Indian Epigraphy c16.s6.81

c16.s6.81

but the areas mentioned in inscriptions suggest a bigger unit.¹ Fleet therefore thought that ‘100 Pādāvartas’ means ‘a plot of ground measuring a hundred feet each way’, i.e. 10000 square feet rather than 100 square feet.² In West Indian records of the early medieval period, we have often reference to fixation of the rent of a Viṁśopaka at 24 or 20 or 16 or 10 Drammas (coins probably of silver).³ Viṁśopaka here no doubt means a land measure which was one twentieth of the standard measure of land in the area in question. The amounts of rent fixed for various grades of land would suggest that the Viṁśopaka was a fairly large area of land. The Caulukya records sometimes mention a land measure called Pātha which is regarded as equal to 240 square cubits.⁴