Delhi Sultanate During the reign of
Alauddin Khalji of the
Delhi Sultanate, 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, 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. This basis gives a
mun of lb. av. (15.75 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. (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.
Nineteenth century 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. 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.
Central India and Gujarat Bombay Presidency Madras Presidency Maund was known as
Mudi in
Tulu language Bengal ==Notes==