The Weights of Mughal India

Willis, Rick

Manohar Publishers and Distributors（2023/09発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 288 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9788119139811

Full Description

Amid the glorious and rich history of Indian culture, the artifacts that have most affected the majority of people, and their everyday lives have been largely overlooked. Weights, so significant in agriculture, markets, trade, jewellery, medicine, and industry, commonly get relegated to the scrapyard once their use has finished. Weights first became widely used in India in the sixteenth century, with the reforms and growing influence of the Mughal Era, a period which lasted for about 300 years. Many of the weights produced during this time are remarkable for their distinct geometric and organic forms, many of which rival the individuality and grace of the highly celebrated weights of Burma. However, by the mid-nineteenth century, the influence of European colonialism transported industrialism and its ordinarity to India, and the era of cast iron weights began. This book endeavours to tackle a subject, which so far has defied treatment, and indeed, the Indian museums are largely devoid of Mughal weights in their collections.

Contents

List of figures and tables 7
Preface 21
1. Introduction 23
2. Trade and Market Weights 33
3. The Dam - Mughal Coin and Weight 75
4. Jewellers' Weights 92
5. Bankers' Weights 110 6. Opium Weights 187
7. Lion-Shaped and other Animal-Shaped Weights 201
8. Ratl, Uqiyya, and other Obsolete Weights 216
9. Indian Weights and the East India Company 221
10. Balances 232
11. Ceremonial and Symbolic Weighing 252
12. Conclusion 274
References 279
Index 285