The Memoirs of Bābur 932.13.4

932.13.4

The people of Hind have also well-arranged measures:—[1909] 8 _ratīs_ = 1 _māsha_; 4 _māsha_ = 1 _tānk_ = 32 _ratīs_; 5 _māsha_ = 1 _miṣqāl_ = 40 _ratīs_; 12 _māsha_ = 1 _tūla_ = 96 _ratīs_; 14 _tūla_ = 1 _ser_. This is everywhere fixed:—40 _ser_ = 1 _mānbān_; 12 _mānbān_ = 1 _mānī_; 100 _mānī_ they call a _mīnāsa_.[1910] Pearls and jewels they weigh by the _tānk_. (_r. Modes of reckoning._) The people of Hind have also an excellent mode of reckoning: 100,000 they call a _lak_; 100 _laks_, a _krūr_; 100 _krūrs_, an _arb_; 100 _arbs_, 1 _karb_; 100 _karb's_, 1 _nīl_; 100 _nīls_, 1 _padam_; 100 _padams_, 1 _sāng_. The fixing of such high reckonings as these is proof of the great amount of wealth in Hindūstān. (_s. Hindū inhabitants of Hindūstān._) Most of the inhabitants of Hindūstān are pagans; they call a pagan a Hindū. Most Hindūs believe in the transmigration of souls. All artisans, wage-earners, and officials are Hindūs. In our countries dwellers in the wilds (_i.e._ nomads) get tribal names; [Sidenote: Fol. 290b.] here the settled people of the cultivated lands and villages get tribal names.[1911] Again:—every artisan there is follows the trade that has come down to him from forefather to forefather. (_t. Defects of Hindūstān._)