The Initial Coinage of Bengal: Embracing the preliminary period between A.H. 614-634 (A.D. 1217-1236-7)S. Austin, 1866 - 120 pages |
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Page 16 - For money they employ the white porcelain shell, found in the sea, and these they also wear as ornaments about their necks. Eighty of the shells are equal in value to a saggio of silver or two Venetian groats, and eight saggi of good silver, to one of pure gold.
Page 6 - The determination of the true weight of the rati has done much both to facilitate and give authority to the comparison of the ultimately divergent standards of the ethnic kingdoms of India. Having discovered the guiding unit, all other calculations become simple, and present singularly convincing results, notwithstanding that the basis of all these estimates rests upon so erratic a test as the growth of the seed of the Gunja creeper (Alms precatorius) , under the varied incidents of soil and climate.
Page 39 - ... forms the lower part of their beds ; nor is there any substance so coarse as gravel either in the delta or nearer the sea than 400 miles (by the course of the Ganges) at Oudanulla, where a rocky point, part of the base of the neighbouring hills, projects into the river.
Page 61 - ... annual series is taken up and carried on successively for an uninterrupted twelve years by his more favoured opponent. It is needless to speculate on the varying course of these individual triumphs ; suffice it to say, that the increasing power of the ruler of Pandua, in 754, excited the Emperor Firuz III.
Page 7 - Hence— 140-S-80 = 1.75 grains. 56+32 = 1.75 „ and this is the weight I propose to assign to the original rati. There may be some doubt about the second decimal as we are not bound to demand an exact sum of even grains, but the 1.7 may be accepted with full confidence, leaving the hundred at discretion, though from preference, as well as for simplicity of conversion of figures, I adhere to the ]»'. JRAS, 1866 <NS 2 ). pp.
Page 25 - The very small mote which may be discerned in a sunbeam passing through a lattice is the first of quantities, and men call it a trasarenu.
Page 39 - As a strong presumptive proof of the wanderings of that river, from one side of the Delta to the other, it may be observed, that there is no appearance of virgin earth between the Tiperah hills on the east and the district of Burdwan on the west ; nor below Dacca and Bauleah on the north. In all the sections of the numerous creeks and rivers...
Page 66 - On both banks of the stream there are most charming villas and plantations and gardens Having departed hence he sailed up the river Ganges for the space of three months, leaving behind him four very famous cities, and landed at an extremely powerful city called Maarazia .... having spent thirteen days ' on an expedition to some mountains to the eastward, in search of carbuncles' ... he returned to the city of Cernove, and thence proceeded to Buffetania.
Page 10 - Kortoya on the east ; and by adjacent governments on the north. " 2. Bangga, or the territory east from the Kortoya towards the Brahmaputra. The capital of Bengal, both before and afterwards, having long been near Dacca in the province of Bangga, the name is said to have been communicated to the whole. " 3. Bagri, or the Delta, called also Dwipa, or the island, bounded on the one side by the Padma, or great branch of the Ganges ; on another by the sea ; and on the third by the Hooghly river, or Bhagirathi....
Page 3 - I was told that Silhet (an inland province to the north-east of Bengal) produced cowries, and that they were dug up. This, of course, I disbelieved; but when I was there in 1767 and 1768, I found no other currency of any kind in the country; and upon an occasion when an increase in the revenue of the province was •enforced, several boat-loads (not less than fifty tons each) were collected and sent down the Burrampooter, to Dacca.