Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t4.192

c5.t4.192

We must here note the purchasing power of money or in other words PURCHASING prices of ordinary commodities. A pair of oxen was POWER. worth 24 *kahāpaṇas*,⁷ a nice plump dog is bought for one *kahāpaṇa*;⁸ a decent ass is had for eight *kahāpaṇas*;⁹ a fish is worth 7 *māsakas* only;¹ a bundle of grass, again, fetches one *māsaka*² and for the same small coin can be had a jar of liquor;³ two poor lovers buy a garland, perfume and strong drink with one *māsaka*;⁴ a piece of meat can be had for an *addhamāsaka* or even a *kākanikā*⁵ and dead mouse is also purchased for a *kākanikā*.⁶ Similarly a *māsaka* or an *addhamāsaka* is the daily wage of a day-labourer,⁷ as noticed before. To hire a carriage in Benares by the hour cost 8 *kahāpaṇas*.⁸ For the services of a young bull to pull 500 carts through a rough ford, a merchant pays 2 *kahāpaṇas* per cart⁹; a ferry's fare across the river is 8 *kahāpaṇas*¹⁰ and the same sum seems to have been the cost of a visit to a barber.¹¹ All these instances give a realistic picture of the various transactions of the day. Naturally, the ordinary people could not go beyond such little sums of *māsakas* and *kahāpaṇas*. The nobility and the rich people are almost always spoken of in terms of high expenditures. Horses were highly priced—the prices ranging from 1000 to 6000 *kahāpaṇas*.¹² The Kāsi cloth was worth 100000 *kahāpaṇas*—¹³ a sum undreamt of by the poor class. All these figures mentioned before are not, and cannot, however be taken as quite exact. For the references are only legendary and not in the way of statistical figures like those given in Kauṭilya's *Arthaśāstra*.