Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/244

 ——



BAH

1€6

The

Coinage Act has brought the regulation ser very

late

the local

ser,

thus

much

nearer



ser = 32| ounces = 80 Government tolas. The new Government ser = 36 ounces = 87| Government tolas. The old Nawabi ser = 37| ounces 91f Government tolas. It still, however, falls short of that ser by

The

old

Government

Tie new Government ser.

=

1| ounces.

We

may remark that for all practical purposes of an agricultural community this ser described so elaborately does not exist except in the town of Bahraich itself. The above divisions of the ser are the same as those detailed in Prinsep's Useful Tables, page 96, and in the ordinary Indian almanacs, and it is possible that some such work was drawn upon for the details, whose authenticity is thereby assured. The real Bahraich ser, as indeed that in indigenous use everywhere in North India, is not a paJcJca ser but a kachcha ser, whose weight varies infinitesimally, but with cerThe number of rupees is the initial element of tain rather narrow limits. the variation with which the two series diverge. In southern Bahraich, at Sisia for instance, the kachcha or local ser

scale is as follows for the



Maund. 1

=

Panseri.

Ser.

Chhatak or ganda.

1=5= 8

=

40 1

= =

260 32i 6^ 1

= = = =

Es. or tolas. 1,595

299 371 5J 1

= = = = =

Mashaa. 15,697 1,962

392i 60J lOi

Now the pakka ser diverges from the above both in the number in the ganda and the number of gandas in the ser.

of rupees

The former seems a divergence which may be a local irregularity without formal or extensive sanction, the latter is so broad and of so extensive adoption that it seems based on some different principle of measurement, perhaps belonging to a different era, or adopted by a different race or emThe two sers are compared pire from that which used the pakka ser. through the medium of the panseri and the Jcachcha maund in their relations to the pakka ser and the pahJca maund. The panseri* is popularly said to be equal to 2, 2|, or 2| pakka sers in different parts of Bahraich, or indeed of Oudh, and the kachcha maund equals 16, 18, or 20 pakka sers ; but in reality there are numerous minute variations the local maund used in Bahraich, as above detailed, weighs

1,495 tolas or 15,697 mashas ; the tola is the old Chihradar rupee of 173 It would appear that the masha, which consists of eight rattis grains. natural grain, is a fixed weight all over India, although of course it may

vary infinitesimally. The rupee or tola is designed to be twelve mdshas, but the covetousness of princes debasing the weight of the coin, lowered it to ten mdshas or ten and a half then the community, finding their weighing unit less than what it was, rather than change the rest of the scale, increased the number of these tolas in the next unit, the chhatak


 * Five local or small

sers.

.