The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c11.14

c11.14

² The conclusion is the result of a simple calculation from the data given by this and the Ambāsamudram record. Two nāḷis of ghī were to be given every day for four lamps to be maintained from the interest (பொலி) on 120 kaḷanjus (Trichi. inscr.); the Ambāsamudram records give the information 1 nāḷi of ghī = 30 nāḷis of paddy. This will give 60 nāḷis of paddy every day as the cost of the service; this makes 2/3 of a kalam (=15 kuruṇis = 90 nāḷis, Venkayya in E. I.) per day or roughly 240 kalams per year of 360 days, which is just the interest on 120 kaḷanjus (kāśus) at the prevailing rate of 2 kalams per annum per kāśu (Kaḷanju). This conclusion, it must be noted, casts a doubt on Venkayya's rendering of பாடிக்கல்லால் in the Trichinopoly record into ‘weighed by the standard of the district’. If the calculation made in this note is accepted, it will be proof that the same standards prevailed all over the Pāndya country at the time, which is not unlikely, in such matters as the weight of the standard coin and the interest on perpetual royal endowments to temples.