The maund (), mun or mann ( Bengali: ; Urdu: ) is the anglicized name for a traditional unit of mass used in British India, and also in Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia:. the same unit in the Mughal Empire was sometimes written as ''mann'' or ''mun'' in English, while the equivalent unit in the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia was called the ''

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''. At different times, and in different South Asian localities, the mass of the maund has varied, from as low as 25 pounds (11 kg) to as high as 160 pounds (72½ kg): even greater variation is seen in Persia and Arabia...

History

In British India, the maund was first standardized in the Bengal Presidency in 1833, where it was set equal to 100 Troy pounds (82.28 lbs. av.). This standard spread throughout the British Raj.. After the independence of India and Pakistan, the definition formed the basis for metrication, one maund becoming exactly 37.3242 kilograms.. A similar metric definition is used in Bangladesh and Nepal. Throughout Bangladesh, one মন/mun/mann is 40 KG. In Nepal’s southern plains one Mann equals 40 Kilograms and is generally used to measure agricultural output. The Old English, 'maund' may also be the origin of Maundy Thursday. As a verb, 'maund' : to beg; as a noun, 'a maund' : a small basket held out for alms.

South Asia

Delhi Sultanate

During the reign of Alauddin Khalji of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

, 1 ''mann'' was roughly equivalent to 15 kg.

Mughal Empire

Prinsep (1840) summarizes the evidence as to the weight of the ''mun'' (later "maund") during the reign (1556–1605) of

Akbar the Great Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

,. which comes from the ''

Ain-i-Akbari The ''Ain-i-Akbari'' ( fa, ) or the "Administration of Akbar", is a 16th-century detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'l Fazl in the Persian language. It for ...

'' written by the vizier

Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, also known as Abul sharma, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), was the grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, from his appointment in 1579 until his death in 1602. He was the au ...

(anglicized as "Abul Fuzl"). The principal definition is that the ''mun'' is forty ''

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''; 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 Dharwad (), also known as Dharwar, is a city located in the north western part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of the Dharwad district of Karnataka and forms a contiguous urban area with the city of Hubballi. It was merge ...

, 72 grains (4.67 g) in Bombay and 268 grains (17.37 g) in Ahmednugur. The ''jilály'', a square silver

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

coin issued by Akbar, was said by the ''Ain-i-Akbari'' to be 11¼ '' 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 15½ grains (1 g). ''Masha'' weights sent back to London in 1819 agree with this value. This basis gives a ''mun'' of 34¾ lb. av. (15¾ kg). One ''Koni'' was 4 muns. 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. (21⅓ 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 under Akbar.

Nineteenth century

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.

History

South Asia

Delhi Sultanate

Mughal Empire

Nineteenth century

Central India and Gujarat

Bombay Presidency

Madras Presidency

Bengal

Notes

References

External links