The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.190

c22.190

The first argument to support this tremendous rise in prices is based upon a comparison of the meal charges per head in the two periods. It is argued that the Sanchi inscription of Chandragupta II¹²³ shows that a capital of 23 Dīnāras was sufficient to feed 10 monks in the 5th century A.D., whereas the Ukkal inscription No. 1¹²⁴ shows that an investment of 200 Kaḷanjus was necessary to feed 12 Brahmanas in c. 1000 A.D. The capital charge per head was thus 2 3/10 Dīnāras in the Gupta period, whereas it was 16 2/3 Kaḷanjus at c. 1000 A.D. 'If we divide 16 2/3 by 2 3/10,' argues the author, 'we get the purchasing power of a Dīnāra as equal to that of 7 1/4 Kaḷanjus, or in other words, we find the prices of food stuffs rose seven and a quarter times from the 5th to the 11th century A.D.'¹²⁵