange of one to 9.67 of silver, 

 or very nearly one to 10, a proportion which might be supposed to clash with 

 the one to eight of the more southern kingdom, but the existing state of the 

 currencies of the two localities afford u striking illustration of the consistency 



