ཚའ་མཐའ་མད notes.108

notes.108

108. The Tib. khal (Skt. khārī) is a Tibetan measure of capacity for commodities, especially barley, etc. (1 khal = 20 bre). According to Jäschke 1977, this constitutes “a bushel.” See also Goldstein 2001, s.v.: “a standard Tib. measure of volume, equal to about thirty pounds of barley.” According to MW, however, the ancient Indian measure of capacity, one khārī, equals 3 bushels, i.e., 4 pecks (= 2,150.42 cubic inches or 35.24 liters according to the American system, and equal to 2,219.36 cubic inches or 36.37 liters in the British Imperial System; see American Heritage Dictionary, s.v. bushel). See, however, Pruden 1988–90, vol. 2, 539, note 474: “Tib. khal = khāri”? and Guenther 1986: p. 61: “a sesame store containing eighty bushels.” According to Negi, the Skt. equivalent of Tib. khal brgyad bcu pa is viṃśatikhārika, which indicates that eighty khal in the Tib. system corresponds to twenty khārī of the Indian measurement system (see Negi 1993, vol. 1, 333). However, the Tib. translation of the Āps has khal bcu tshad nyi shu (“twenty of the 10-khal measure” or “twenty ten-bushel vessels”; see The Hundred Deeds, Toh 340, 3.372). Despite the uncertainties in both the Tib. and the Skt. readings (this passage has been restored by Matsumura based on parallel versions in other texts; see Matsumura 1989, 82 [37], note 1), we are using the Sanskrit terms in our translation. The uncertainties involved in determining the exact modern Western equivalents of these measurements seems even greater.