The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c18.75

c18.75

Some of Iltutmish’s adls are however found to weigh as little as 8 grains; these, according to Wright, could have borne no token relationship with the higher coins, they being valued at their instrinsic metallic worth. A classification of the weight in the different copper issues may probably lead to the discovery of a sub-divisional gradation similar to what is found in the silver tankah. Some of the recorded specimens weighing 49, 36, 24, 18, and 12 grains³ would, indeed, seem to fall readily into a subdivisional scheme of 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and 1/6 of the 72-grains (40 rati copper) fals. In silver, the existence of such a gradation is proved by the small pieces of Iltutmish, Mahmud, Balban and Kaiqubad¹. The variations in their weight can easily be classified, according to the revised 172-grains *tankah* standard, into 86·4, 57·6, 28·8, and 14·4 grains. This would give them a value of 1/2, 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 respectively of the *tankah*. A similar gradation in the gold coin is also indicated by the discovery of a gold piece of Mubarak Khalji weighing 55·7 grains². On the basis of Nevill and Wright's conclusion that the ratio of gold to silver was 1:¹⁰, a gold *tankah* (*tankah-i-talai*) would exchange for ten silver pieces of equal weight.