

Numismatics & Epigraphy
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20th Century A.D.
Place of origin: Central India
Materials: Bronze
Dimensions: Ht: 7.5 W: 12.0 cm. (with knob)
Acc. No. 66.830
Right since earliest days when weights and balances were yet to emerge and popularize a measuring vessel was the sole tool of exchange of goods: grains or whatever, that is, not merely the entire barter system depended on a measuring vessel but it was also the sole instrument of personal assessment of quantities of one's stores. As per requirement the sizes of such measuring pots varied, though each was fixed and cast to measure a standard quantum usually such as measured one unit, five units and more. These vessels were made of brass, iron, bell-metal, wood, cane, clay, stone... A stone measuring vessel, called Mani, was mostly a tool of tribes and is still used by them, especially in remote villages in Himalayan hills.