Note 24 — INDEX

The passage from the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi, Bird 109, is: ‘A sum of 25 lákhs of húns and one kror of ibráhíms, that were two parts greater, being altogether nearly equal to 5 krors and 62 lákhs of rupees, was collected from the Dakhan tribute and the customs of the European and Arab ports.’ The word hún, from an old Karnátak word for gold, is the Musalmán name for the coin known among Hindus as varáha or the wild-boar coin, and among the Portuguese as the pagoda or temple coin. Prinsep Ind. Ant. Thomas’ Ed. II. U. T. 18. The old specimens of this coin weigh either 60 grains the máda or half pagoda, or 120 grains the hún or full pagoda. Thomas, Chron. Pat. Ks. II. 224, note. The star pagoda, in which English accounts at Madras were formerly kept, weighs 52·56 grains, and was commonly valued at 8s. or Rs. 4 (Prinsep as above). At this rate in the present sum the 25 lákhs of húns would equal one kror (100 lákhs) of rupees. The ibráhími, ‘two parts greater than the hún,’ would seem to be a gold coin, perhaps a variety of the Persian ashrafi (worth about 9s. English. Marsden, N. O. 455). Taking the two parts of a hún as fánams or sixteenths, this would give the ibráhími a value of Rs. 4¼, and make a total customs revenue of 425 lákhs of rupees. This statement of the revenues of the kingdom is, according to the author of the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi, taken from such times as the power of the Gujarát kings continued to increase. The total revenue of the twenty-five districts (£5,840,000) is the amount recovered in the year a.d. 1571. But the receipts under the head of Tribute must have been compiled from accounts of earlier years. For, as will be seen below, the neighbouring kings ceased to pay tribute after the end of the reign of Bahádur (a.d. 1536). Similarly the customs revenues entered as received from Daman and other places must have been taken from the accounts of some year previous to a.d. 1560. ↑