Page:Madras journal of literature and science vol 1 new series 1856-57.djvu/34

22 other people, while another part is devoted to a description of the provisions to be observed in suits for recovery of debts and such actionable matters, all of which are enumerated with the most punctilious nicety.

In a chapter on Judicature and on Law, Private and Criminal, it is ordered, that "a false witness speaking falsely through covetousness shall be fined a 100 panas, through distraction of mind 250."

Such examples may be multiplied ad libitum through the 12 books of the Institutes: when we have these illustrations so to speak, depicting the highly civilized and social position of the Hindoos certainly 3,000 years ago, to hope for any trustworthy accounts of what may have taken place anterior to that period respecting even so obvious and familiar a topic as money would be vain.

One thing is certain, a very advanced state of civilization obtained among Hindoos in very ancient times, certainly before Troy was besieged, probably when Theseus reigned in Athens, or when Abraham visited Egypt, and the further into antiquity the thread of their history extends, we are less likely to find any trusty information of their adoption of a circulating medium and the surrounding causes that led to it.

All that can now confidently be asserted is, that the precious metals were anciently found in India in great abundance, and that when in the course of nature the want of a currency made itself felt, a wide choice of qualified substances was available.

Without drawing at present upon the earlier accounts which pretty generally hold India to be the fountain of everything precious, there are to be found in more modern times numerous allusions in the manifold histories of India to the existence of its riches, and to mines of precious ores and stones.

Abul Fazl (Akbar's Prime Minister) in the Ayeen II, p. 47 speaks of the iron mines of Gwalior, of the profitable and rich copper works of Beerat and of a silver mine not worth mentioning.