84 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH. ) 



grains. Herodotus speaks of " a sort of Indian seed about 

 the size of the pant cum in a cod.'* 1 



Being thus compelled to abandon all attempts to arrive' 

 at a satisfactory conclusion by "beginning from the begin- 

 ning," we shall next resort to some intermediate measure,, 

 which, as it refers to, and is descriptive of, a member of the 

 human body, may be looked upon as the basis of all measures 

 in ancient times. This is angula, or finger being one-twelfth 

 of a vidatthi or span — twice its length being equal to a 

 kdsth.a, San., or ratana Pali, 65 a cubit." Princep, in his 

 Useful Tables, treating on the subject says, "That the 

 cubit was of the natural dimensions (of eighteen inches 

 more or less) can hardly be doubted. [?] Indeed, where 

 the hath is talked of, to this day, among the natives, the 

 natural human measure is both understood and practically 

 used, as in taking the draft of water of a boat, etc. In many 

 places also, both in Bengal and in South Ind'a the English 

 cubit has been adopted as of the same value as >he native 

 measure." 2 Here, it may be conceded that thehastha was 

 also of the natural dimensions of the lower half of an ordi- 

 nary well-proportioned man's arm ; but, we are not therefore 

 warranted in putting down its length in ancient times 

 as having been eighteen inches, especially in an investi- 

 gation to ascertain through its means, the stature of ancient 

 Indiaus, which is variously stated by different writers. And 

 this difficulty is the more increased, when we find that the 

 linear measure in ancient India was totally altered during- 

 Akbar's administration, and that " the introduction, since > 

 of European measures in the British Indian territories, and 

 in the Dutch and Portuguese settlements before them"$ 



1 Herodotus, Thalia iii., § 100. 



2 Princep's Ind. Antiq. ih, Part 2, p. 122. 



3 Ibid. 



