Weights and Measurement Units in Khotanese

There is not much information about the weights and measurement units that were used by Iranian people in ancient Iran. In the surviving texts of ancient Iranian languages, we do not find a lot of words that refer to weighing and measuring, the main reason for this is the fact that economic texts and documents of that period are sparse. Nevertheless, we have evidences for weights and measurements from Avestan language (in the Avesta and the Avestan scattered fragments) and the Old Persian language that are found in the original texts (Old Persian inscriptions) or in überlieferung texts that are found in other languages such as Elamite and Aramaic (Elamite tablets found in Persepolis and Aramaic records in Egypt) and ... . Among these words in original Old Persian’s sources, one can mention the length unit: arašni- ‘cubit’ (Schmitt, 2014: p. 134) and in überlieferung sources *grīva- ‘capacity’, bamaš ‘a measure’ and išbamia ‘a liquid measure’ (Tavernier, 2007, p. 488, 504, 506). In the Avestan texts, there are also terms that are mainly used to measure length and time; among these words one can mention ayarǝ.drājah- ‘to the length of a day’ zānu.drājah- ‘to the length of a chin’ hizu.drājah- ‘to the length of the tongue’ (Bartholomae, 1904, p. 158, 1689, 1815).      Given the fact that more texts remain from the middle period of Iranian languages, our information is a bit more about this. Among the terms used in the Middle Persian for weighing and measuring, we can point to these words grīw ‘a grain measure’, hāsar ‘a measure of length and time’, kabīz ‘a grain measure’ (MacKenzie, 1986). Since there are more texts remain from Eastern Middle Iranian languages, the number of words of measurement and weighing is also greater. Of these words can be alluded in Sogdian: ’’r’ync ‘cubit’, δrγmδnk ‘a unit of weight’, kpc, kpc’kk ‘a unit of capacity’, ywcn ‘a unit of length’ (Gharib, 1995) and in Chorasmian: ’wck ‘a unit of length’, kpcyk ‘a grain measure’ (Benzing, 1983) and in Bactrian: αγρηοι, αγρηαοι, αργοι all three mean ‘a grain measure’, γωνζο, γονζ both mean ‘a measure of straw’ (Sims-Williams, 2007). Another Eastern Middle Iranian Languages is Khotanese that many texts remain from that and in these texts there are many words that have been used to measure and to weigh. Contrary to other Middle Iranian languages, especially the Middle Persian, that scholars have more information about the words related to measurement and weights in them, there is no a complete and independent source for Khotanese language about this matter, and even a complete dictionary for this language has not yet been written. Therefore, the collecting and examining of these words related to the weights and capacity that have been neglected so far, in addition to examining the economic documents that have come out of this language are useful, to clarify the different sides of cultural and economic cultural life of Iranian beyond the borders of Iran, in Central Asia, is beneficial too. It can also be useful and helped to clarify the cultural and economic role of the Iranian people living in Central Asia and their interaction with other peoples in this region. To do this, in addition to Dictionary of Khotan Saka data (Bailey 1979), the data of other closed texts that have been studied so far, but they were not been studied by Bailey, have been investigated. Therefore, the data of this research is based on texts that have been read and translated so far. Khotanese language is one of the Scythian dialects; Sakas were Iranian tribes who lived, during two thousand years (1st century BC and 1st AD), on a vast territory from the Black Sea coast in the West to the frontiers of China in the East. The only remainders of the Old Scythian language are a few numbers of proper nouns, and the names of tribes and places, which were mentioned in the Old Persian inscriptions and literary works of Greek historians (Rezai Baghbidi 2009, p. 36; Oranskij, 2007, p. 93). Khotanese is one of the Middle Scythian languages and it is considered one of the Eastern Middle Iranian languages. It is more closely related to other Eastern Middle Iranian class, such as Sogdian and Chorasmian than to the Western Middle Iranian languages. It can not be precisely said how and when this language was used in the territory of the Khotan kingdom, but it is likely that has been common used from the third century CE in Khotan kingdom (Emmerick, 2009, p. 377). There is nothing definite about the time when this language is extinct, except that it would probably coincide with the conquest of the Khotan kingdom by the Muslims in the early 11th century CE (Ibid, p. 411).     Before going into the topic of discussion, it is necessary to mention the fact that the meaning of  ‘size, measurement’ is expressed by to words: pamākā- and mārā- both of the root mā- ‘to measure’ (Bailey, 1979, p. 213, 329). To better clarify these words that used for measuring in Khotanese, they can be divided into two general categories: The first is the words that refer to weighing and capacity, the second is the words that are pertained to the distance: length and width. Here we look at these two categories and related words.      Words that are used to weigh different items are larger than words that used to the measure length and width. Some of these units have been used solely for the measurement of a particular substance, but others have been used to measure any type of solid or liquid matter. Some of these units are only found in later Khotanese texts, sometimes even in just one text. In this paper, we categorize units according to whether they are used for solids, liquids or other items.      The units have used to measure solids include a wide range of materials, such as cereals, eating, plants and herbal medicines, natural substances, and the like. In this article, we will examine these units, their use and, if it would be possible to mention their equivalent in other languages, such as Sanskrit, Tibetan, and so on.       In addition to solid-weighing units that have been used to measure liquids, several specific units have been exclusively used for measuring liquids. The liquids here are in addition to water any other liquid such as milk, syrup, nectar, extract, etc., mainly used in medical texts.      In spite of the fact that there are many words for weighing in Khotanese texts, it has not been used many words in these texts to measure length and width. These units cover a range of the oldest units of measurement, that is the human parts of the human body, to loanwords from other languages. Most of these units actually have the meaning of "expanse" and "breadth", and then they have used to measure levels, length, width, height, and depth. Of the words have examined in this paper, it is clear that the words have used in the weighing of materials was more than the units used to measure distance. Indigenous terms used for weighing in principle have another meaning and due to semantic development have been used for measurement. Despite the fact that in the collection of religious and secular texts, the major part of the loanwords is from Sanskrit and Prakrit, in weighing and measuring borrowing of Indian languages is very small and Chinese loanwords overcome in this issue. Also, in terms used to measure width and length, there is not even an Indian loanword, and even in the translation of the Indian word yojana-, which is a distance unit and used in other Iranian languages ( such as Sogdian), has been always used an indigenous word.