The Colas c28.33

c28.33

Of the money prices of commodities relatively little is learnt from the inscriptions. Only the more precious articles which formed the staples of long distance trade seem to have been bought and sold for money. The Tanjore inscriptions tell us, for instance, that one *kāśu* (half-*kalañju*) fetched towards the close of the reign of Rājarāja I, 1½ *kuruṇis* of cardamum seeds, 2 *kuruṇis* of campaka buds, 605 palams of *khaskas* roots, 2½ to 3 *kalañjus* of camphor,⁹¹ and two palams of sugar which seems to have been a luxury at the time.⁹² One *kāśu* (*pon*) fetched nine ewes at Mēlappaḷuvūr, (Trichinopoly district) in A.D. 931,⁹³ and at Śenkunṟam (North Arcot) in A.D. 1014,⁹⁴ but a Tanjore inscription gives only three ewes for a *kāśu*.⁹⁵ A *paśu* (cow) is valued at fifteen *kāśus* at Tiṭṭaguḍi (South Arcot) in 1136.⁹⁶ The price of a cocoanut tree was 150 *kāśus* at Nallūr (Tanjore district) in 1221 if it was yielding fruit (*kā-tengu*) and 100 if it was not;⁹⁷ but the *kāśu* of the time of Rājarāja III was a very depreciated coin.