The original unit of weight in. Southern India seems to have been the gold coin. called by the English a pagoda. It is now uncurrent, but WAS about 52i grains weight.- 80 pagodas weight is, according to the native tables, a seer (cutcha) of 24 rupees weight. This corresponded with the average weight of the old native rupee of 175 grains ; but since the introduction of the Company's rupee of 180 grains, the pagoda weight is 54 grains generally. The same con fusion formerly existed in Bengal between a Sicca weight of 1793- grains and a Sicat rupee of 192 grains. There are also seers both in Madras and Bombay of 84 rupees weight. A greater degree of confusion could not possibly exist, nor greater hindrances to internal trade and prosperity.
The question of the weights and measures has been before the several Governments of India ever since the early years of the 19th century. Iu a letter to the Madras Government from the Court of Directors of the E.I. Company, dated Gth July 1829, the Court forwarded standard weights and measures in accordance with Act v., George iv. cap. 74 ; and subsequently the Directors, in their despatch of 17th July 1833, expected the general adoption in India of the imperial measures. The Government of India, in Act vii. of 1833, furnished certain ponderary tables, but these did not make any allusion to meaSures of capacity, although by .far the greater portion of the domestic transactions in India are in grain. The Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, on the 19th of May 1836, resolved to adopt the weights of the Government, but urged the introduction of the imperial gallon for liquids, and proposed that new measures of capacity for grain should be regulated by the weights ; but they did not, however, show how this was to be done, and the Government declined to act on the recommenda tion of the Chamber. • The table of weights adopted by the Govern ment of India for the use of their own offices, was in accordance with native usage in Bengal, and was approved of by the Chambers of Commerce in Calcutta and Bombay. It is as follows: 1 tola =180 grains.
5 toles = 1 chittak.
1.6 ehittalcs = 1 seer = 80 tolas = 2'075143 lbs. avoir. 40 seers = 1 mun(ormaund)-= 82; lbs. exactly.
By a proclamation of the Governor of Madras in • Council, October 16, 1846, after the 1st of January 1847, the undermentioned weights, showing the equivalents in avoirdupois and troy weights, could be used in the revenue, commis sariat, and other public departments throughout the Madras Presidency : Madras Weights. Avoirdupois. Troy.
lbs. oz. drs. lbs. oz. dwts.
180 grains = 1 tola . 0 0 6'582; 0 0 7i 3 tolas = 1 pollam 0 1 3'7481 0 1 2i 40 pollams --= 1 visa . 3 1 5.9429 3 9 0 8 visa = 1 maund 24 10 15•542g 30 0 • 0 Thus- 40 pollams 1 viss = 120 toles -= 3'0857 lbs. avoir. 8 viss maund = 960 toles =24'6857 „ „ This table was sanctioned for Madras by the Government of India, but was entirely different, with the exception of the tola unit, from the weights adopted for Calcutta.
The Madras Government in this notification promulgated also a table of measures to be used in Government transactions as follows : 1 ollock 12i cubic inches.
8 ollocks = 1 measure (puddle) =.100 7, 8 measures = 1 mareal -IL. 800 But these measures were not adopted by the people ; and even in the town of Madras the _Government had to authorize the stamping with the Government seal, the customary measure or puddee of 1041 cubic inches, which had been the real standard since 1802.
The linear measure unit of India is generally tho distance from tho elbow to tho tip of tho middle finger of a tall man. This length is known as the lIat'h, .3Iulurn, Tam., 3E0m, TEL., and averages 19} inches. It is always trans lated cubit, though invariably exceeding the English cubit of 18 inches by 1} or 2 inches. In the Southern Carnatic, the adi or length of a tall man's foot is in use, and averages 101 inches.
Guz.—Akbar, after very considerable inquiry, introduced as the only legal measure, what is called the Ilahi guz. The Ayin Akbari informs us that this was taken as the mean of three chief guz then existing, the smallest about 28 inthes, and the Ilahi guz between 33 and 34 inches. Mr. Duncan, after prolonged inquiry, estimated it at 33.6 inches, while others have valued it from 33 to 34.25 inches; a mean of these is 33.75 inches. Jervis thinks it WAS exactly 33-5 inches. Jona than Duncan employed, when engaged in `settling' the N.W. Provinces, a guz of 33i inches. In the coast districts of the west, the most common guz is that of about 28 inches. In other parts there is a group whose average is about 39 inches. Frequently two or more of these aro present in one locality for different transactions. Merchants will buy by the guz of 34 incites, and sell by that of 30 ; or silk will be measured by one, cloth (cotton or woollen) by another, while carpenters and bricklayers will use each a distinct measure. For instance, cotton cloth in Surat is measured by the guz of 27.8 inches, silk and other valuable stuffs by the guz of 34.7 inches, while the car penter employs a guz of 27.2 inches. At Juanpur, the carpenter values his guz at 30 inches, the tailor estimates his at 34 inches, while the cloth seller employs one of 40 inches. The muslin seller at Farrakhabad uses a guz of 33; inches, the cloth seller ono of 34 inches, while the seller of silk for turbands and full-dress coats uses no other thau 381 inches. Sitnilar cases might be adduced in infinite abundance. Wherever the cubit varies, the guz follows, usually in the pro portion of 12 to 7, though this is by no means an invariable rule.