Note 44 — CHAPTER 10
Reading edition
[Sir H. M. Elliot proved that the use of 74½ is merely a modification of the figures 74¹⁰⁄₁₆, meaning apparently 84, a sacred number (Supplemental Glossary, 197). In the Central Provinces it is said that it originated in Jahāngīr’s slaughter of the Nāgar Brāhmans, when 7450 of them threw away their sacred cords and became Sūdras to save their lives (Russell, Tribes and Castes, ii. 395).]