History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.285.1

v4.c62.285.1

¹⁶² A *raktikā* was found by General Cunningham after many experiments to weigh on an average 1.8 grains (vide his 'Coins of Ancient India' pp. 45-46 and also Rapson's 'Coins' pp. 2-3). So that a silver dharaṇa or purāṇa (of 32 raktikās) should weigh about 57.6 grains and a copper paṇa (of 80 raktikās) should weigh 144 grains. It appears that the weights of Indian coins in different parts and at different times varied a good deal. Cunningham ('Coins of Ancient India' p. 5) states that gold was cheap in India, being as one to eight rates of silver. But in medieval times i. e. about 1300 A. D. (vide Śukra IV. 2. 92-93) gold was 16 times the price of the same weight of silver, which again was 80 times of the price of the same weight of copper. Though, as stated in note 161 above, a copper paṇa was usually equal to eighty raktikās, a copper paṇa of 100 raktikās (i. e. of 20 māṣas) was known. Nār. (pariśiṣṭa verse 58) speaks of *māṣa* as the 20th part of the kārṣāpaṇa and the Mit. on Yāj. I. 365 and Vy. Nirṇaya p. 207 quote a verse (attributed to Uśanas by Haradatta and Maskarin on Gaut. XII. 19) that a māṣa is a twentieth part of paṇa (माषो विंशतितमो भागः पणस्य परिकीर्तितः). The Agnipurāṇa (227. 2) appears to have known a paṇa of 120 kṛṣṇalas (कृष्णालानां तथा षष्ट्या कार्षाधं राम कीर्तितम् ). The verses in Nār. (pariśiṣṭa 58-60) are ascribed to Kāt. by the Sm. C. II. p. 99 and it is stated by both that those terms are in vogue in Pañcanada (Punjab).