The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.206

c22.206

The dinner provided for by the Ukkal inscription No. 1, which required a capital outlay of 16 2/3 Kaḷanjus, was a sumptuous one; the record states that each of the 12 Brahmanas was to be supplied with 1 Arakku of ghee, 5 dishes of curry, 5 Urakkus of curds, 2 areca nuts and betel leaves, till they were satisfied. The meal supplied to the guest Bhikshu at Sanchi was also, very probably, equally rich. In the 7th century A.D. Bhikshus, when they were guests, were fed in a right royal fashion.¹²⁸ I-tsing says¹²⁹ that if the food supplied was just enough to satisfy the hunger, the host was ridiculed. Usually the leavings at the table of one man could satisfy three persons, but in the case of a meal supplied by a rich host, they could not be eaten even by 10 men. These observations will explain why the cost of feeding one Bhikshu was as high as the interest of 12 Dīnāras or 30 Kaḷanjus. Like I-tsing, the donor at Sanchi might have been warned that if the food supplied was just enough for the appetite, he would be ridiculed. The capital provision of 12 Dīnāras or 30 Kaḷanjus, that has been made in the Gupta inscription No. 62, may thus have been, to some extent, in excess of the actual needs of the situation. We may perhaps presume that for the real cost of a rich dinner where there was no waste; a capital outlay of about 8 Dīnāras or 20 Kaḷanjus was sufficient. The capital outlay for a similar meal in the south in our period was 16 or 17 Kaḷanjus as shown already. The capital outlay for an ordinary meal in the 10th century was only about 8 Kaḷanjus as will be shown later. It will be thus seen that the prices of our age, far from being 725% higher than those of the Gupta period, were actually somewhat lower. Precise comparison is unfortunately not possible, as we have not any information about the cost of an ordinary meal and the actual rate of interest in the Gupta period.