The Colas c31.3

c31.3

Two weight systems are traceable from the ancient coins of the South. 'The gold *gadyāṇa* coin of the Deccan averages 58 grains, the heaviest reaching 60·1 grains'; this was the standard unit called *gadyāṇa* or *kaḻañju* in the Tamil country.¹ If the weight of the lost gold coin of Uttama Cōḻan figured by Elliot² is correctly recorded as 50 to 60 grains, this coin must have followed the old *gadyāṇa* standard and must have remained in circulation late in the tenth century. The survival to late times of a small cess called *Kumārakaccāṇam*³ may be accepted as confirmation of the same fact. But in the Cōḻa period the more usual standard was the *kaḻañju* of twenty *mañjāḍis* equal in theory to 72 grains, but sometimes going up to 80.⁴ It is apparently this unit of bullion weight that is employed in an inscription of the thirtieth year of Parāntaka I which equates the *kaḻañju* with the *niṣka* (Sanskrit).⁵ When exactly the Cōḻa currency was brought into line with this weight standard does not admit of precise determination.