The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.37

c18.s1.37

In connection with the temples, 32 lakhs of drammas were paid in addition to the assignment of 800 villages, and therefore, the text uses the particle *cha*. In the clause referring to the donations to the Brahmanas this particle does not figure and, therefore, the expression *suvarṇalakshatrayasametāni* must be taken as referring, not to an additional gift of that amount, but as an adjective of *shaṭsatāni*, indicating that the government revenue from the 600 villages granted was three lakhs of *suvarṇas*. It, therefore, follows that the expression *grāmāṇam ashṭas'atāni suvarṇalakshachatushtayam* is intended to indicate that the revenue of the 800 villages granted to the temples was 4 lakhs of *suvarṇas*; *suvarṇalakshachatushtayam* is a mistake for *suvarṇalakshachatushṭayasametāni*. In both the cases the average revenue of one village works out to be 500 *suvarṇas*. *Suvarṇa* is not to be taken here as the gold coin of that name, referred to by Manu as weighing 80 raktikas or about 146 grains, and introduced into currency by Skandagupta in the latter half of his reign. In South India the normal gold coin of our period was *kalanju*, weighing about a quarter of a tola. It is this *suvarṇa* or golden coin that is obviously referred to in the Cambay plates. The revenue of an average village in the time of Govinda IV was thus 500 *suvarṇas* i. e. *kalanjus*; it thus amounted to 125 tolas of gold or 1875 tolas of silver; we may equate it to about Rs. 2,500.