History of Odisha

Cowrie currency: its perspective and circulation in Medieval Orissa.
== Cowrie was the lowest medium of exchange for ordinary transactions of the people in the medieval period. The insufficiency of metallic currency in medieval Orissa compelled the people to use cowrie in their monetary transactions. In Hindi the word cowrie is called as kauri (kaudi), in Sanskrit called as kapardika, in Bengali called as kari and in Oriya it is called as kauri, a small white shell cyprea moneta.1It was a medium of exchange in practice during the period. According to the account of Hiuen Tsang, in Orissa in the 7th century A.D. cowrie currency was very much prevalent. He mentioned that in Orissa cowrie shells were used in commercial transactions.2 ==

== During the reign of the Gajapati kings the cowrie currency was also prevalent in Orissa.3Even upto recent times the moneytary tables and subhankari method of arithmetic for calculating prices of articles and wages of persons were based on cowrie currency. The terms kada, ganda, budi, pan, etc., related to the cowrie currency were current among the people of Orissa till the introduction of decimal coinage in 1957. The popularity and long term use of cowrie as a medium of exchange 4in the medieval period is testified by the evidence of contemporary Persian sources and foreign travellers’ accounts. ==

== Abul Fazl (1595-96) mentioned that in Orissa monetary transactions are made in cowries which is small white shell generally divided down the middle. The small white shell is found on the seashore.5John Marshall (1668-72) highlighted that in Orissa all the small money is cowries used by the people.6Walter Clavell, the English factor in 16767observed that cowrie was the common pay at Balasore. According to the Khulasat (1695-99) the people of Orissa were bargaining through the medium of the kauri which is a small white shell of the ocean.8In 1708 Alexander Hamilton found that in Orissa cowries were considered as money.9Leckie, an Englishman who travelled through Orissa observed in 1790 that in Orissa there is a little specie in gold and silver in circulation and the rents are paid in cowries.10The payment of revenue in cowrie was in vogue in Orissa till the beginning of the 19th century.11 ==

== Orissa with its extensive use of cowrie did not produce it. As early as the fourteenth century Ibn Batuta (1333-1346) found cowrie was to be imported from the Maldive Islands to Bengal.12This trend continued in subsequent centuries as well when contemporary foreign travelers spoke of Bengal and Orissa importing it from the Maldive Islands. According to Bowrey that cowries were brought to Orissa from the Islands of Maldive in the seventies of the seventeenth century finds corroboration from the diaries of Streynsham Master13who became agent of the English at Fort St. George in 1678 and also from the account of Alexander Hamilton in 1708.14 ==

== The ratio of exchange between cowrie and the metallic currency in Orissa itself varied at different periods. At the time of Purusottamadeva (1470-1497) 8 kahans (10240 cowries) of cowries were equivalent to one tankah15and it was probably of the Bahamani Kings and its weight was 165 gms of which 160 grams were pure silver. Abul Fazl (1595-96) mentioned that four kauries make a ganda, five gandas a budi, four budis a pan, sixteen or according to some twenty pan a kahan and ten kahans a rupee.16Thus according to him one rupee was equivalent to 12800 or 16000 cowries. John Marshall (1668-72) recorded that four cowries made one ganda, five gandas one budi, four budis one pan, sixteen pans one kahan. At Balasore two kahans and five or six pans passed for one rupee17which was equal to 2960 or 3040 cowries. He also stated that the value of cowrie fluctuated according to the plenty or scarcity of them available in the market. Sometimes 36 pans were equal to 2880 cowries, 37 pans (2960 cowries), 38 pans (3040 cowries), 39 pans (3120 cowries), 40 pans (3200 cowries) passed for a rupee.18Thus a maximum of 11 % variation in the value of cowries has been recorded by him.19Bowrey in the seventies of the seventeenth century observed that not less than 3200 cowries passed for a rupee.20The value of cowrie during his time hardly rose and fell more than two pans in one rupee (3360 cowries for a rupee) and that also at Balasore when ships laden with cowries from Maldive Islands reached there.21So according to Bowrey the value of cowrie could vary upto a maximum of 5%. Alexander Hamilton who visited Orissa in 1708 gave different rates of exchange on two different occasions in the same year. At one time he observed that 80 cowries made one pan and 32 to 36 pans made current rupee and one sicca rupee was 11% better than one current rupee. So 2560 to 2880 cowries were equivalent to one current rupee and approximately 2841 to 3197 cowries made one sicca rupee.22On another occasion he mentioned 2500 to 3000 cowries making one rupee.23However he does not mention if this rupee is a sicca rupee or current rupee. The sicca rupee was the newly coined Mughal rupee while the current rupee was a Mughal rupee, the value of which had fallen for being in circulation. In 1721 a ship laden with cowries arrived at Balasore and cowrie was sold there at the rate of 35 pans or 2800 cowries for a Madras rupee.2436 pans or 2880 cowries passed for a Madras rupee in 1741 at Balasore.25Again in 1743 cowries were brought there at 35 pans or 2800 cowries for a Madras rupee after the arrival of two cowries ships from Maldives.26Madras was a rupee minted at Madras by the English East India company. In 1803, 5120 cowries passed for one rupee in Orissa.27The above said facts regarding the ratio of exchange between cowries and metallic currency are given in a tabular form. == == The available facts reveal that the value of cowrie rose to a great extent in the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. This rise in the value of cowrie was due to the rise in its demand on account of its increased use as a medium of exchange owing to the shortage of metallic currency as well as the decline of barter system after 1653. But the supply did not increase considerably as a limited quantity of cowries were brought from the Maldives in exchange of rice, cloth and other necessary products of life. Thus the people of Orissa used cowrie as a common medium of exchange in the Medieval period. It was easily exchanged for the metallic currency which was in circulation during that period. In this way cowries formed the lowest medium of exchange for ordinary transactions of the people. ==

Abstract of the research article titled Cowrie currency: its perspective and circulation in Medieval Orissa.
== Cowrie was the lowest medium of exchange for ordinary transactions of the people in the medieval period. The insufficiency of metallic currency in medieval Orissa compelled the people to use cowrie in their monetary transactions. In Hindi the word cowrie is called as kauri (kaudi), in Sanskrit called as kapardika, in Bengali called as kari and in Oriya it is called as kauri, a small white shell cyprea moneta. It was a medium of exchange in practice during the period. According to the account of Hiuen Tsang, in Orissa in the 7th century A.D. cowrie currency was very much prevalent. He mentioned that in Orissa cowrie shells were used in commercial transactions. The available facts reveal that the value of cowrie rose to a great extent in the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. This rise in the value of cowrie was due to the rise in its demand on account of its increased use as a medium of exchange owing to the shortage of metallic currency as well as the decline of barter system after 1653. But the supply did not increase considerably as a limited quantity of cowries were brought from the Maldives in exchange of rice, cloth and other necessary products of life. Thus the people of Orissa used cowrie as a common medium of exchange in the Medieval period. It was easily exchanged for the metallic currency which was in circulation during that period. In this way cowries formed the lowest medium of exchange for ordinary transactions of the people. ==