ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



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consists of 4 padas or quarters, each of which contains 5 

 masaka ; and as in determining cases of discipline at the pre- 

 sent day, the priests reckon the pada equivalent to a rupee, 

 the masakan would thus be about 4 jdf., and the kahapanan 8 

 shillings, which was the value of the old Negapatam pagoda. 

 Yet again it is said the masakan was considered equal to the 

 Kandyan ridi or silver piece, and this is true though the latter 

 is accounted by Dr. Davy worth only about Id. English. * 

 The real value of those old coins thus appears to be now 

 unknown ; and the stories we have of them in the Mahawanso, 

 chap. 21 and 30 — so incredible are the sums there mentioned 

 and their application — only, throw the subject into greater 

 obscurity and doubt. Elaro, for instance, the Malabar usurper^ 

 the yoke bar of his carriage having by accident injured 15 

 stones of a Budhist building, gave 15,000 kahapanas for its 

 repair ; and in a subsequent reign, a bricklayer being asked 

 the best form of a chetyan or dagoba, and replying that he 

 would make it of the shape of a buble on the surface of water, 

 had a suit of clothes given him by the king, a pair of slippers, 

 and 12,000 kahapanas for his learning and ingenuity, and the 

 king also directed that " sixteen lacs of kahapanas" together 

 with clothes, food and the five condiments should be placed 

 at every gate for distribution among the workmen employed 

 in erecting the edifice. This however, we may collect, that 

 there was at one time a common current money which included 

 the kahapanan and masakan, but the time of their actual cur- 

 rency was remote, short and limited ; and being, as I conjecture 

 they were, Budhist coins only, though indeed widely known 

 throughout India as well as here, f their character and value 



* This is the value of the mace in China. 



f Dhana Nando of India got his name from his excessive love 

 of money, and we are told that in order to amass together a vast sum, 



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