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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s12: Tula mana desa kala Pautavam

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s12

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Tula mana desa kala Pautavam

v2.c41.s12.1

There were strong resemblances between the phenomena of the first urbanisation in India (Harappan civilization) and the second, in the mahajanapadas of the first millennium BC. The second phase witnessed a revival of not only the widespread used of minerals and metals, and extensive trade, but also of the necessary infrastructure for scientific standardisation of commodities and parameters. The Arthasastra prescribed standardisation (pautava, from the word pu, to purify, refine) of weights (tula) and measures (mana), space (desa) and time (kala) (sections 2.19 and 2.20). A superintendent (pautavadhyaksa) was supposed to supervise the manufacture and proper use of standard weights and measures (2.19.1).

v2.c41.s12.2

Standard weights were made of iron or metallic stone from Magadha or Mekala hills which would not be affected by heat or water (2.19.10). Ten masa-beans were taken as equivalent in weight to one masaka of gold, which was one-sixteenth of one suvarna or karsa (2.19.2-3). Eighty-eight white mustard seeds make one masaka of silver which is two-fifth of gold masaka. Manu (8.134-135) gives the same ratio between the gold and the silver masakas. A pala is equivalent to four karsas and ten dharanas. A dharana of diamond weighs twenty rice-grains (2.19.2-7).

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Similarly, length, area and volume or space (desa) were standardised (2.20.1-27). Time (kala) was standardised in terms of the solar shadow (of the gnomon), and for the night and a cloudy day, by the water-clock or nalika (1.7.8; 1.19.6). A nalika was defined as the time taken for one adhaka of water in a jar to flow through a hole of diameter equalling that of a four masaka weight gold wire having a length of four angulas (2.20.35).

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