Masha (unit of weight)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Urdbohnen , on which the Masha was based as a unit of weight

Masha ( Sanskrit माष māṣa , Urdu ماشه DMG māša ), also called Massa , Mas or Mähs in European representations , was an Indian unit of weight that was based on the weight of the dried seed of the primeval bean and corresponded to about one gram . Along with the rati, it formed one of the most important basic units of the Indian weight system and was mainly used as a coin weight . In the British colonial era , the masha was also used to indicate the fineness of gold and silver .

Ancient India

In ancient India, the masha was primarily a coin weight. A coin the weight of a Masha was called a Mashaka. A gold coin the weight of a Masha was called a Suvarna-Mashaka. From a commentary on Vinayapitaka shows that the time of King Bimbisara (v. Chr 5th century..) A Karshapana corresponded to 20 Masha. After the Vedic priest Katyayana (3rd century BC) the Masha was also called Pana, corresponded to 1/20 Karshapana and was composed of 5 Kakani. The Naradasmriti also gives the ratio between Masha and Karshapana as 1/20, but at the same time stipulates that 1 Masha corresponds to only 4 Kakani. It is also reported that the Karshapana is also called Andika.

After the Manusmriti and the Yajnavalkyasmriti there were two different mashas, ​​one for gold and copper and one for silver . For the gold and copper Masha: 1 Masha = 5 Krishnala or Raktika (= Rati) = 1/16 Karsha, Aksha, Tolaka or Suvarna. For the silver Masha: 1 Masha = 2 Krishnala or Raktika = 1/16 Dharana or Purana. According to the mathematician Mahavira , this was also the standard in the Kingdom of Magadha , although the rati was called Gunja here. In the Kingdom of Kalinga , however, the following applied: 1 Masha = 7 or 8 Gunja = ¼ Nishka (Tanka or Sana) = 1/6 Gadyana = 1/10 Karsha. Overall, it is noticeable that the ratio of the Masha to the Rati was determined very differently (½, 1/5, 1/7 or ⅛).

Muslim time

Al-Biruni , who wrote a way about India in the early 11th century, states that in his time 1 Masha = 4 Andi. The Andi was the seed of a tree called Gaura. In terms of larger weight units, which formed a multiple of the Masha, he names the Drankshana (= 6 Masha), the Chana (= 8 Masha), the Tola (= 12 Masha) and the Suvarna (= 16 Masha). At the same time, al-Biruni reports that 1 Mithqāl = 5 5/7 Masha.

As can be seen from a didactic poem by Thakkura Pheru, the mint master of the Khalji ruler Ala ud-Din Khalji , at the beginning of the 14th century 1 Masha = 8 Rati = 16 Java. The tanka (= 4 māsha) and the tola (= 12 masha) belonged to the larger weight units, which formed a multiple of the masha .

The rupee newly introduced by Sher Khan Suri weighing 11 ½ Masha

The Suri ruler Sher Khan Suri (1540–1545) introduced the rupee with a weight of 11½ Masha as a new silver coin in India . In the time of the Mughal ruler Akbars : 1 Masha = 6 Surch (i.e. Rati) = ¼ tank . For the Masha as a coin weight (wazn-i ṣairafī) , however, different relations apply , namely: 1 Masha = 8 Surch = 1/12 Tulcha. There were 1, 2, 4 and 6 Masha weights . Under Akbar, the Dam coin consisted of 20 Māsha copper.

Aurangzeb increased the weight of the Dam coins to 21 Masha at the beginning of his reign, but then later lowered it to 14 Masha, which had to do with the rise in the price of copper. Since a silver rupee Akbar weighs exactly 11.5484 grams according to the coin findings, the Masha of this time has a metric weight of 1.0042 grams.

19th and 20th centuries

Indian subcontinent

As a unit of weight

In British India , the Bengali Regulation VII of 1833 , which aimed to standardize weight measurements in India, set the weight of the Masha at 15 Troy Grains , which corresponds to 0.972 grams. With regard to the ratio to the smaller Indian weight units, the following should apply: 1 Masha = 8 Rati = 32 Dhan. The Dhan seems to have been identical to the Nely , because at that time it was also valid: 1 Massa = 32 Nely. With regard to the larger weight units, the regulation of 1833 established the following relationships:

In addition to this official Masha, there were also various local Masha units, which are usually referred to as Massa in western sources . Converted into the metric system, the massa resulted in different weight values ​​at the different locations:

  • in Jalna 1 massa = 0.9965 grams
  • in surat 1 massa = 1.0124 grams
  • in Ahmadnagar 1 massa = 1.0162 grams
  • in Malwa 1 massa = 1.0259 grams
  • in Pune 1 Massa = 1.0349 grams
  • in Calcutta 1 massa = 1.1641 grams
  • in Patna 1 massa = 1.1987 grams

The massa was in the same relation to the other Indian weight units in most of these places. For some of these places, additional conditions are also given. Thus in Ahmadnagar, Jalna and Pune 1 Massa = 4 Wall , and in Calcutta 1 Massa = 128 Punko = 1/10 Sicca .

Regarding the relationship between Māsha and Tola, there seem to have been different regulations in individual places. The Bombay Almanac for the year 1842 states that the tola in Bengal consisted of 12 ½ Massa, in Bombay of 11 ½ Massa and in some areas of the southern Konkan of 11 ¼ Massa. Johann Friedrich Krüger did not confirm that there were 1 Tola = 15 Massa and 1 Seer = 120 Massa in Bombay.

Several coins in British India were given the weight in massa. The sicca rupee in Calcutta weighed 12 ½ massa, the kota pice from Malwa weighed 18 massa and the gold mohur and silver rupee from Bombay weighed 11½ massa.

As a unit of proportion

The Masha was also used by goldsmiths and jewelers to indicate the fineness of gold and silver. For gold, 12 Masha corresponded to a fineness of 24 carats , 11 Māsha to a fineness of 22 carats, and 10 Masha to a fineness of 20 carats.

Malay Archipelago

In the Malay Archipelago and in China there was a unit of measure (also called Mas , Meß or Mace ) similar in name and weight, which probably also goes back to the Masha. In the Malay Archipelago, a measure was made up of 4 coupangs . Several larger weight units were calculated using the measure. In the Sultanate of Aceh :

The measure here was also a coin, which consisted of a thin gold leaf and had Malay writing on both sides . She had the value of 1600 KÄSCH of lead. Converted into the metric system, the measure at the various locations had the following weight values:

literature

  • Abū l-Fazl ʿAllāmī : Āʾīn-i Akbarī . Ed. Henry Blochmann. Calcutta 1877, Volume II, p. 59 f. ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ) Engl. Transl. HS Jarrett. Volume III, pp. 125-127 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Lionel D. Barnett: Antiquities of India. An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan . Philip Lee Warner, London 1913, pp. 206-210. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • DR Bhandarkar: Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics. University of Calcutta, Calcutta 1921. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Henry Thomas Colebrooke : Miscellaneous Essays . Ed. Edward Cowell. Trübner & Co, London 1873, Vol. I, pp. 528-543. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Horace Doursther: Dictionnaire universel des poids et mesures anciens et modern, contenant des tables des monnaies de tous les pays. Brussel 1840, p. 252 f. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Shāhpūrshāh H. Hodīvālā: Historical studies in Mughal numismatics . Calcutta, 1923. Reprinted: Bombay, 1976. pp. 103-107. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Johann Friedrich Krüger: Complete manual of the coins, measures and weights of all countries in the world. Gottfried Basse, Quedlinburg / Leipzig 1830, p. 180. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • James Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. Useful Tables Forming an Appendix to the Journal of the [Bengal] Asiatic Society; 2nd supplemented edition. Calcutta 1840. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Friedrich von Schrötter, N. Bauer: Dictionary of coinage. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1970, p. 548 f.
  • Shailaj Kumar Shrivastava: Measurement Units of Length, Mass and Time in India through the Ages . In: International Journal of Physical and Social Science , 7, 2017, pp. 39–47. researchgate.net (PDF)
  • Edward Thomas: On Ancient Indian Weights. In: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal , 33, 1864, pp. 251-266. Here pp. 260–264. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • Edward Thomas: Ancient Indian Weights as: Marsden's Numismata Orientalia: A new Edition . Part 1. London 1874, pp. 11-13. Text archive - Internet Archive
  • H. Wilson: A glossary of judicial and revenue terms and of useful words occurring in official documents relating to the administration of the government of British India . Allen, London 1855, p. 333. Text Archive - Internet Archive

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bhandarkar: Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics . 1921, p. 53.
  2. ^ Bhandarkar: Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics . 1921, p. 111.
  3. ^ Bhandarkar: Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics . 1921, p. 185.
  4. ^ Barnett: Antiquities of India. 1913, p. 207.
  5. ^ Barnett: Antiquities of India. 1913, p. 206.
  6. ^ Barnett: Antiquities of India. 1913, p. 207.
  7. ^ Barnett: Antiquities of India. 1913, p. 209.
  8. ↑ See also Colebrooke: Miscellaneous Essays. 1873, p. 531.
  9. ↑ Al-Bīrūnī : Tārīḫ al-Hind - Engl. Trans. By Eduard Sachau under the title: Alberuni's India: an account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about AD 1030 . Kegan, London, 1914. Reprinted from the London 1888 edition. Volume I, pp. 160-164. Text archive - Internet Archive
  10. ^ Marie H. Martin: "The Reforms of the Sixteenth Century and Akbar's Administration: Metrological and Monetary Considerations" in John F. Richards (ed.): The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India . Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987. pp. 68-99. Here p. 73.
  11. ↑ Abū l-Fazl ʿAllāmī: Āʾīn-i Akbarī . Vol. I, p. 26. - Engl. Transl. Vol. I, p. 32.
  12. ↑ Abū l-Fazl ʿAllāmī: Āʾīn-i Akbarī . Vol. II, p. 59. - Engl. Transl. Vol. III, p. 123.
  13. ↑ Abū l-Fazl ʿAllāmī: Āʾīn-i Akbarī . Vol. II, p. 60. - Engl. Transl. Vol. III, p. 125.
  14. ^ Colebrooke: Miscellaneous Essays. 1873, p. 533.
  15. ^ Bhandarkar: Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics . 1921, p. 117.
  16. ↑ Walther Hinz: Islamic mass and weights. Converted into the metric system. EJ Brill, Leiden / Cologne 1970, p. 23.
  17. ↑ A Regulation for altering the weight of the Furruckabad rupee and for assimilating it to the legal currency of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies; for adjusting the weight of the company's sicca rupee, and for fixing a standard unit of weight for India . In: The Sessional Papers of the House of Lords Vol. VIII Accounts and Papers 1837-38. Pp. 19–21, here p. 19. books.google.de
  18. ^ Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. 1840, p. 66.
  19. ^ Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. 1840, p. 66.
  20. ↑ Krüger: Complete manual of the coins, measures and weights of all countries in the world. 1830, p. 180.
  21. ^ Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. 1840, p. 66.
  22. ↑ Doursther: Dictionnaire universel of Weights and Measures . 1840, p. 252.
  23. ↑ Doursther: Dictionnaire universel of Weights and Measures . 1840, p. 252.
  24. ^ The Bombay Calendar and Almanac Directory and Register for the Year 1842. Bombay 1841. books.google.de
  25. ↑ Krüger: Complete manual of the coins, measures and weights of all countries in the world. 1830, p. 180.
  26. ↑ Thomas Best Jervis: Records of ancient science, exemplified and authenticated in the primitive universal standard of weights and measures: communicated in an essay transmitted to Capt. Henry hangover . Calcutta, 1835, p. 45. Text archive - Internet Archive
  27. ^ Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. 1840, p. 67.
  28. ^ Prinsep: Coins, Weight and Measures of British India. 1840, p. 80.
  29. ↑ Doursther: Dictionnaire universel of Weights and Measures . 1840, p. 252.
  30. ↑ Krüger: Complete manual of the coins, measures and weights of all countries in the world. 1830, p. 180.
  31. ↑ Karl Joseph Jurende: Lexicon of coins, measures and weights of all countries in the world, business and entertainment book for all provinces of the Austrian imperial state. Supplement to Jurende's patriotic pilgrims , 21, 1834, p. 195. Digitized
  32. ↑ Doursther: Dictionnaire universel of Weights and Measures . 1840, p. 252.