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BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE
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WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Weights and Measures : In the past there was a multiplicity
of weights and measures throughout the district. Then' was no uniformity and the unit value of weights and measures differed
from place to place. The English units which were prominently prevalent were followed by all the people in the district. Apart from English weights and measures some
local units were also in use in remote villages. The convertibility of the local units to the English units was a great problem. The ignorance of the peasants and workers added to the ambiguity of the conversion factors. The following description from the old Akola District Gazetteer will throw some light on the state of affairs existing then.
"Weights and measures at Akola., the following weights and measures are in use at Akola. Jawari and other food grains are generally sold by measure with the table-80 tolas make 1 seer, 4 seers 1 paili, 12 pailis 1 man (maund), 20 mans 1 khandi. Other terms used in such tables are 10 tolas make 1
ardha paoser, 20 tolas 1 paoser, 40 tolas 1 aster or adser. Vegetables, chillis, sugar, gur. betelnut, turmeric and so on are generally sold by weight with the table-5 tolas make 1 chhatak, 10 tolas 1 atpoa, 20 tolas 1 pao, 40 tolas 1 aster, 80 tolas 1 seer; 25 tolas make a kaehcha sawaser, but 100 tolas 1 pakka saaaser, also called 1 pasri ; 8 pasris or 10 seers make 1 man for retail trade, but 10½ seers 1 man for wholesale trade;20 mans make 1 khandi. Cotton seed is sold by weight, 100 tolas making 1 pasri, 2 pasris-1 dhada, 4 dhudas 1 man, and 20 mans 1 khandi. Cotton, whether cleaned or uncleaned, is sold by weight; 39 tolas make 1 rattal, 7 rattals 1 dhada. 4 dhadas 1 man, 5 mans 1 dokda, 2 dokdas 1 boja. Oil is sold by measure, and both kachcha and pakka tables are recognised. The kaehcha scale is 2½ tolas make 1 nawatka, 5 tolas 1 paoser, 10 tolas 1 aster, 20 tolas 1 seer. 18 seers 1 dhadi. The pakka scale is 2½ tolas make 1 nawatka, 5 tolas 1 chhatak, 10 tolas 1 atpao. 20 tolas 1 pao, 40 tolas 1 aster, 80 tolas 1 seer. 4½ seers 1 dhadi, 4 dhadis 1 man and 20 mans 1 khandi. Butter is sold by weight, and only by a table called kachcha 8¾ tolas make 1 paoser. 17½ tolas 1 aster, 35 tolas 1 seer. For ghi the table is 5 tolas make 1 chhatak, 10 tolas 1 atpao, 20 tolas 1 pao, 10 tolas 1 aster 80 tolas 1 seer, 210 tolas, that is 2½ seers plus 1 atpao 1 dhadi, 4 dhadis or 10½ seers 1 man, and 20 mans 1 khandi. Milk is nominaly sold by weight, but measures seem to be generallv recognised as corresponding with the different weights; the ordinary terms are atpao, paoser, aster, and a seer of 80 tolas. For gold and silver the scale is 2 jawari grains equal 1 grain of wheat, 2 grains of wheal 1 gunj, 2 gunj 1 wal, 4 wals, 1
wals, 12 masa 1 tola, 26 2/3
tolas 1 chip (a term used by one of the banks), and 80 tolas or 3 chips 1 ser. A tola is of the weight of a rupee. In measures of length 1
bot or girha is the length of the
a hat. hand, is the distance of the tip of the middle finger from the inner bone of the elbow, and is considered to be 18 inches; if the hand is clenched the space between the knuckles and the elbow, inside, is a munda; and two hats, or 1 yard, is called war in the case of ctoth, and gaj in other cases. A kawatal is the space a man can reach with his arms outstretched, and a purush, man, in measures of depth is generally the height a man can reach by raising his hands above his head, though some say that except when measuring water the hands should not be so raised. An acre contains 40 gunihas; a tiphan 4 acres in level and 3 in hilly parts. A baras is 100 cubic feet of clay or the like."
"Tables in the villages.—The weights and measures of a large village, especially if a weekly market is held there, always prevail to some extent in its neighbourhood, but there are endless variations between different bazar areas, if not between individual villages within the sphere of a single market. A few of these differences are noted. Usually 80 tolas make a seer, but it is sometimes 78, 120. 150, or 160 tolas. The number of seers in a paili may be 2, 4, 4½, 7½ or 8, causing corresponding variations in the larger measures. Generally 12 pailis make a man and 20 mans a khandi, but the man has sometimes 16 pailis; or 8 pailis make a kudawa and 20 kudawas a khandi. The paoser and aster vary with the seer, being
1/4, seer and ½ seer respectively; a chawatka and nawatka are sometimes formed of 10 and of 20 tolas, sometimes in a more complicated way, and some-times unknown. The terms in the measures of weight used for vegetables and so on are usually those of Akola, but differences are by no means rare; thus a pakka sawaser may be 105 tolas instead of 100, and a kachcha sawaser 26¼ tolas instead of 25; 84 tolas sometimes go to a ser, or 16 sers to a man; fresh terms, such as 50 tolas 1 adsadi may be introduced; the distinction between kachcha and pakka is used to a varying extent; the larger terms in the table sometimes vary for different articles, so that 12 seers may make a man of gur, chillis, or turmeric, but 10½ seers a man of sugar and other groceries. Cotton measures vary hopelessly; thus the pasri for the seed may be 560 or 720 tolas instead of 100; the terms rattal and dhada for the cotton itself are often not known; in the measure for uncleaned cotton a sawaser, 1¼ seers, varies from 40 to 50 tolas, while for cotton cleaned in a hand gin a sawaser sometimes means 55 tolas. For oil a kachcha seer is sometimes 10 tolas and a pakka seer 40 tolas. For butter a seer may contain 42, 44, or 80 tolas, and kachcha and pakka tables may be distinguished. The seer of 80 tolas is very common for ghi, but
that of milk is sometimes 40 tolas sometimes 9 tak of milk equal 10 tolas. The table for precious metals again seems fairly constant, though sometimes 28 tolas make a seer, but goldsmiths have a reputation for cheating in every possible wav. Metal pots are sold by a table in which 80 tolas make a seer and 13½ seers a man.
Varying, tables and fraudulent weights :—Thus the chief grains and oil seem always to be sold by measure, most other articles by weight, and milk practically by measure, though nominally by weight. Articles are classified all over the District in much the same way for the application of tables, and the same terms are generally used for the table of the same article in different villages, but the meaning of the terms varies repeatedly from place to place and can, only be ascertained by minute enquiry. The classification into pakka and kachcha is a common cause of difference, but further variations occur in each division. Sometimes there seems to be a definite purpose of favouring the large buyer, for instance by making the man especially large for wholesale trade or by making a large term a shade more than the even multiple of a small one; other irregularities took as if the buyer had in different ways insisted on having full weight; but the general result is certainly very irregular. As far as trade is confined to a small
local circle no great harm is perhaps caused, but the variations must now cause unnecessary diffculty to all traders from a distance and so cause toss both to them and to the
local public. A further difficulty springs from the fact that the weights and measures used, whether for small or for large transactions are very often false. Cultivators selling cotton used to be cheated to an extraordinary extent in this way, so that fortunes are said to have been made by the fraud; the evil in cotton dealing has apparently decreased but is still sufficient to affect considerably the popularity of a particular market; cultivators on the other hand sometimes water their cotton-though this injures the cotton seed or put in it stones which not only add to the weight but may smash machinery in the factory. Some firms with pressing factories also cheat the purchaser in Bombay; sometimes
they press a quantity of poor cotton in the middle of a bale with cotton of better quality at both ends; sometimes they water most of the bales before pressings; a private arrangement with the purchaser's mukaddam in Bombay prevents detection. When the cotton of a certain neighbourhood has a good reputation other cotton is sent considerable distances to be forwarded from a railway station in that part. Firms setting up factories are themselves cheated over the weight of the metal work supplied
them; they have no scales large enough to test the consignments, and they say that the consignor would cause weighment at the railway stations to he manipulated in his favour. Weights casually taken up in village shops vary again, the bystanders, explaining that one is used for buying and the other for selling. The fraud is at present very difficult to check, but much harm must result from the continuance of these complications and irregularities." [Central Provinces and Berar District Gazetteers, Akola District, 1910, pp. 209-13]
Not much was done subsequently during the British rule to improve this state of affairs. In order to avoid the confusion resulting from the existence of these
local and British weights and measures side by side and to bring about a uniform system for the whole country the Government of India enacted the Standard of Weights and Measures Act in 1956. The State Government also passed a complementary legislation viz., the Bombay Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act of 1958 for the enforcement of the standard weights and measures based on the metric system. This Act laid down the basic units under the metric system which derives its nomenclature from the primary unit of measurement viz., the metre. The various unit values are set in decimal proportions.
In pursuance of this legislation the new units have been enforced in the district. Accordingly all the transactions, in the district in the organised sector of trade wholesale as well as retail are done in terms of the metric units. The new unit of weights and measures are inspected by Government officials periodically. The use of old units for petty sales of foodgrains, vegetables, milk etc. still lingers in some of the distant villages.
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