The Colas c28.23

c28.23

The currency of money of small denominations did not altogether displace the ancient habit of ex-changing things for corn. The earliest Tamil poems state that salt and venison were exchanged for paddy; to this day, in the villages of South India, housewives may be seen pouring out the grain from their stores into the baskets of hawkers and dairy-women in return for the veget-ables, ghee or curd supplied by them. The picture of economic conditions under the Cōḷas will not be complete without some idea of the relation of paddy to other commodities and to money. Ghee was converted into gold at 9 *kuruṇis* per *kalañju* and fifteen *kalams* of ghee are equated to twenty *kalañjus* of gold. If this rate of conversion followed the prices prevailing at Kāḷahasti in A.D. 1012, the date of the record,⁷¹ the price of ghee in those days must have been about a sixth or seventh of what it is to-day. A *nāḷi* and a half of curd was to be had for one *nāḷi* of paddy,⁷² and paddy was selling at seven *kalams* per *pon-kaḷañju*, a price which to all appearance is slightly higher than the prices of 1937. We shall see, however, that the price of paddy in gold varied very much with time and place. At Nattam (Chingleput), three *nāḷis* of paddy fetched forty-eight betel leaves and twelve areca nuts⁷³ in A.D. 1018. In the same year, at Tiruppangili in the Trichinopoly district, a *nāḷi* of good *dhal* was of the same value as five *nāḷis* of paddy; one *palam* of crude sugar as two *nāḷis* of paddy; and one *nāḷi* of paddy was required to make one curry-offering in the temple.⁷⁴ At Tirumukkūḍal in Chingleput, in A.D. 1016, one *nāḷi* of oil was bought for four of paddy, one *nāḷi* of ghee for ⅓ *kalam* of paddy,⁷⁵ and one measure of curd for two of paddy; milk was had also at the same rate, and one *nāḷi* of turmeric was got for one *kuruṇi* of paddy.⁷⁶