The old coins of the Mal or Newer rajas are much valued for their purity, and aro worn by the women, strung to necklaces or armlets, as tokens in memory of their ancestors. The gold mohur of Nepal is 83 to 85 grains. The damree is current in Nepal.
The Nepalese procnre all their silver from China, in the form of stamped lumps, as they are current in Lhassa ; for the Tibetans generally follow the Chinese custom in their money trans actions, of paying and receiving by weight, and the merchants carry scales with them for the purpose. Since the Gurkha conquest the Vikrama era has superseded that of Newar for ordinary purposes, and the Saka, coinnionly used in Hindu stan, has been introduced upon the Nepalese coins.
Netlurland India has the silver gulden of 166 grains, also its half and quarter.
Pagoda, a Portuguese appellation of a gold coin, the boon, derived from the pyramidal temple depicted on one side of the coin. The proper Hindu name is Varaha, wild boar, and doubtless originated in a device of the boar in carnation or avatar of Vishnu upon the ancient coinage of the Carnatie, for the same figure appears as the signet of the rajas of that country in some old copper grants of lands in the Mac kenzie collection. The Hindu name probably varied according to the image of the coin ; thus we find the Rama Tanka having the device of Rama and his attendants; and the Matsya Hun of Vijayanagar with four fishes on the obverse. Other pagodas have Vishnu, Jaganath, Vencates war, etc., on them ; those with three Swami or figures are of the best gold, and are valued 10 per cent. higher than the common pagoda. Hun is the common term used by the 3Ittliammadan writers, a.nd, indeed, generally by the natives, for the pagoda. It signifies gold in the old Carnatic language.
The hun was subdivided into fanatns and kas. Fanant, or tnore properly panam, is identical with the word pan, known in I3engal as one of the divisions of the Ilindu metrical system, now applied chiefly to a certain measure of cowries and copper money. The old fanam was of gold only, and was the one-sixteenth of a 'tun. In the Lilavati we find,-16 pare .= 1 dharan, 16 dharan = 1 nislik, where the dharan (or dharam) seems to accord with the hun, which is identical in weight with the Greek draeluna. The Ikkeri pagoda contains sixteen fanams ; that of Varari and Analtdrui, fourteen ; and the Kalyan pagoda, twenty-eight The division adopted by the British was forty- two.
Panna.—The standard of panne under the Peshwa was called the Ankusi rupee, from ankus, the instrument used by the mahout to guide the elephant ; probably a symbol marked on the coin.
The Parthian or Arsacian monarchy was erected by Arsaces, who filled the office of satmp in Baetria, in the year B.C. 256. Valliant wrote a history of this powerful dynasty, and en deavoured to classify the coins of the twenty-nine Arsacidm kings. It was subsequently absorbed in the Persian empire in the reign of Alexander Severus, A.D. 226. Their coins have often been found in Southern Asia, the greater number having the Greek word Arsacoy, with different epitheta.
Persian ancient coins.—According to Marsden, Wil8 not until the khalifat of Abdul Malik, in the year of the Ilijim 7G (A.D. 695), that a distinct coinage was instituted with a view of superaeding the currency of Greek or Byzantine and Persian gold and silver.
Persian ntodern coins.—The Futtell Ali Shah rupee of Shiraz and Hamadan weighs 105 grains ; the Karan of Muhammad Shah, 82 grains, minted at several places of 79 to •82 grains; the Iluzur dinar, 106 gmins ; the Larin of Persia, 74.5 grains. Of gold coins, Persia has one of A.11. 1127, weight 166.48 grains, and the Tornan, A.11. 1240 and 1248, weighing 68.9 to 73 grains.
Pia.stre.—The gold piastre of Turkey, A.11.1115 , 1171, weight, 53.35 grains.
Pod, PEULAVI, or Phool, PARSEE. Ob0111S et res qumvis obolo similis ut squama piscis simil (fulus), Borhani Katiu inde. I3e Poolee; Abdul Malik, n. c. Pecunire Clefectus. Abul Fez] says that the pool of olden days was equal t,o four toles ; Ferishta, again, gives 1 or toles.
1?ati. — Colonel Anderson considers the rati may be assumed as high as 1.93 grainsond the masha at 15.44 grains.
Sanat, AuAn., year, generally used in coinage of Muhammadan rulers, as the year of their reign, also as the Hijim year.
Sikka, HIND., a coining die, applied to a coin fortnerly current in India.
Tibet. Csoma Koros states that the English rupee circulates fleely through Western Tibet. The common Chinese brass money, with a square hole in the centre, is likewise current in. Lhassa, as generally through the whole of the Chinese empire. The Lha.ssa (silver) of Tibet is 58 grains.
Taa, HIND., a weight in India, equal to 180 grains troy, the weight of the present rupee.
The gold zecchino or sequin, A.D. 1797, of Ludovico Manin, the last doge of Venice, was cur rent in many parts of India under the names sultani, putli, and putli dukkun ; it weighs 53.5 grains.