The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.240

c22.240

The cost of a poor meal seems to have been half of this amount. An inscription(142) of the time of Parāntaka I (i. e. of the first half of the 10th century A.D.) records an investment of only four Kaḷanjus for feeding one Jain devotee at the local Jain temple. The rate of interest is unfortunately not stated, but it is worth noting that the capital invested is about one fourth of that invested for supplying a rich meal to a Brahmana at Ukkal. The Jain devotee is allowed only one meal in the day and that too is to be very simple. For two ordinary meals a day, we may, therefore, assume that a capital outlay of about 6 or 7 Kaḷanjus would have been necessary. We may, therefore, conclude that the cost of a simple meal was less than half of that of the rich meal. The latter required 37½ Kalams of paddy per annum per individual; the annual expenses of an ordinary meal could under no circumstances have exceeded 20 Kalams of paddy i. e. 288 seers of rice. Allowance of rice per day per individual will be found to be ¼ of a seer under this arrangement and that is quite sufficient to meet all the expenses connected with two ordinary meals consisting of the usual soups and vegetables.