Maund

During the reign of Alauddin Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate, 1 mann was roughly equivalent to 15 kg.[7]

Prinsep (1840) summarizes the evidence as to the weight of the mun (later "maund") during the reign (1556–1605) of Akbar the Great,[8] which comes from the Ain-i-Akbari written by the vizier Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (anglicized as "Abul Fuzl"). The principal definition is that the mun is forty seers; and that each seer is thirty dams.

1 mun = 40 seers = 1200 dams

The problem arises in assigning the values of the smaller units.

The section of the Ain-i-Akbari that defines the mun also defines the dam as five tanks. A separate section defines the tank as twenty-four ruttees. However, by the 19th century, the tank was no longer a uniform unit across the former Mughal territories: Prinsep quotes values of 50 grains (3.24 g) in Darwar, 72 grains (4.67 g) in Bombay and 268 grains (17.37 g) in Ahmednugur.[8]

The jilály, a square silver rupee coin issued by Akbar, was said by the Ain-i-Akbari to be 11+1⁄4 mashas in weight: surviving jilály and other Mughal rupee coins weigh 170–175 Troy grains (11.02–11.34 g), so the masha, defined as eight ruttees, would be about 15+1⁄2 grains (1 g). Masha weights sent back to London in 1819 agree with this value.[9] This basis gives a mun of 34+3⁄4 lb. av. (15.75 kg). One Koni was 4 muns.[10]

However, in yet another section of the Ain-i-Akbari, the dam is said to be "twenty mashas seven ruttees": using this definition would imply an Imperial mass of about 47 lb. av. (21.3 kg) for the mun. Between these two values, the maund in Central India was often found to be around 40 lb. av. (18 kg) in the East India Company survey of 1821.

A Maund was 55.5 British pounds mass under Akbar.[11]

British India is shown in pink on this 1837 map. The Madras Presidency is in the southeast, the Bombay Presidency is in the west and the Bengal Presidency is in the northeast.

The maund of India may as a genus be divided into four different species:

1. That of Bengal, containing 40 seers, and averaging about 80 lbs. avoir.
2. That of Central India (Malwa, Ajmeer, &c.) generally equal to 40 lbs. avoir. and containing 20 seers (so that the seer of this large portion of the continent assimilates to that of Bengal.)
3. The maund of Guzerat and Bombay, equal to 1⁄4 cwt. or 28 pounds and divided into 40 seers of smaller grade.
4. The maund of Southern India, fixed by the Madras government at 25 lbs. avoir.

There are, however many other varieties of maund, from 15 to 64 seers in weight; which it is unnecessary to particularize.

— Prinsep (1840), p. 77

Prinsep's values for the maund come from a survey organized by the East India Company in 1821. The Company's agents were asked to send back examples of the standard weights and measures used in the places they were stationed, and these were compared with the English standards in London by Patrick Kelly, the leading British metrologist of the time. The results were published as an appendix to the second edition of Kelly's Universal Cambist (1831), and later as a separate book entitled Oriental Metrology (1832).

It will be seen from Kelly's results below that Prinsep's generalizations are only partially correct. The Gujarat maund is more closely related to the Central Indian maund than to the standardized Bombay maund, except in the town of Anjar, except that it is divided into 40 seers instead of 20 as was found in Malwa.

Bellary

Coimbatoor

Goa

Hyderabad

Madras

Madura

Mangalore

Negapatam

Onore

Pondicherry

Poona

The towns where the maund was found to be approximately 25 lb. av. (11+1⁄3 kg) in the 1821 East India Company survey, superimposed onto a map of modern India.

Maund was known as Mudi in Tulu language